EP 44 Heart of a Servant with Special Guest Jon Jon Jacks

We are at a special place this week, the famous BOGG SPRINGS CHURCH CAMP! We share memories, from camps dating back to 1974. Jon Jacks discusses what it takes to run the camp that has brought so many to the realization of what our Savior did for the world. We discuss what NEXT CAMP is all about and the question in which our teens face, What is Next for You. We will be back next week with another episode with Jon at the famous KIDZ KAMP. 

Grateful as always for joining in for another week! 

Bro. Lane, Bro. Zach, Bro. Ryan, Bro. David with multiple Special Guest Jon Jacks, Duke Greenwood, and Corey Lindsey

Transcript

SPEAKER_04 0:11

Welcome to the Pick It Up Podcast, the podcast where we'll discuss what it means to pick up your cross and follow Christ. Living a life for Christ takes commitment, sacrifice, and ultimately being obedient to his word. Not only on Sundays, but every day. God's word says it, that settles it. So pray about it, practice it, and proclaim it. Let's get into it.

SPEAKER_03 0:38

What's up? Good morning. Morning, morning.

SPEAKER_07 0:42

Good morning.

SPEAKER_04 0:43

Special edition episode at Bog Springs Baptist Camp. We got John, Mr. John Jacks with us this morning. Good morning. What's up? Oh, I don't know it. Well, we got some special guests. We got special guests all over the place. Yeah, we try to tell quite a bit of people just so they come in and listen and everything else. But uh yeah, we uh we got of course the pastors and Dookie Wayne and and Will here, and we just have Mr. Corey Lindsay walk in with us. So we've had a great week of next camp so far, right?

SPEAKER_01 1:19

That was a classic right there. Pastors and Dookie Wayne. Pastors and Dookie Wayne.

SPEAKER_07 1:23

Hey, I'm just glad I'm in the same room with y'all.

SPEAKER_03 1:27

But uh but yeah, y'all have had a good week so far. Oh yeah. Good week. Uh yeah, well. I said interesting. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:38

Lane, have you had a good week so far? After last night, negatory. Oh, Lane can go stay in the hotel cabin with his wife and family.

SPEAKER_03 1:45

I don't know if it gets you old or keeps you young, but Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:50

It's been a been a great week. Uh but we'll get right into it. John, just go ahead and like share your who you are and what you do here at Bog Springs.

SPEAKER_05 2:01

I am since everybody doesn't know.

SPEAKER_04 2:03

Well, you know, we were talking about last night, you know, of course, a majority of the people listening goes go to Shady Grove and they know you as John John, Little John, whatever, from back in the day, but Brother David's son. But they uh they might not necessarily know exactly what you do here at Bog Springs. Okay. Jump right into it.

SPEAKER_05 2:23

All right. Well, I am the glorified maintenance man here at Bog Springs. Nothing wrong with that. Yep.

SPEAKER_01 2:31

I got a question. What's your first memory? Bog Springs.

SPEAKER_05 2:34

First memory. Oh. First memory of Bog Springs. The one that's coming to mind right now was uh so Teen Camp, TLC back in the day. I used to come before I was old enough. I was one of the You was a talent. I was a talent running around, causing havoc. And me and Blake Kenard were buddies. And first memory I got is for some reason, I don't know how why dad thought this was a good idea, but they got us some uh uh some backpack uh water guns. Oh yeah. I had a reservoir on my back, locked and loaded. And boy, we just we that's all we did all week. We just went around just I mean, busting in the concession tan, spraying the staffers, busting the tail groups, I mean the whole works.

SPEAKER_03 3:22

Y'all thought y'all owned the place.

SPEAKER_01 3:24

They did, they had free rain. Yeah, totally free rain. Run a concession stand, run a swimming boost.

SPEAKER_05 3:31

Started with old Big D. But yeah, that's for some reason that comes to mind. Yeah, I got lots of memories here, lots of interesting ones, lots of good ones, lots of them that did not end as well as redemption story, you know. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 3:44

Did you ever at that moment like think about man, it'd be fun just to live at Bog Springs?

