Update from Camp Buxton

God has been doing some awesome things here that I wanted to share with you all.

First off I want to let you know about a huge praise. I just found out in the last week that MAJ Will Freds is healthy again! For those of you who don't know the story Will came out to RMH last year as one of the instructors from West Point. After getting back from trek Will started feeling ill. Finally on Friday afternoon he was in so much pain that we took him to the doctor. The local doctor recommended he go to the hospital for some further testing. Long story short is that Will was diagnosed with cancer. Within a week of being back in West Point he had surgery to remove the tumor and shortly after began chemo. He has been on our prayer list since last summer. So like I said, I just found out that he is healthy again. He did not require any additional surgeries, or chemo treatments. Praise God!!

Second, God is really blessing us with registrations this summer. Currently we are at 60 registrations for RMH with another 19 that have expressed they are planning on coming, but have not registered yet. To put that in perspective, last year we have 19 total registrations for RMH, and the highest we've had in the last thirteen years was 68. So God is really doing a mighty work in the RMH registrations. I believe that this is a sign that he is going to be doing some big things here this summer. Our FTA registrations are also at a 10 year high.

God never ceases to provide us with what we need, when we need it. He has also established an awesome guide staff for this summer. Including me there will be 10 people on staff this summer. Here is who will be on staff:
Lee Fenzel - Senior Guide
Lisa Wermuth - Senior Guide
Brent Ellis - Guide
Daniel Gooch - Guide
Jeremy Byram - Guide
Eric Shockley - Guide
JoJo Ogg - Guide
Daniel Holt - Guide-in-training
Susan Bursley - Logistics Manager

Please be in prayer for these staff members since this will be a busy summer for all of us. Thank you for all the prayer and support that you provide. Praise God for all He is doing in us and through us.

As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord

"Now fear the Lord and serve him will all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your forefathers worshiped beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods you forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord."
Joshua 24:14-15

What an awesome speech! Joshua gives this speech to the Israelites when he knows his life is almost over. This is part of his final instructions to the Israelites. I love how it is a draws a proverbial line in the sand for the Israelites. Earlier in the chapter he mentions that Terah (Abraham's father) had worshiped other gods beyond the river, but that Abraham chose to worship and follow God. Now it was the Israelites turn. "Choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve." I love that! I wish I could say cool things like that. Joshua is telling the people, God has delivered you from slavery but you need to decide who you will worship. You can worship the old gods who left you in slavery, or worship the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, who delivered you into the promised land, but you cannot worship both.

That is a question that I need to ask my self. Which god am I going to decide to serve today? Will I serve the god of lust, pride, and self-sufficiency, or will I serve God who delivered me from the bondage of those things, and delivered me into His promised land? As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. That is something that I need to decide every day, because the days that I don't, it seems so easy to slip back into the habits of my old self.

I encourage you, just as Joshua encouraged the Israelites, to throw away the old gods. Get rid of the things that you worshiped before your salvation and deliverance, and choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve.

RMH Video

The new RMH video is finally here!!! Check it out at www.springcanyon.org/rmh/rmh_video.htm

Let me know what you think.

Enjoy!

Going Hungry

I recently completed my first multi-day fast. It was tough! My wife and kids were gone visiting grandparents while I was doing this fast, so when I would get home from work there wasn't much to keep my mind off of food. I never realized how much I love eating. Not just the taste of food, but the act of eating. It was crazy.

The reason for my fast was that I wanted to get back in the habit of spending time with the Lord daily, both in prayer and in the word. I hate to admit it, but the last several months since our daughter was born, my daily time with God was sporadic at best. I wanted to get back to that place where I was spending quality time with God every day. Where I could have a dialogue with the creator of the universe. So I spent my time reading the word, praying and journaling. It was a sweet time, and I'm happy to say that I've been able to maintain that time even once the family got home.

Since I've never done a multi-day fast, I've never thought much about what it means, and the spiritual parallels that go along with it. I knew that the point of fasting was to confirm that God is the source of your life, and to trust Him for your sustenance. But that was about as far as my understanding went. On the last day of my fast God gave me an awesome revelation. There I was after just three days without food and I was in some serious pain. I was miserable and just about all I could think of was food. So if God truly is the source of my life, why don't I feel any pain when I go a day or two without spending time with him. I prayed and asked God to give me that kind of pain when I don't spend time with Him, to give me that hunger to spend time with Him. I wish I had that hunger for Him throughout the day. He is our provider, our source of comfort and our sustenance, but for some reason it's easy to go an hour, a day, a week, sometimes even a month without truly spending time with Him.

I encourage you to fast. If you've never done it, don't be afraid of it. Start small. It's not anything that you can't get through with His help. Whether you fast or not I pray that God instills in you that kind of hunger for Him. I pray that if you skip a 'meal' with God that you would not be able to focus on anything but Him until you make up that time. Just as I realized how much I really love eating, I realized how much more I love spending time with my Savior, my Friend, my King, and my God.