And we’re underway! The beach flag’s still red and it’s obnoxiously, incredibly,unreasonablyhumid ... so while we’re sad to leave camp, we’re looking forward to heading your direction.

Last night’s worship session was another of those experiences that’s difficult to explain ... so rather than try, I encourage you to ask your teenagers about their “digital journey.”

We’ll be updating the MSCYM Facebook page with arrival time information. (Your kids also have their electronics, so you can check in that way, too.)

I apologize for the short post ... it’s nap time! See you in 15 hours or so!

The flag’s still red and the rain clouds are rolling in, but we’re still making the most of BigStuf! In fact, our teens’ enthusiasm is increasing every day! (If you’ve ever served in Vacation Bible School, you understand the phenomenon.)

One of the coolest things about BigStuf is that they try to encourage teens to think outside themselves—to wonder about the teens in other parts of the world and how very different our lives are. When we first arrived at camp, everyone received a hand-written letter from a student in Kenya. Every day, our teens are invited to visit the Konnekt lab, where they can write a response to their student on a white board, take a photo of themselves with an iPad, and send it off to Kenya ... and every day they receive a new letter from their Kenyan student. Today, our teens received a photo of their new friend across the globe, and it was so fun to watch their faces light up when they got a glimpse of the student with whom they've been connecting. Yay for technology!

Last night, we had another great session with Jared, and he challenged our teens to stop thinking about Christianity as a set of rules to follow and to develop a deeper relationship with God, more than just doing the “right” things. One of Jared’s main points was, “You become your habits.” He reminded us that when we accept Christ, we become a new creation ... so one of our prayer can be, “God, make me who I already am.” He closed out by highlighting the difference between affirming with our mouth that we believe in God and actually living out our faith. Pretty thought- and prayer-provoking stuff.

After lunch today, we’re headed on a bit of a shopping excursion followed by our last worship session of camp. We know you’re missing your teens, and we’re so grateful that you let us borrow ‘em!

Good morning, parents! I’m not 100% sure what day it is  ... but I do know that we’re having an absolute blast at BigStuf!

First, let me get our one disappointment out of the way:  There’s a red flag on the beach, which means we’re not able to spend any time in the water. We’re bummed, but we’re also very grateful that the Coast Guard keeps an eye on the water for us! We’re still hoping the undertow goes away and that they run a green or yellow flag up the pole so we enjoy the surf! Regardless, our teens are enjoying their time hanging at the pools, hitting up the surf shop, and connecting with their peers.

Yesterday morning, we heard another lesson from Jared Heard. He spent his time encouraging the teens to know that God sees the significance in our seemingly insignificant moments ... and in our painful moments. He reminded us that while God doesn’t PLAN our pain, he can USE our pain for His purposes. In short, all of our moments are connected to our future moments, and we can trust God with all of it. He’s not wasting any of it!

One of the difficulties of writing this blog (in addition to trying to write on very little sleep), is that it’s often tough to put an experience into words. Last night was definitely one of those times, as we had the great pleasure of hearing Louie Giglio speak. If you had a teen here last year, he or she might’ve described him as difficult to understand. This year, though, you’ll probably hear how amazing he was! Among other things, Louie’s a self-proclaimed “astronomy nerd,” and he used that passion to share an incredible message from Psalm 148. Basically, Louie played audio clips of pulsars (yes, from space!) to illustrate how everything praises God. Everything! He played whale song clips ... and put them together with the sounds the pulsars emit ... and then in the most ridiculously cool mash-up I’ve ever heard, he added “How Great is Our God.”  It sounds fruity as I type it, but I’m telling ya – it connected our teens with God in a fresh way. If you’ve ever doubted the Truth of creation praising the Creator, this message would’ve floored you.

And here’s the best part ... FOUR of our teens committed or re-committed their lives to Christ last night. Praise God!

Louie’s taken the stage again, so I’m signing off for now. Oh, and pictures are up at on Facebook. Enjoy!

Wowee, wow, wow … the last 36-hours or so have been action-packed: buses, caffeine, stellar service at a Florida McDonald’s, quitters (that would be the air conditioning in BOTH buses), beach, gold robots (ask your teens!), The Skit Guys, incredible worship music and even a brief lesson in quantum entanglement (no joke).

The BigStuf theme this year is Konnekt and speaker Jared Heard kicked off the week by talking with our teens about connecting with God, living out their purpose, and connecting with the people around them. He talked about the power of our words, how we’re going to affect people around us one way or another, and what it means to be fully alive.

After the main session, our teens broke into their mentor groups and scattered around the campus—some on the beach, some on the boardwalk, others in the pool area—to check in and talk about what they took away from the teaching. The day ended with a little free time and then—blessedly—actual beds in which to sleep! Yay!

The morning teaching session is underway, so I’m going to close for now. I’ll have another blog post for you later today or tomorrow, but in the meantime, keep an eye out for photos and up-to-the-minute updates!

Easter Basket Delivery is scheduled for Sunday, April 17 at 2:00 pm. We will meet at the Love, Inc. building (9 Love Park Ln., Wentzville, MO) located at the back of Hidden Valley. Trucks will meet us there with the baskets and we will assign groups to follow a designated truck and deliver the baskets. Parents are invited to stay and help chaperone the delivery.