SPEAKER_05 3:50

So I never hold on, let me get some coffee.

SPEAKER_04 3:53

Yeah. It's quite early here on camp week.

SPEAKER_05 3:55

Yeah, I don't know, I don't know how y'all are gonna build without coffee. I appreciate you guys. Uh no, the first time I ever thought about it was whenever I was staffing. Of course, I at that time Doug was he was having back problems having surgery stuff, I guess. I just messed with him. I'd say, hey, if you ever get tired of doing this, you just holler at me. You know, I'm 18 years old. Oh yeah, yeah, you can do that. I can cut grass and plunge of toilet. My goodness.

SPEAKER_04 4:21

Ain't done to it.

SPEAKER_05 4:22

Ain't done too. But uh yeah, I actually back in the day I would mess with him about that and thought about it. Um of course it was a long time before I got here, but I wouldn't necessarily guessed it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 4:34

As a as a kid, I don't know what guy didn't come to camp and think that. Like, man, that'd be awesome to live here 24-7, you know. Yeah, run around on the floor there with your knee on tie. Yeah, with the plunger hanging out the back. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 4:47

Now I I bet you that those thoughts went away when Doug was neck deep in a in a hole in the ground, you know. Fishing some stuff out and you don't want to.

SPEAKER_03 4:55

Yeah, but as a as an uh ongoer here, you never seen a lot of that, you know.

SPEAKER_05 5:00

Oh yeah, no.

unknown 5:01

No.

SPEAKER_05 5:02

Yeah, that's a it's an interesting job. It's different every day.

SPEAKER_03 5:05

You didn't get to see a lot of his patchwork until you repatched it.

SPEAKER_05 5:09

Yeah, yeah, I got to I got to see the belly of the beast, if you will, when I got here. Yeah, there's a lot of things, you know, of course, with anything. I mean, it seems true at the church. Yeah. A lot of things people don't know, but that's all right. Yeah. Part of it.

SPEAKER_04 5:22

Well, you met your wife here, right?

SPEAKER_05 5:24

Met my wife here, yeah. I can tell you the spot I saw her, believe it or not. Before the uh the old, the new part of the cafeteria was was there. And you remember, used to come in the back door that connects the two buildings, and they'd have tables. That's where you registered back in the day. I was doing dishes and she walked in the door, and I thought, I'm gonna have to figure out who she is. You were doing it, you dropped the ditch, didn't you?

SPEAKER_04 5:48

Looking him, looking him. So when did you start? Uh we tried to figure it out last night we were selling bogdogs, and I was gonna do a uh a question, and uh whoever answered first got a free bogdog last night. Like we were trying to figure out what year did you start full not like the year you moved in with Doug and Sherry. So I this is my fourth summer. Fourth summer look at Air Preek, you said three.

SPEAKER_05 6:12

So I've been I've been here three years, but of course I I started right on the edge of a summer.

SPEAKER_04 6:16

Yeah. Right.

SPEAKER_05 6:17

Fourth summer.

SPEAKER_04 6:18

Fourth summer.

SPEAKER_05 6:19

Yep.

SPEAKER_04 6:20

What has been the biggest learning curve?

SPEAKER_05 6:25

Interesting question, mate. Uh I got more coming. Where all the water lines are. Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_04 6:33

You can get hollered at boy.

SPEAKER_05 6:37

Uh uh. It'll come out, it'll come out just fine, ain't that right? Exactly right. On the radio, it's gonna sound just fine, guys. Uh no, the biggest learning curve was was living where you work, probably, and figuring out how to shut that down. Because I wake up every day and while I love this place, I do look at work 24-7.

SPEAKER_03 6:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 6:57

And my tendency is kind of like my dad's, is it's hard to turn that off.

SPEAKER_03 7:01

It don't matter if it's six in the morning or six in the evening. You you see it, you gotta it's on your mind.

