Post Summer 2023 News Letter

I am referring to the Lakeview summer camp season, Camp Padre, Camp U and Game Day Challenge tour as I traveled to schools all across the North Texas area in the month of May leading interactive team building games and activities and sharing the message of hope with students gaining greater potential, purpose and promise. We were able to connect with over 5,000 students in the public schools and 22,000 in our summer camps. As we are all now recovering from the swarm of groups who blew in and out of our camps, we see so many evidences of lives impacted for the kingdom of God. All the trampled grounds, broken facilities, damaged rec equipment and the towering pile of lost and found items are all evidences of the activity of camp that impacts lives for eternity. I often say that everything done at camp flows to the altar that alters young lives. Philippians 1:6 says, “He that begin a good work in you will carry it on until the day of Christ Jesus.” We know what was done at camp will continue to impact lives all across the world. So as we spend the next few days transitioning from camp season to fall retreats, I know we’ll miss the sound of laughter and all the sounds that go with the summer camp fun of students finding their way to Jesus. We know that the end results of this summer are mansions now being built in heaven from the lives that were impacted for the glory of God. Thank you for being faithful in your prayers and support to show Jesus to a young generation through this fun hot crazy exhausting impactful ministry we call camp. Have a great fall season.

Summer 2021 Newsletter

Ready or not here comes summer. I am ready. Even more than ready. I relate this time of the year as a roller coaster going up the hill and almost to the top. Reminds me of those days at Six Flags. I would always anticipate the uphill climb as my stomach would begin to turn and the anticipation began to mount higher and higher as the roller coaster went higher and higher. Then bam, we were like a fly in a blender, a termite in a yoyo, rolling uncontrollably until we reached the end of the ride. That’s camp. I often tell people that we run camp until June 1, then camp runs us for the rest of the summer. What we have prepared to that point is what we will deliver all summer. Not only is this physical part of camp what we prepare but the spiritual as well. You can only withdraw what you have deposited. The summers are long, hot, physical and demanding but the rewards are worth every minute of the prep and time we have invested in seeing young lives changed. We anticipate full camps each week of the summer at Lakeview Camp and also a great week of Camp Padre and Camp U. We just returned from doing our Game Day Challenge tour and were able to reach lots of students on the school campus with a message of hope through character education and building strong relationships with team building games and activities. Below is an outline of a message I have been speaking to our leaders about being Stronger Together as we work hard and pray hard to see God’s will be done in young lives all summer long. Please be in prayer that this summer will reach a generation that will rock a revival that will heal our nation and bring peace to our towns, cities, schools and communities. Together we will reach the world as lives are changed for the glory of God. As always please continue to support our ministry in your prayers and giving in any way you can. It takes each of us in our God given assignments to carry out the amazing tasks of providing and preparing a place for the spirit of God to form and develop a child and a student to what God has called them to be. We have to Be Strong, Stay Strong and Finish Strong to accomplish the plans God has for our lives as we roll into the summer camp season.

Be Strong

1 Cor. 12:12 says we are one body with many parts doing the work God has called us to do. Paul says that we all have different gifts, callings, talents and skills but collectively working together makes us stronger.

On sports teams not all players can be the same position. We can’t all be quarterbacks. There must be a receiver to catch the ball and score.

Life is many times like sports. In a game if you fall down you get back up because you are trying to score. There is a goal line to reach. Same in life, if you get knocked down you get back up because there is a goal line to reach, a score to make.

Phil. 3:14 Paul says, “I press on toward the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”

Stay Strong

Long range goals help you overcome short range failures and obstacles are frightful things you see when you take your eyes off the goal.

When a muscle tears it develops scare tissue to heal the muscle. When a bone fractures calcium rushes to the break to help the bone and make that part of the bone stronger.

Finish Strong

Matt 7:24-27 says, “The wise man builds his house on the rock. It stands the storms but the foolish man builds his house on the sand. When the storms come the house crashes.

2 Cor. 5:1 says “For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed we have a building made from God, and eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands.”

2 cor. 12:10 says, when we are weak God is strong.

Let’s all be stronger together as God builds us and directs us to accomplish his will in and through our lives this summer.

Phil 4:13 “I can do all things through Jesus Christ who strengthens me.”

End of Summer Newsletter 2020

Get Ready!

This spring and summer season was different as everything else in the world is different since Covid-19. Some of our ministry events were postponed until next year; Game Day Challenge school assembly tour and Camp U. We were able to get in Camp Padre though. We moved to a later date, July 20-24. We were half the size camp that we usually are but had a great time and God moved mightily on the students that attended. We were able to also have our district A/G youth and kids camps at Lakeview Camp. We were also half the size in numbers that we normally are but had awesome camps and many lives were changed. We had many other camps scheduled but cancelled or postponed until next year. Even though this wasn’t the summer packed full of camps that we usually are, this will be a summer that will impact us the rest of our lives. Our job is a calling and we look forward to answering that call. One thing I know, after this summer, is that the call camp has on my life will never be the same again. I have learned to cherish the call God gives me. He doesn’t let me just fumble my call. The word says that he equips us. Those he calls he equips. The average week of a camp is 90 hours. In those 90 hours a young life is equipped for life. I’ve often said that everything I needed to learn in life I learned at camp. Camp is where I learned to build relationships. Camp is where I learned how to cope with issues that would later help me in life. Camp taught me that competition is good. Camp taught me how to live life to the fullest. Camp taught me how to seek the face of God. Camp taught me that God has a perfect will and calling on my life. Camp taught me how to cope with all we have been through for the past 5 months. So camp isn’t just a one week wonder, it’s a life calling and camp is my life. I’ve done my best to help others and my family see that camp in essential for learning life and spiritual skills. Camp isn’t a location. Camp isn’t a destination. Camp is a launching point. Camp just isn’t camp, it’s a life change. I think God for camp now and into the future. God has never left us or forsaken us and camp will live on changing lives throughout eternity. So I am planning the greatest camps, Game Day Challenge school assembly tour and all the ministry opportunities God has planned for us and into 2021. (Eph. 3:20, 21) So let’s together pray, work and prepare for a great harvest God has planned for us.

Yours in Youth,

Jaroy and Kim Carpenter