Family Camp - Couples Getaway Weekend

It's a "Couples Getaway" weekend for Kristi and I at Life Action's Family Camp.

Life Action Family Camp

We had a blast at Life Action Family Camp last week. I would recommend this vacation to any family that enjoys:

• growing in their relationship with Christ
• growing closer as a family
• eating great food
• having some help with the kids
• being able to participate in lots of fun activities
• participating in outdoor recreation
• spending time together "away from it all"
• learning how to further grow your family once you return home

They are probably close to being booked for 2009, so if Family Camp is something you are considering, you'll want to check into it soon. Also, here is a link to a sample schedule from this year's camp.

Life Action Family Camp - Friday

From my Family Camp journal:

6/20/08

It was our last whole day at camp. We heard more good teaching from Mark. This week he emphasized, "Spiritual information, without application, leads to self deception." So today we worked on making goals for each area he taught about, being God's kind of person, God's kind of partner, God's kind of parent, God's kind of parishioner and God's kind of provider. The goals are how we will apply what we learned.

Today was the warmest day we've had. We spent some time at the beach. We also went down the water slide for about an hour. After that we went for a boat ride and went tubing. Even Landen tubed!

Tonight after chapel there was a campfire. We made smores.

Makenna in the speed boat

Kylee on the water slide

This look?
It's the look of "Dear Lord, Save us from all these three-year-olds running around with marshmallow roasting sticks!"

Family Camp - Friday Evening

This is the audio of Mark Vroegop's last message of the week at Family Camp.

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Life Action Family Camp - Thursday

From my Family Camp journal:

6/19/08

After breakfast and chapel they had the fun fair. The kids had a ball bouncing, eating, doing crafts & playing games.

After lunch we went to the beach area. One of the teen staffers blobbed Kristi and me. He jumped from the high platform and both of us really got blasted into the air. I hadn't been that high above the surface of water since my dad and Larry used to throw me into Wanda & Audley's pool in the early 80s. (I actually was probably higher than that today.) I did sort of chest / throat smacker. It hurt. I'm glad I did the blob though.

Chapel services have been great. Mark is a fantastic speaker. He's interesting to listen to. His messages are challenging & he offers suggestions on how to put the knowledge he conveys into practice.

After chapel they had cookies / game night in the lodge.

Makenna & Me

Blobbed

Family Camp - Thursday Evening

Here is the message Mark Vroegop gave last Thursday evening at Family Camp.

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Family Camp - Thursday Morning

Here is the message Mark Vroegop gave last Wednesday morning at Family Camp. The message is on being God's kind of parent. Mark and his wife answer questions for about the first 15 minutes. The message starts at about 15:30.

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Life Action Family Camp - Wednesday

From my Family Camp journal:

6/18/08

We had a good morning session at chapel. The emphasis has been on being God's kind of person.

Landen is still limping a little.

We survived another round of the W.H.A.T. competition. It was an eating contest. Makenna and I lost. Kristi picked the teaspoon of cinnamon. The girl Kristi was going against choked on it, so we advanced. The next round involved gathering pieces of lumber blindfolded. I was the "caller." I directed Kylee, Makenna & Kristi to the lumber piles. We were the last ones to get our 5 pieces. (Kylee and Makenna have a hard time even remembering which way is right & left, so that made it tough.) You then used the lumber to solve a word puzzle. We got the puzzle done pretty fast, but still finished last and were eliminated.

Tonight was date night. Dinner was a Hawaiin Luau theme. After dinner Kristi and I hung around the camp. We took some time to talk and pray together. We ran into town too. I bought a South Bend Tribune. So I was able to get an information fix tonight, the old fashioned way. We sat on the pier and fed some fish and read when we got back.

Here's Kristi and the poor girl she choked.

Everyone booed this guy for picking a little girl to go against. We tried to get Makenna picked though. It was part of our strategy, because the loser got to pick someone else on their own team to try next. We were afraid everyone would feel bad picking a little girl to go against. Which could mean we would have to go last and only get one try to win, so we had the girls hold up their hand, in hopes of getting one of them picked. It worked. And thank goodness because we needed three tries before we won.

Family Camp from the Kids' Perspective

Both of my daughters have blog posts detailing our week at Life Action Family Camp.

You can read about Kylee's week at camp here.

Makenna's perspective can be read here.

Family Camp - Wednesday Morning

Here is the message Mark Vroegop gave last Wednesday morning at Family Camp. The focus of this message is a study on the Biblical theology of sexuality.

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Miles Biked Update: June 24, 2008

Three more Galls have topped 100 miles biked in 2008 since the June 13 update. We took our bikes with us to Family Camp, and biked quite a bit there (which is quite different than Nappanee; at camp it's either coasting downhill or pedalling like mad up hill.) Here are the totals as of June 24.

Steve 169.0 miles
Kristi 128.0 miles
Kylee 113.0 miles
Kenna 113.3 miles

At Family Camp: Makenna's on the bike, Kylee's on the scooter. This hill was a blast to ride the scooter down! I could coast all the way to the lodge, which you can't even quite see in the picture.

Family Camp - Tuesday Evening

Here is the message Mark Vroegop gave Tuesday evening at Family Camp last week.

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Life Action Family Camp - Tuesday

From my Family Camp journal:

6/17/08

They served waffles for breakfast. They were really good. They sort of tasted like French toast.

During morning chapel, Mark talked about our goal as followers of Jesus, being Christ-like.

On the way to lunch, Billy (who is on staff here at the camp, stopped me and asked me if I'm the Steve who blogged about Time Alone with God. He said Mark Slabaugh had e-mailed him the link Sunday. (Billy attends 1st Missionary Church in Niles, where Mark is on staff.) It was surprising to meet someone at camp who had just happened to read my blog; it was for Billy too. He said he had recognized my name on the week's camp roster.