SPEAKER_05 7:07

So I do a lot of running during the summer, but especially that first year I caught myself. I mean, if I had a minute, I was running. But so I had to figure that out. That's probably the biggest learning curve.

SPEAKER_03 7:17

Well, that first year you thought you was having to maybe impress too, you know?

SPEAKER_05 7:22

Oh yeah, no, there's definitely it's just like with anything, especially in ministry, I think you you you you battle against the desire to want to please man, you know. Because I mean it is everybody's curious, especially now I've done a little bit, everybody's wondering what is he gonna do next, you know.

SPEAKER_03 7:40

Well, there is a lot of future plans, and we don't have to get into all that, but just know that you got a a mindful of stuff you want to do. Oh buddy. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 7:50

Yeah, that'll be interesting. We'll see if the Lord wants it done, it'll get done. So Amen.

SPEAKER_04 7:54

Well, Ryan, you uh you kind of assistant director this week, next camp. Why don't you explain a little bit about the speaker and what's kind of taking place thus far?

SPEAKER_03 8:05

Man, I'm gonna tell you, uh, I'll just start from the beginning. I come into this week just, you know, I'm a homebody. I probably have said that on here, and the fact that I just being away from the house just bothers me, you know, especially if I want to go on vacation or whatever, you know, I want my own bed, I want my own toilet, you know, all that good stuff. And uh so I go into these weeks kind of half-heartedly. And uh, but it didn't take long this week to uh to get to where I needed to be. You know, there's a lot of effort that's put into this. And uh everybody, everybody involved has their part and they do their part well. And it's this has been this week has been like a good, well-oled machine. It really has. You know, there's always a lot of behind-the-scenes stuff. Or people, you know, but this week's been real well, you know, and our our speaker, brother Roy, has done a fantastic job, I believe, um getting the message out, telling people about Jesus. I mean, he's doing a devotion time, a cell group leader time, and also worship, you know, along with playing basketball with everybody or football or whatever, you know. So he's he's really genuine in what he's doing. And and uh Brother Corey sitting behind us back there, he is probably uh, you know, I don't know what the word to use, but late night. You know, everybody looks forward to late night, and he's been running that for several years, and uh that's the one job I wouldn't want. You know, you're up at 11 o'clock hollering and having fun and stuff, and I'm trying to figure out how to get out of here. I'm talking about he's in here at 11 having a blast with these kids, and I'm like, man, I'm done. I ain't got that kind of energy. You know, so here this morning. Well, yeah, here this morning.

SPEAKER_04 10:02

We talked about that during our little finance meeting we have ever at camp every year. You know, the amount of people, I mean, you take uh the amount of people that are serving, the amount of people that are um in next camp and leadership, whatever, how many people, how many of those people were students for next camp or were, you know, built built you know from this camp. So it's really cool to see, yeah, for sure. And too, I think that goes back, and I think that just leads us right into kind of the topic I want to talk about today. And and John can time chime in on on a little bit of it, but the heart of a servant, you know, and that that was a question I was gonna ask you, John. Of course, I got a list full of questions I could ask, but try not to throw you under the bus too bad. But like, how do you keep motivated? I asked that question to a lot of our special guests, they have different jobs. Uh, we've had loggers, we've had PTs on, we've had uh all kinds of people on. Uh, what keeps you motivated every day, even being in a Christian camp such as the size of Bog Springs? I got saved. I'm showing them. He's showing me a phone that has a board.

SPEAKER_05 11:15

I'm gonna describe it to y'all that are listening. So the uh outside of cafeteria, there's a there's a deck where you can sit outside to eat, eat dinner, lunch, whatever. And uh oh back in the day, Doug tell you this, part of it, he bought he bought some treated lumber from a local mill. That was bad. So it's I've been replacing boards on it every year. I need I just need to tear it down. But this year we we replaced quite a few boards. Anyways, I went over there uh I guess it was yesterday morning. Um every now and again I'd get out early and I just wander around. You know, um just kinda be with the Lord and just think about things, pick up some trash, it's kinda take a minute.

