Camp Grace Team News Updates
April 7, 2012
The three classes at Southside Ashpole Elementary were cancelled and rescheduled. The entire team then
worked on a mass mailing for the camp newsletter which took over three hours to seal, put on labels, and
count as part of the U.S. Mail preparation to send to 3,000 recipients. More grounds work followed such as
pressure washing, moving furniture & mattresses, clearing off the putt putt golf course, and cutting/cleaning other areas.
For fun some of the team played Paintball with the camp staff while others went bowling with Mr. and Mrs. Cannon.
Mr. Cannon finished the series on "Facing the Giants in our Lives" by covering both Procrastination and the giant of Temptation.
The camp had some rain overnight, so the Friday bonfire was a challenge to get started. After numerous attempts the Director Bobby
Williams got it up and burning for us. The team left early Saturday at 7:15 a.m. in order to contend with
any traffic problems and get back sooner. The return trip was uneventful, and we arrived back at CCC
at approximately 8:30 p.m. We praise the Lord for His safety and for the fruit that God gave us in souls saved and helping
the camp prepare for the next camp season!
T. Cannon
April 5, 2012
The team has done a great job, worked very hard, and worked together very well as a bonded unit. We have done a lot of grounds work when not in the schools
teaching our themed lessons on "Diligence" from the Book of Ezra. I drive the 15 passenger step van and we follow the Rolling Chapel to the four
different school properties. The kids are brought out to us. NC by law has a release time for religious instruction. Parents give permission for
their kids to voluntarily come to this. Many are not saved or need assurance.
We have eight girls and one guy on the team in addition to my wife and I. The girls have worked well and are in one cabin, while Dennis and I share
the second cabin. Through all these classes for the school kids the Lord has made it very apparent who has the gift of teaching. Dennis has been
great since he is being used by both teams. He wants to be a youth pastor, and he has handled the invitation time for both teams, has been part of
two separate team skits, and for one skit he is costumed and is the OT scribe/priest Ezra.
Our Devotional series in the evenings has gone well with the "Giants We Face in Life" series I shared with the team. Due to time and team fatigue we
will only got through five of the twelve giants. That is ok. We will send the answers for the remaining ones in our booklet to them. We covered fear, worry,
anger, and tonight will finish with procrastination and temptation. Also I had a session on dealing with children about spiritual decisions. Friday
night we will have a bonfire and testimony/song time.
Judy continues to cook great meals for our team, and they are better than we had last year! It made the trip more affordable with her opting to cook. That is her
primary task besides being "mom" to all our students on our team. She worked with the students in two mock sessions of witnessing sessions in prep for
our school visits. She played a very ornery kid that presented various witnessing challenges. The team was taught by Rebekah Farrell, who has done
a lot of work with CEF and she went through their witnessing cards with the team. The Kids Bridge Tracts have been used also. The kids with assurance
issues received these. The kids that made a Salvation decision were given a small NT Bible. I wrote their name, "Trusted in Christ", date, and wrote
assurance verse John 5:24 and encouraged them to tell three people what they did. We checked the numbers and I dealt with 9 of the 22 kids that were saved
so far. What a praise! Last year I did not get to take part, and the need arose with so many kids coming out of each session-so I had to pitch in.
What a wonderful opportunity! The girls have done well also with weeding out the real kids that need to be talked with.
The toughest part was having a directed invitation and still droves of kids would come out to be dealt with. I talked to the team about this earlier and
about weeding out with questions to find who really came out with a purpose. For example, yesterday I dealt with a group of six boys at one point. My early
questions cut this to three since three really gave no good reason to be leaving the trailer. Another boy admitted finally that he did pray before and
so dealt with assurance - since Christ died once we only have to get saved once. Churches in this extremely impoverished and very ethnic-mixed area of
NC teach you can lose your salvation, so our team had to sift each group and dealt with assurance as well. Another boy was not ready and gave conflicting
answers, so we sent him away with a tract. We found out later he raised his hand as being saved and then raised it again as never praying before and now wanting
to trust Christ. This left Michael who prayed with me to accept Jesus. So six down to one - whew! It did strain my brain. Also twice I dealt with two
kids at once. Our team leaves two members in the trailer with kids not making decisions, which left three team members and me to deal with an average of 25-30
kids who would come out of the trailer. Praise the Lord for fruit!
The girls had fun being pulled in a tube by a wave runner. They also used the swimming hole yesterday after working. Dennis and some of the girls will play
paintball with the staff on Friday. They played board games after evening devos also, so they had some fun. The team has a good rapport and attitude. I have no
concerns at this point. Praise!
Today we are constructing a mass mailing for the camp. The weather has been warm in the 80s and cool at night, and we have had no rain. I
thought I would share these details to those of you who are praying for us. We covet the prayers! Take care.
T. Cannon
April 4, 2012
The Camp Grace team arrived at 11:16 p.m. on Saturday night. There was a bumper to bumper traffic jam below Ocala on I-75, a heavy rain storm
going through Starke, FL on 301, and very heavy slow traffic on I-95, but we finally made it.
We had a wonderful Palm Sunday service at a Baptist church locally that really made us ponder the last week leading up to Easter.
Sunday afternoon both teams rehearsed. Jessica's Team 1 was ready for Monday meetings.
On Monday, we had the privilege of leading one boy and one girl to the Lord, and two other girls were saved without students dealing with them.
One worker prayed with four kids and went through the plan of salvation. That was harder with so many fourth graders coming out at the invitation.
We had to filter out kids to find those that had a real need or interest. Praise the Lord!! We gave them Bridge tract for kids, a New Testament, and got their
names for follow-up. I had Team 2 rehearse more on Monday night in prep for Tuesday.
On Tuesday, we had to quickly adjust when Judy called me about our Team 2 leader not feeling well, and that she could not lead her team that day. We had to
change the parts in the skit etc. and thank the Lord we pulled it out through five classes that day. The Team 2 leader was given pain medication
by the doctor and is back now and sleeping. The pain reduced her team who flexed without her for five classes.
I am very proud of how well they did without her. Praise God!!!
Today, we received word that three of the classes for tomorrow were cancelled, but the good news is that one of our students is feeling better,
and we had five classes today and thirteen saved!!!!
T. Cannon
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