This afternoon, our family assistant, Kate, stayed with Landen for his nap. Kylee, Makenna, Kristi and I took part in the W.H.A.T. competition. It's sort of like Survivor, except whichever team loses a challenge is eliminated from the contest. The four of us are on a team. Kylee & Makenna are the youngest ones playing. The first challenge was a dice game called Shut the Box. We won in the first round and were then safe. The second round challenge involved swimming out to a platform, memorizing a puzzle then assembling the puzzle back on shore. On shore the puzzle had extra pieces that looked similar to the correct ones. Kristi went first and got six of the pieces in place. I went next and finished the last four and fixed a mistake. The activities director, Spanky, said it wasn't quite right. (All 11 remaining teams are rushing to get this challenge done at the same time.) I thought I knew what was wrong, so we told Makenna what to switch. She went and did it correctly, but there was still a mistake. (Only one team member could be at the puzzle at a time.) Kristi and I thought we knew what was wrong, so we sent Kylee to switch the two "pause" symbols. Kylee did it correctly. We finished about 6th, so we are still in it. We get to play again tomorrow.

Spanky (the activities director) attends Niles First Missionary. Kylee and Makenna quiz against his daughter Jocelyn.

Yesterday we were unsure of which age group class to send Kylee and Makenna. They are a little old for the one and on the young side for the other. Well, today right before class Makenna told me she wanted to switch classes. I told her no. She looked disappointed. I considered that perhaps she was listening to the voice of God, and He was telling her to go to the other one. I do not want to be a hindrance to this. So, I talked to her again and told her to pray about it and to listen for God's voice and to go where He said to go. (Knowing that's probably not what she had done in the first place, but just in case she would be encouraged if she already had. And if not, she would have the chance to do so now.) She ended up sticking with the class she went to yesterday.

Landen and I were running across the grass today playing "jump over the goose poop." He came down wrong and has been limping on his leg.

Swim-dash to the puzzle solution

Back on shore we completed the puzzle, notice the extra pieces.

Family Camp - Tuesday Morning

Here is the message Mark Vroegop gave Tuesday morning last week at Family Camp.

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Life Action Family Camp - Monday

From my Family Camp journal:

6/16/08

We left for Family Camp from Bible School at the church. We stopped at Meijer in Mishawaka to fill the vehicles up with gas. We put E85 in the van. It was 55 cents less a gallon. We stopped and ate lunch at Hacienda, then it was on to Family Camp.

We arrived at about 2:00. Our family helper is Kate. She is from Kingman, Arizona. The kids played at the playground with her while Kristi & I unpacked.

Supper was at 5:30, then it was on to chapel. Mark Vroegop is our speaker this week. I think he's going to have some challenging stuff this week. Friday sounds like it will be out of my comfort zone. That makes me nervous. Those times are usually good for me though.

After chapel, we made ice cream sundaes in the lodge. The kids then played with Kate some more.

There is scarcely a hint of outside information here. I was wondering who won the golf tournament. So, I called my dad. He said Tiger won in the first playoff hole after the 18 hole playoff. My dad said if I want to know anything this week to call him. I said I would and told him that if anything happened to call me.

Kate with the kids at the playground

Signing up for Life Action Family Camp 2009

Family Camp 2008

We spent last week at Life Action Ministry's Family Camp. Here's the teaser description from Life Action's web site.

More than just fun and games for the kids, these camps bring your family together with the best activities summer can offer.We have a lake (what is camp without one?), but the rest may surprise you. Yes, we have paintball. Yes, there’s a waterslide. Do we have fields and playgrounds? Absolutely.

What you’ll find most helpful—even beyond our facilities—is the spiritual environment. You’ll hear biblical messages regularly. Your children can partake in special clubs, and our family assistants will guide your family through the day’s events, assisting with activities, child care, tours, and whatever else you may need.You’ll love our summer camps. But be careful; they’re addicting.

Life Action's description humbly states, "You'll hear biblical messages regularly." This statement is true, but please understand that Life Action has put together a line up of speakers who are outstanding communicators of God's word.

This year our speaker was Mark Vroegop, senior pastor at College Park Church in Indianapolis. Life Action provided each camp family with a CD of Mark's messages. I asked Mark if I could post them on my blog. He said I could. So, I'm going to post all seven of his messages from the week.

Mark spoke on being:

• God's kind of person
• God's kind of partner
• God's kind of parent
• God's kind of parishioner
• God's kind of provider

The sound quality of the recordings is excellent. Mark is easy on the ears, challenging to the heart. I recommend this series to anyone.

If you are considering attending Family Camp, this will give you an idea of what chapel messages are like. They're great!

You can listen right on this blog page, or right click the link below and choose "Save Target As..." to save the file to your computer. They are MP3 files, so I guess they could be saved to an iPod.

Download Mark's Monday evening Family Camp message here.

Life Action

We got home yesterday from a week away at Life Action's Family Camp in Buchanan, Michigan. God is using Life Action's ministry to have a huge impact on families, reviving hearts for Christ. I feel blessed to have been able to spend the past week there.

This will be Life Action Family Camp week on this blog. There is no way I can recapture what an incredible week we had in a few blog posts, but I hope I can provide a glimpse of what a week at Family Camp is like.

I did get a chance to talk to Life Action's executive director, Byron Paulus. I asked him for permission to post a scan of the Time Alone with God page from their Spirit of Revival magazine, which he granted. I wrote about using this plan for my time alone with God here.

So, here is a pdf file of "Spend an Hour with God."