SPEAKER_04 11:59

Take a minute.

SPEAKER_05 12:00

Yeah, I've I've learned I have to be intentional with that. But I w I I come apart I I I come up on a bench that we replaced a few boards on, and uh one of the new boards right on top of it, there's I got saved here. Exclamation point. But it's on a it's on a new board that happened this year. And I don't know who that is. I ain't got no involvement other than that new board. And that's what keeps me motivated. Yeah. That's awesome. Little little little thing.

SPEAKER_01 12:28

Special place. Yeah. 1976 for me. 1976. How old am I? Everybody in this room wasn't even thought about it.

SPEAKER_03 12:37

Yeah. I believe you in your mid-40s at that time.

SPEAKER_01 12:40

I remember what I'm mid-40s in 1976, yeah. I uh a comment. I thought about y'all was talking a while ago, about the different aspects of camp here. And the true heroes of uh of this place is not Doug Curtis, not John Jackson. That's right. It's uh it's Johnny Greenwood, it's Zach Craig. Guys that have jobs take vacations, that's right. Come to here, not us preachers. Yeah, you know, we still get in the paycheck. Yeah. A lot of these guys take the vacation, but it always has been the volunteer. And uh it's it's just truly amazing. You know, I mean you take like Zach here using his talent for the Lord, and obviously it makes everything better. And uh it's no different with uh Dookieway. You know, just gotta like old Michael Lloyd had that had that ability to have that rapport with them kids, you know. He could tell them he loves them next breath, holler at them and make them be scrubbing the toilet with a toothbrush kind of thing. I'm guilty of that. And that's him. But uh that's the the volunteer is an amazing thing.

SPEAKER_00 13:42

We got what 39 cell group leaders?

SPEAKER_04 13:46

39, 40, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 13:47

Something like that.

SPEAKER_03 13:49

Out of those 39, there's probably 75% of them are every day. Strictly volunteer, you know, just church members.

SPEAKER_00 13:58

Yeah you know. Um big shout out to all of our cell group leaders for sure. And it's thankful for all that they do and leading these kids and taking time in their small groups to be intentional and teaching them the word of God, you know, and and sharing their testimonies with them and just kind of showing them what their walk looks like, you know, and plays a big role here.

SPEAKER_03 14:22

Well, when Zach uses the word cell group, some of you may know, but what that means is as a as a man or a woman, cell group leader, that'll take 12 to 20 kids, depending on the number, and that they have never met before, majority of them, and spend the week with them, you know, late at night, at 11 o'clock at night, and first thing in the morning, you know, and just uh opening up the Bible and telling them about Jesus.

SPEAKER_05 14:48

Yeah. Not many motivations to do that other than love.

SPEAKER_03 14:52

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 14:53

And really, I mean, you got kids' camp who's got staffers, but really we're the only camp that has cell group leaders. And these aren't students that we know. I mean, you might have like I have two Shady Grove kids, but the rest of them are kids I just met this week. And you have three days with them, you know.

SPEAKER_03 15:12

I can remember when I was, you know, real young and the the impact at those cell group leaders, I looked at them as if they were, you know, solid. And we, you know, cell group leaders are are not perfect people. No one is, you know, but to me growing up and I had my cell group leader, they were solid. And uh they made a big impact. I can look at every just about every one of their faces, you know, not really know their names, but they had an impact on me. Yeah, me too. And that was 25 years ago. I can remember every one of them I ever had. I can tell you the very first one, I think his name was Ron, bald-headed guy like myself, you know.

SPEAKER_08 15:54

Ron Parker.

SPEAKER_03 15:55

Yep, that was it. And he made a big impact. Don't have a clue where he is today or what he's doing, but he was doing good then for sure.

SPEAKER_01 16:05

That's the herd is in ministry in Washington State somewhere. Really? I may be wrong about that.

