What a beautiful day it was here at the Creek! Rain was in the forcast, but God once again gave us wonderful weather for the day! We started the morning with morning celebration where the YMOD (Youth Minister of The Day) was caught by our YMOD police. The YMOD for the day was Alex Roberts from First Bible Church of Decatur! The students then moved into small group time with their bible study leaders and large group time with Pastor Jay. The theme for today was "Family" so during these times and in worship this evening Pastor Jay preached about responding to God no matter what that calling might be. When we say yes to God, and respond in obidence then we are becoming a part of the family of God. Tonight in worship, Jay spoke from Colossians 1. We were challenged to drop all of our conflicts with others, and walls we might have built up before the Lord, and to give into his will and say, Yes to whatever his calling for our life might be. God is moving here and breaking these students to become daughters and sons of our God and to become a part of the family of God! We are going to be ending this great day with a night at the "Shack." Tonights special is our famous, Chicken-On-A-Stick and the staffer vs. students basketball tournament! We are super excited to see how the Lord is going to continue to move and break these students!

Today was the first full day of camp, how exciting! We were for sure blessed with wonderful weather here at the Creek! It was a beautiful day with a nice breeze and the cloud coverage provided an extra level of comfort while the students traveled from place to place around the property, enjoying lake time, POI's and quality time with their churches. The theme for the day was, "Father." Students in their bible studies focused on how they are separated from God. We are in desperate need of something to bridge the gap between his holiness and our depravity. It was a heavy day of thinking over our lives. Tonight in worship, Pastor Jay explained to us that the thing we are missing to fill that void in our lives in Jesus Christ and that he is our only father! God has given us so many good things and one of those is the concept of clothes of righteousness! There was a response time during worship for those who have not committed to following Christ to do so. We ended day one with a fun and super exciting night at the "Shack". God has truly blessed us with a great first day here at the Creek!

Today has been a big day! Churches arrived here at the Creek between two and four and were automatically greeted by the summer staffers. Each church had a group picture taken by the blob lake front, and then the registration process started! Students were able to have some free time and meet some of the summer staffters during the registration process. The students had the opportunity to hang out and get to know one another by face painting, corn hole, basketball, swimming and much more! Dinner was then served and opening celebration started! Opening celebration was an exciting time! Students were able to worship and then move into their small groups. The students met their bible study leaders and recieved thier POI's for the week during their small group time! Students then came back for the opening message by our camp pastor for the week, Jay Ridenhour. After worship was finished, each church moved into their checkpoint time. This is a time where youth groups come together each night of the week after worship to discuss their day and have a chance to encourage and pray for one another. After checkpoint time was finished, it was then time for the "Shack" to open! Food, fun, fellowship, and dancing the night away (or unitl curfew) was had by all during "Shack" time! We are excited for the week to start and we know God has amazing things in store for us!

Tonight is the final full day of Kids Camp. The Lord has answered our prayers by continually showing up each and everyday. He has been using our theme this year to speak to students and draw them near to him. Today's theme was "the family." We talked about how we become apart of a new family once we accept Christ. God is our father and every believer and follower of Christ is our brother and sister. Its pretty neat when we think about it...we all gain soooo many new siblings once we have been adopted! How Sweet!! Tonight we had dinner at the Pavilon, and the B B B BOAT RACE followed.

Tonight at worship we talked about how God's Grace is a free gift, all we have to do is accept it. In Esphesians 2 we learned the it is by grace and grace alone that we have been saved through our faith in Christ. There is no work we can do that will gain our salvation, God is offering it to us for free! We also learned that being baptized, or copying a prayer from our preacher, or going down to the altar doesn't mean we are "saved." We are only "saved" by trusting Jesus as our personal savior and allowing him to reign in our lives as Lord. This week was truely blessed, and so much fun. Until next time... Goodnight J-Creek.