It’s 6:00 am on the morning we say goodbye to BigStuf, and the first word that comes to mind tonight is, “Wow.” The last few days have been absolutely fantastic: compelling speakers, incredible worship, eye-opening media pieces, and the beautiful gift of the ocean.

I mentioned in a previous post that the BigStuf theme this year is “Think,” which means we’ve been studying the same thing you have this weekend! But that wasn’t the only cool synergy between MSC and camp:

• Friday’s entire message revolved around the truth that Jesus meets us wherever we are on our journey and wants us to take steps toward him. Sound familiar? That night, one of our youth took a huge step, committing his life to Christ for the very first time.
• BigStuf is highly involved with a ministry serving children in Kenya, and Jessie (one of our teens who raised $11,000 in four months so she could spend six months in Kenya) was able to connect with like-minded people. Plus she got to go up on stage and tell her story, which gave our teens due cause to scream their fool heads off.
• The normal rough spots at camp—relationship struggles related to little sleep and tight quarters—have been nearly immediately addressed in the teaching! (Coincidence? No way.) It was great to watch some of our youth really absorbing, and already acting on, some truly challenging messages.
• We sang several songs that are favorites at MSC. That might seem like a little thing, but it was huge for the kids because they could immediately jump in and participate in worship.

If you'd like to engage your kids in some conversations about their experience, try these questions:

• How can we keep the curtain up and our light shining?
• What's the deal with first base, third base, home base . . . that has nothing to do with "the talk"?
• One the speakers talked about being a "good kid." What did he have to say about that?
• Another speaker commented that every bad decision is surrounded by bad assumptions and bad thoughts. What do you think about that?
• What's the natural result of changing our thoughts?
• One speaker said that we should stop trying to control our circumstances--because that's God's job--and control our thoughts instead. How can we do that?
• What does Philippians 4:8 have to do with our spiritual journey?
• What's the providential, moral, and personal will of God, and how does that apply to our everyday life?
• Describe the last night of worship--the digital experience.
• How are you different now than before you left?

Okay, we have 30 minutes until check-out and I'm not entirely packed . . . so I'm going to wrap it up. I apologize for not updating the blog more often; it’s been a jam-packed week, and it’s been great hanging out with your kids. Thank you so much for sharing them with us!

Oh, and a word of warning: We spent some time yesterday shopping, and in many, many cases there are cheesy souvenirs comin’ atcha.

See you at 3:00 am!

We're uploading more pictures to Facebook in the BigStuf2 album.  (We'll have an actual blog entry for you tonight. You won't believe the dots being connected around here!)

We just uploaded 143 new photos from our official camp photographer, Lisa E. Check 'em out!

Okay, parents . . . you would looooooove Stuart Hall, the youth expert I mentioned in last night's post. The guy doesn't pull any punches in challenging our teens. You know those broken-record lectures you pull out every so often? Stuart's giving some of the same ones - except the kids are actually listening!

After our morning session with Stuart and the Skit Guys, we ate a quick lunch and hit the beach for several hours of sun and waves and . . . seaweed. (But no oil!) Right now, the teens are finishing up dinner, taking advantage of some intentional, built-in quiet time, and gearing up for our evening teaching session. After that, we'll be breaking up in small groups, enjoying a little free time at the pool, and resting up for another great day tomorrow!

After 817 miles, 17 hours, and several gallons of Mountain Dew*, we've arrived at BigStuf!

You parents would be incredibly proud of your teenagers. They're behaving beautifully, following directions, acting respectfully in restaurants, and even sleeping . . . a little, anyway. They were patient during a really, really, REALLY long check-in process and didn't complain when it was time to take a break from the beach for our first main session. In short, they're great kids, and we're having a ball hanging out with them!

After settling in to our rooms, getting a quick bite for dinner (or skipping dinner in favor of a long-anticipated shower), and playing on the beach for a bit, we experienced some great worship and heard some challenging teaching from author and speaker, Stuart Hall. The camp theme is "Think," exploring the truth that life change has very little to do with our actions . . . and everything to do with our thinking. Stuart talked about how the renewing of our minds (Romans 12:2) is a process, not an event; it's about identifying all the junk that's cluttering our minds and replacing it with that which is true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent, and praiseworthy (Phil 4:8).

Now, wanna hear the really cool part? MSC's launching a new message series this weekend on the very same thing: The 4:8 Principle. Nice, huh? Coincidence? We think not!

It's 1:04 am and breakfast is in just six short hours, so I'm out for tonight. Watch for at least one post each day through our departure on Sunday morning. I'll also be updating the BigStuf album on our Facebook page regularly, so be sure to visit that page frequently over the next several days.

*You think I'm exaggerating about the Dew, right? Not so much. It turns out that the southeastern states are a bit more sensible than Missouri and have set the minimum age to purchase energy drinks at 18. Not to be deterred, our favorite teens (mostly middle school boys) opted for entire two-liters of soda. And, in some cases, jumbo cans of vienna sausages. Eww is right.

We're taking off for BigStuf in just three little days! Parents and Prayer Team, you'll be able to keep updated on what's going on right here and on the MSCYM Facebook Page. If the Internet cooperates with us, we'll be posting a couple of times each day . . . and if you have questions you can ask 'em right here. Coolio!

See you Tuesday at 8:30 pm at MSC!