SPEAKER_03 16:10

I need to reach out to him. I bet he remembers me. He's that bad, huh? He's that slow kid. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 16:17

Yeah. He had to slow down a little bit. If they still remember you, you know, if you get a legend. That's right.

unknown 16:24

That's right.

SPEAKER_04 16:25

Well, uh, that goes into my next question. You know, you talk about all these young cell group leaders, all these young, you know, servants. John, I mean, you're what, 31, 32? 33, about 30. 33. You're getting old, okay. I know. But no, you mean you think about it. What you started this when you were 29-ish? 30. 30, right at 30. What what what I mean I would want to ask the same question, but as far as you being as young as you were, what kept I don't want to say what kept the board from hiring someone that was much older. But as you as a youth, I mean you as a young guy, is it hard to understand or to to kind of grasp what you have ahead of you every year?

SPEAKER_05 17:11

I mean, to to some degree. Because I think anybody that grew up coming to Box Springs and loves Box Springs, if you have control over that and you don't want to screw it up, you know, just uh everybody don't want to screw up whatever you're responsible for. And there's a lot of eyes on it and all that stuff. So yeah, if I if I let myself, I get real nervous about it. But it's kind of like when when I walked into this, I had a I had a real good job, I had a real good church. Uh the Lord had kind of honestly provided a lot of things we've been praying for for a long time. A good community was going well. And then uh that comes I almost I I applied for this job a week before it was done. They opened it up for months, I I wasn't gonna apply. Right. Because I I I I was conflicted because the Lord had blessed us um and and given us things we'd prayed for, and I didn't want to take that for granted, right? And I was also, you know, a little scared of it.

SPEAKER_04 18:10

Right.

SPEAKER_05 18:10

But uh but just felt like the Lord was leading me. But you know, and talking to the trustees and thinking about it later and just seeing how our life, Sher and I's life played out and how he'd he'd prepared me to do this. And uh so that goes back to, you know, I understand God just wants me to be faithful, not to be successful. You know, that that I just need to I need to trust him and uh let him figure that out. And I just do like everybody else does, just show up and work every day and a little bit at a time. Yeah. It ain't it ain't me. Yeah. Um, you know, I I I ain't gonna be able to do that.

SPEAKER_04 18:50

Well the reason the reason I keep asking you the questions like that is because the what I'm opened up to this morning, and I came in here just to try try to figure out where the Lord's leading, but it's first Timothy chapter four, and we've been in first we've been in Second Timothy for quite a bit now. Uh and we're starting in chapter three this week, actually. But uh we're in we've been in we were starting in First Timothy last year, but I'm in chapter four, verse twelve. It talks about and it says, Let no one despise your youth, but be example to the believers in word and conduct and love and spirit and faith and purity, until I come, give attention to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine. This is the verse I really want to key in on this morning. Do not neglect the gift that is in you, which is given to you by prophecy with the laying on the hands of the eldership. So talk about that gift a little bit. You know, that's what kind of is really cool about uh church camp in general. You look at all the different gifts that we have all around. I mean, you have six hundred and fifty so odd people here this week. What are all the different gifts that we have that you can see? You know? You have Zach who been doing a heck of a job on guitar, you have gifts of music, you have gifts of preaching, you have gifts of leadership. But then you take John, for example, you got gifts of toilet, you know.

SPEAKER_05 20:12

It's that reverse suction. Yeah, although it's out there, it's it's about it's about the pull, not the push. That's where I've been debating.

SPEAKER_04 20:19

That's where you want to reverse the clog before it's been learning all along. But you go back to what Brother David said. You've got the gift of volunteering, right? Leading. Right. Yeah. So that gift is huge when it comes to putting all this together.

