AALC National Youth Camp

This week Tim and I had the privilege of  chaperoning 7 awesome teens from our church to Estes Park for the national TAALC Youth Gathering.

In ND we are sheltered from great restaurants like IHOP. So Steffany and Morgan wanted their picture taken in front of the sign! 

Along the beautiful drive there was this random Indian head. It was beautifully carved. 

The scenery was breath taking.

There were about 200 teens in attendance this year. 

Here is Kayla and Hannah eagerly awaiting the session to start!

Here is Steffany and Morgan also awaiting the session to begin. 

All the teens participated in the "get to know your fellow campers" activities and also in the singing of fun songs.

Each student met with either Tim or I just before their personal quite bible study time. It was a great opportunity for us to get to know the teens and to pray with them one on one.  

We had some free time during our day and on this particular day they were just hanging out visiting. Some of the other activities were white water rafting (sorry no picutres), hiking, zip line and a trip to town.

 The band played some familiar hymns with a contemporary twist to them. The teens put their arms around each other and swayed to the music as they sang. 

Here are Ansir, Tristen and Phil ( a new friend from Minot).

We also saw lots of wild life like little bunnies,

And ground squirrels. The girls tried to pet and feed them. 

This is Swen and Dean who were some of the musical entertainment. They were in charge of the mixers and told funny stories that also had a message. 

You can see Ansir in this picture. He had a fabulous time. You will have to check out his blog to see what he thought of the camp.

In the evenings around 10:15 or so we met with just our youth group for evening devotions to review what we learned each day. The topics were passion, devotion, purity, compassion and conviction. Each topic centered on what Christ has done for us. Pastor Bill Yonker did an awesome job at getting the message of Christ Crucified across to the youth at this conference. 

When Rooming with 4 teenage girls the room can get quiet messy. 

Awe Morgan was embarrassed she closed her suitcase and hid her face!  

 I believe this was the last day as the girls were filling out their comment sheet.

And the boys did also. For some reason Ty was missing. HMM I will have to hunt down a picture! I think that some of the other teens may have a picture of him on their cameras. So check back if you want to see him.

We were able to get a lovely family picture.

And a beautiful group picture of the ORLC Teens. 

This is the entire group that we traveled with. It included the teens from Minot and Parshal. 

I am very grateful that we were able to attend this conference. While it was designed for the teens the adults present were able to learn some things also. There were break away sessions for both adults and teens covering topics such as defending your faith, questions you have about the Lutheran faith, dating, Are you called to ministry and many others. Tim will be going into more detail about what the conference covered over at his blog The Athanasian Truth. So be sure to check it out. 

Sing Praises to Your King!