Throwback Thursday Night Chapel Memory
Thursday Night Memories by Carly Jones
I love Thursday nights at TEAMeffort. So much excitement, anticipation, and nerves! Thursday night is where everything from the week is pulled together; students are impacted little by little throughout the week and Thursday they have the opportunity to make a decision about what their faith and relationship with Jesus will look like after leaving camp.
The last week of the summer in Puerto Rico held a very memorable and impactful Thursday night for me. During worship and giving the talk on Thursday night I could really see some processing happening with the campers as they heard about making Jesus their only foundation. Their eyes and minds were locked in on the Truth that was being spoken and that further intensified through watching the drama. We led the group outside to the cross and began to explain sandy foundations versus the ultimate foundation of the Rock and gave them the bucket of sand to pass around and share vulnerably, as a group and family, what sandy foundation they were committing to leave at camp. After that each camper went to the cross to pick up a rock representing their choice to stand on the only Rock as their foundation, Christ.
While playing the acoustic in the background I was given such a beautiful opportunity to see heart changes and commitments to Christ happening before my eyes. While passing the bucket around, members in the group stopped to pray over each other, cry to each other, ask forgiveness, and run towards Jesus together. As they each individually went to the cross almost all of them fell to their knees and just sat there in silence before God. They continued to pray over each other, and for almost an hour I was able to see these transformations taking place and freedom in Jesus being given to these students.
As if that wasn’t beautiful enough to witness, almost every student from the group came up to me while I was playing guitar to express how thankful they were for the week and the ways that God worked in their hearts. They shared the commitments they were making to Him and asked me to pray for them! What an encouragement, that despite being at the end of the summer, worn out, and being a group of broken people leading these students, God used us and allowed us to SEE and experience their transformation!
I love Thursday nights at TEAMeffort. So much excitement, anticipation, and nerves! Thursday night is where everything from the week is pulled together; students are impacted little by little throughout the week and Thursday they have the opportunity to make a decision about what their faith and relationship with Jesus will look like after leaving camp.
The last week of the summer in Puerto Rico held a very memorable and impactful Thursday night for me. During worship and giving the talk on Thursday night I could really see some processing happening with the campers as they heard about making Jesus their only foundation. Their eyes and minds were locked in on the Truth that was being spoken and that further intensified through watching the drama. We led the group outside to the cross and began to explain sandy foundations versus the ultimate foundation of the Rock and gave them the bucket of sand to pass around and share vulnerably, as a group and family, what sandy foundation they were committing to leave at camp. After that each camper went to the cross to pick up a rock representing their choice to stand on the only Rock as their foundation, Christ.
While playing the acoustic in the background I was given such a beautiful opportunity to see heart changes and commitments to Christ happening before my eyes. While passing the bucket around, members in the group stopped to pray over each other, cry to each other, ask forgiveness, and run towards Jesus together. As they each individually went to the cross almost all of them fell to their knees and just sat there in silence before God. They continued to pray over each other, and for almost an hour I was able to see these transformations taking place and freedom in Jesus being given to these students.
As if that wasn’t beautiful enough to witness, almost every student from the group came up to me while I was playing guitar to express how thankful they were for the week and the ways that God worked in their hearts. They shared the commitments they were making to Him and asked me to pray for them! What an encouragement, that despite being at the end of the summer, worn out, and being a group of broken people leading these students, God used us and allowed us to SEE and experience their transformation!