SPEAKER_05 20:38

I think that's that's especially within ministry, you know, this is this is one of the greatest examples of of culminating lots of different gifts. Yeah. But you even, you know, just take the management of this place. You know, there's a lot of people I lean on, you know, that have gifts or that knowledge that I don't have and and and and don't really need to take the time to try to acquire. I just need to trust some people and lean on some people. But that's the this is a great example of, you know, uh just like take the music, Zach. You know, there's a there's a level of trust placed. You you handle it, you know, preacher, you handle it. Right. You know, me, I handle my my part of ordering the food and make sure things work and then leadership. Y'all handle it. You know, there's a bunch of that a lot of trust involved with that, and it works. Yeah, you know, the Lord just takes care of weaving that together. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 21:31

Well, the one common thing that I see above everything is that, and Johnny, correct me if I'm wrong here, but you know, you trust in these other people to do it, but the the common place for all of us is that we all love the Lord. We all want to do we all want to express our gifts and to and to use our gifts and be a vessel for God. And I see that in every aspect. Even though the gifts may be different, that's our common place here at Bog, and just to see all of those moving parts come together as one unified body for for a solid week. And you know, yes, Shady Grow here. We're pretty pretty big youth group and stuff. Well, I mean, we're ten, fifteen percent of the people here. And it's just to still see that body of Christ still come together and and and be unified, and it's a special thing, man. I'm telling you. It is. This is my second year coming to Bog.

SPEAKER_06 22:37

Oh, yeah. I forget about that.

SPEAKER_00 22:38

And uh man, last year I was as nervous as a three-legged cat on an icy lake, to say the least. I mean, every I was pretty nervous right there. I think well that went above and beyond. But I'm telling you, every uh I'd really never even been. Well, I guess I have been over here in this part of the state, but um first year at Bog, every new step was, you know, new territory for me and didn't really know what to expect. He was on stage, man. Yeah. And first year on stage and uh kind of threw me in the water, and and uh my wife and kids came last year and and uh got here and we needed a cell group leader, and so Ryan kind of threw her in the water and she uh stepped up and led a cell group and and uh tell you it was one of the biggest blessings that you that came out of it that I I could ever have received ever, you know, and just to to see the worship is awesome. First off, there's no place like worshiping right here in the tabernacle. The the acoustics in the room, you know, just the sound in here, there's just you're not gonna hear that any other place. Um but to see five, six, seven hundred kids pouring their heart out to the Lord, you know, it's uh it's a special thing.

SPEAKER_03 24:02

And uh, you know, I got so many memories here, but one of the biggest memories I have is sitting out in the audience. Now I wasn't always here, it might have been over at the other tabernacle. Um but I remember sitting there looking at the ones on stage and thinking, man, I'd love to do that one day. But then I also thought there's no way I could do that. There is absolutely no way that I could get up there and talk in front of all those people. And even yesterday standing up here giving the kind of the announcements for the day, I had to sit back and just, as Brother Roy's been directing us this week, be still and realize where God's got you. Yes. And I thought, man, what a trip this has been. You know. And I've already, I say already, I've I've got to preach in here one night, you know, here in West Central Camp. And I thought, man, this is something that I've always thought about. I thought I never could do. I wish I could go back to that night and redo it probably, but now it is.

SPEAKER_05 25:02

Well I think service um it's just thinking about service art and all that. That's one of them or to me, it's uh the ultimate act of surrender to God at will. You know. Um because like Zach, coming to the place the first time, getting on stage, you don't know nothing about it. Your wife's thrown in so group. You you are you are out of control. You were you were in law, but you were out of control. We broke them in right. Yeah, but it's like you said, you you you received so much out of that. Um you got a taste of it. You got a taste of it. And and that's that's the part I love uh about getting to do it. Um is and and it's kinda like you said, if if I'm not uh intentional about it, it'll pass me by and I'll I'll miss it and I'll get wrapped up in the details. But um it's a great opportunity to uh grow my faith and you know uh your family. There's family's family. It's such a blessing. I've got a great opportunity to to to be with God. Amen.

SPEAKER_03 26:15

You know what I mean? Well, on those lines, you know, what something that I'm working on in my own personal life is, and I've said it a few times this week, is just being still and thanking the Lord where I'm at. Just thank you, Lord. Thank you. But do you ever get in that spot when you're you know changing a water line or or you know, something's tore up, thermostats, you know, aggravated, but do you ever just sit back and say, Thank you, Lord?

