God Stories From a 'Poggers' 8th grade YL Camp

Incoming 9th graders. What could REALLY happen in a short three days with a handful of six incoming freshmen. Two kids with ADHD, a couple jocks, all semi-addicted 'gamers,' one autistic, most have struggled already with anxiety or depression (especially my kid!) 

Seems like kids are so 'lost' these days. Would this be a trip to endure, or to see God move mightily? My hunch was the prior option. Yet I had made it my goal to invite as much prayer as possible to make sure we at LEAST gave God a shot.  And that we did!

After loading up in our North Spokane, 10 passenger, gas guzzling, 330K miler, non-air conditioned in 100 degree weather, mini-van, our 6 guys and I were on the road to Lake Roosevelt to Vic's cabin, laughing when one incoming 9th grader, with autism, and an avid 'gamer' belted out "this camp trip is POGGERS!" I had to  ask for the definition of that word. Apparently it is an adjective, meaning 'positive flow' or 'good times!' in the Minecraft gamer world. So, that became our theme for camp. 'Poggers.'

We arrived, settled in, I had to sneak in a zoom call with my regional team, and we headed out again for a pool party and dinner at our friends Jeannie and Herb's place overlooking Banks Lake in Coulee City. We played dunk hoops and an epic pool party and decided to create a music video. We captured scenes in the pool, a mild food fight using fruit pie, a scene in an 'Isaak Farms' hay field, and a synchronized dance scene at an abandoned barn. Can't wait to share it! (we will post it in here, the kids' YouTube accounts and on Facebook when its done in a few days.)

Upon returning back to Vic's cabin on Lake Roosevelt in Lincoln, we had our first cabin time. We read two passages in Mark about Jesus pulling his disciples away to rest and connect with Jesus. We asked what they wanted for these three days away. Every one of them had a variation of 'the grow closer to God' and 'experience adventure.' I guaranteed they'd experience this if they are serious.

Solo prayer times.

Day two, after breakfast, we had cabin time #2. We read the Lord's prayer, broke it down into how Jesus was showing us, in simple terms even ADHD 8th graders can understand, how to connect with God in prayer. Then we prayed using the P.R.A.Y. (acrostic) guide. P= Praise/thank. R= Repent. A= Ask. Y= Say "yes" to what God is asking. We prayed as a group for "p" trying to lift up as many praises and thankfuls as we could muster up. It was beautiful, and awkwardly random. Then we all shared things we wanted to repent from. I figured this would be super clunky, but it was flowed effortlessly for them. We then gave them a 10 minute time of quiet by themselves for "Ask" and "Say YES to God."  All in all, this went better than expected and when they reported how it was for them, they appreciated the simplicity of connecting with God. 

After praying hard, the rest of the day was playing hard. Paddle boarding, wave runner-ing, tubing behind Vic's watercraft, swimming, and of course, making more scenes for our music video, a parody version of Rick Astley's 'Never Gonna Give You Up' but a version where the word 'never' is edited out of the song so the lyrics say 'I'm gonna give you up, let you down, make you cry, hurt you, desert you, etc.' It's laughable, trust me. ;)

For the evening, things got hella poggers. I invited our host and longtime YL leader (with me in my former area) Vic Alinen, to co-lead cabin time with me. And if you know Vic, co-lead means 'he leads.' Cabin time started with our typical 'highs and lows,' followed by some hilarious improv, and then Vic took over and we went super deep very fast. From 0 to 90 MPH in 2.7 seconds. He covered a variety of topics including but not limited to angels and demons, how video games dull your senses, being men after God's own heart, allowing God to heal our open wounds and become scars, and if they were to die tonight how confident on a scale of 1-10 would they be that they  would enter heaven. A bit of a windy road towards what God would do next that night.

Vic asked each guy how we could pray for a breakthrough for them. They each were so deeply leaning in, and each shared the most authentic responses I would have imagined. Its like...people were praying for us, for this very moment. Guys shared about needing healing for open wounds in their hearts, to embrace their own faith rather than their parent's faith, to turn from their repetitive sin, to stop 'dabbling' with God but go all in, to get in the middle of God's will not the fringes, and to let go of things that they've been holding onto for security that has no power to save or satisfy. Phew! These are 8th graders, friends! Next, after they shared this, we prayed for each, one at a time. Let me pause and rewind back to moments just before starting cabin time. I had texted an invitation for people to pray for our time. One of my prayer people, Curtis, said 'take them to the Prayer 401 level.'  I scoffed back, "Yeah, not THESE guys. Sorry. not today, maybe in a few more years."

Have you ever eaten your words? Yep. Did that. During prayer for each kid, my 'no way Jose' faith-lacking comment echoed back to me. After Vic shared a series of inspired word pictures, anointed words and prophetic challenges, he invited me to lead prayer along with him. I decided to go for 'Prayer 401.' Others and I refer to this depth as 'listening prayer.' This is where all who are present in prayer to be invited to participate in listening for any leading from the Holy Spirit. This might be a word or bible verse, or a picture in one's head, or a strong sense that seems to be originating from God's leading. 401. Not beginner prayer stuff. But the kind of prayer we see Jesus refer to in John 14 and 16, and in Acts, and peppered throughout the Bible. So I invited the kids to say 'I have something' if anything seemed to be popping up for them as they pray. Risky for these 'kids'...right?

Also, after the kids shared how we could pray, and before Vic prayed for each guy, I remembered that I did some listening prayer of my own, while on my deck a week beforehand, praying in preparation for this camp. I asked the guys if I could read the prayers I felt God had led me to pray for them a week ago. Do you want to hear something nuttier than squirrel feces? The things in my journal were almost identical to the things that the boys had just asked for prayer about, AND the words Vic had spoken about each one. It was wild. One of them asked: "Raise your hand if you are really feeling the Holy Spirit right now?" All of them did, including Vic and me!

So each was prayed for, kids interjected verses that came to mind, words that they couldn't shake from their minds as they prayed, and they laid hands on each other, one at a time. Even our autistic, ADD gamer boy had a powerful word from God to another guy.  It was...poggers, y'all!  Let's not underestimate what God can do, it is immeasurably more than we can ask or imagine. God is at work. Can we listen, take a risk, speak even when timid, pray even when we think nothing will happen? Y the L not?  We left changed. Our music video is almost done. We will be reading Romans 12 together this month. And meeting again, but prayer has taken a new meaning for these guys entering HS. Excited to see what God will do!