SPEAKER_05 26:44

Yeah. But uh, but if I but but but if I if I'm not intentional about it, if I'm not if I'm not pursuing God, I won't.

SPEAKER_08 26:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 26:52

And then I'm all of a sudden I'm torqued up. But it's ha it's happened the past few summers. About about the middle of the summer, you know. Because the first half of the summer, I'm still like that bridge out there by the by the uh by the girls' cabin. I was building it while everybody was I was welding it in the ground while everybody was in here at 7 30 at night because it was gonna rain the next day and I needed a bridge, you know. Because all these things I didn't get done. So like the first two weeks I'm still I'm still working like 15, 16 hour days. Um and so I can get wrapped up in just the minutia doing the thing um and totally miss all the blood pictures that I have. But I have to, um and I a couple, I guess it'd been two or three weeks ago, I had to I had to take a date. And I I sat on the porch most of the day. It's it's Saturday when I when I didn't have anything that was going wrong, didn't have to do anything major. And I I had to kind of check into God. You know, and that that helps you in all the ways you understand, you know. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 27:51

That's right. If no one knows, and if you've never been to Box Springs, you keep hearing us use the word tabernacle. It's a sanctuary. That's the that's where the worship services are. We're sitting in the dead center of the tabernacle down here by the stage, and it's just what is it, 900 seats in here or something like that?

SPEAKER_05 28:07

945. Well, there used to be 945. We took out the back row.

SPEAKER_04 28:11

Oh man, we'll brought that out.

SPEAKER_05 28:13

We got about 900, yeah. 900 seats.

SPEAKER_04 28:15

Yeah, Doug got us to take that back row out and then to replace the backs of the chairs.

SPEAKER_06 28:19

What'd you put them on upside down or something? No. What'd you do?

SPEAKER_04 28:22

No, we we just took replaced a whole row. And then you're like, why don't y'all just because the back the backs were broken to the chair, and John's like, hey, I've got like 12 backs in here. Just put the backs on them.

SPEAKER_05 28:32

After you'd already done it. Lane was a little uh upset. It is what it is.

SPEAKER_00 28:37

Well, and it is the coolest place temperature-wise on all of campus.

SPEAKER_05 28:41

Yeah, it is cool. It is feels right in here. There's six 10-ton units on this thing.

SPEAKER_03 28:46

So I hate to get the electric bill from this one.

SPEAKER_05 28:49

You can you can move some air up in here.

SPEAKER_03 28:51

Hey, I want to I want to say this because it's on my mind. Um this is by far no, no mission field is better than the other, you know, in God's eyes. I don't believe that. You know, he calls someone there and it's a mission field, but I will say this is one of the biggest mission fields you know, you could support in a way, you know. How many souls get saved here in a summer? Yeah, it's worth worth investing in, worth taking time to take care of. What number, do you know what number you were up to before this week started?

SPEAKER_05 29:21

Yeah, so we were we were at about 250. 250 saved in about eight weeks. Amen.

SPEAKER_07 29:28

Yeah. And there ain't there to me, there is nothing like uh Thursday, Thursday night when that bell goes to ringing outside. I mean, tell them a little bit about the bell there.

SPEAKER_04 29:38

Yeah, well, we do that a lot. We do try to they try to do it a lot at every camp. Ring the bell, you know, someone gets saved. But like you take for next camp, for example, so we do what's next service on Thursday night. So all the cell groups come together. And uh we usually we're doing it outside tonight. We'll have Tiki Torches out, and usually we have live music, but uh but yeah, tonight we'll come together, every cell group, every kid will pick up a card that says what's next? What's next in your life? And they have to write that you know, question or they have to write that answer down. Well, all right, I might be going to college, but I want to live for I want to live more for the Lord. I know Ryan kits bringing it up through our church. A lot of the kids come down, and I'm gonna say probably 75 to 80% of the kids that are here this week say, Hey, I just want to live better for the Lord.

SPEAKER_03 30:27

Want to get back on track.

SPEAKER_04 30:28

I want to get back on track, right? Um but then there's gonna be those handful, hey, I want to be s I want to be saved. Or I want to surrender my life to the ministry, you know, for the men. But uh but yeah, that's gonna take place tonight, and the the impact I think that does, or the thoughts that go through kids' mind of, hey, they've got to answer that question, what's next for me in my life? Or what has gotta have for me next in my life is a huge, huge question to answer. But I I kind of thought about this this week too. You know, that cell groups when we first meet on Monday night, we ain't got a clue who they are. And then Tuesday morning we're getting the word of God with them. But giving them that card on Tuesday, let them write what's next in their life. Ain't got a clue, ain't been part of services all week. Let them write what's next in their life. And then Thursday, get the next card, get the nut get another card and write, hey, what's next, and see what the difference is. Because I can tell you, even as a teenager growing up and looking here and everything and and looking at everything and and hearing everything that I heard here at Bog Springs, when I first came to the during the middle or at the beginning of the week to the end, it wasn't the same. What's next changed throughout four days of my life. But, and it goes back to perfectly what that says in verse 15, meditate on these things, give yourself entirely to them. To what? The gifts that's in you. So once you sit here without any phone service, and it's kind of crazy because you have a lot more phone service than you did back in the day, a little bit. But you sit here for four days and you meditate on what? The word of God, you meditate on the word of God, that whole mindset, the whole perspective changes. And when you say really what's next for you in your life, you get away. You know, so it's really cool.

SPEAKER_05 32:15

Um what's next is ringing a bell, like you were talking about. That's one of my favorite parts too, is and sometimes I'm I'm around, sometimes I don't know when it's happening, you know. But all of a sudden I hear it ringing. You know, that's one of them things you check into. Like, all right, you know, this this is what I'm doing. Give you chills. Oh man.

SPEAKER_03 32:34

I don't like to hear that bell at one o'clock in the morning, though. You don't like it.

SPEAKER_05 32:37

Yeah, there's there's there's two versions of the bell getting rung. One of them's ringing to heaven because, you know, that's their home. And then one of them's, you know, a challenge. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 32:49

Uh a mischievous act.

SPEAKER_05 32:51

Mischievous act, yeah. For those of you who are not aware on uh that are listening to this, so historically, and I blame David Jacks for this one. Um probably started it, who knows? Uh there is uh there is a trend on Thursday night. Kids got nothing to lose. We're going home the next morning. They uh they see they they they take it upon themselves to see if they can ring the bell. Now back in the day, there would be a little kidding.

unknown 33:19

Boy, you ain't getting my own buttons.

SPEAKER_05 33:22

Say that to the mic, because I know that you need to say that to the mic. Where are you going? Oh keeping it.

SPEAKER_04 33:30

Take a break.

SPEAKER_05 33:31

Yeah, it was it was the challenge. Back in the day, though, it was the adults. I mean, it was it was like it took it was uh it was an act of war to get to that thing because there was there was lines of defense, so it was a challenge.

SPEAKER_07 33:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 33:45

Uh that a lot of and they take the rope off. You remember that?

SPEAKER_03 33:49

Mm-hmm. Uh well last night trying to get rid of that. Last night, I don't know if you knew this, but they threw the rope on top of the bell because some kids out there were trying to ring it. Last night. And one of our kids managed to climb the pole to get the and they rung it.

SPEAKER_05 34:06

Hey, well, they ironed it. You climbed up there one night there was a bell service, the rope fell off midbells. I had to squirrel up it.

SPEAKER_04 34:14

Well, I noticed like yesterday we didn't know.

SPEAKER_03 34:15

Man, I wouldn't do that, I'd have to say y'all better chunk a rock up there.

SPEAKER_04 34:19

We did the amazing race yesterday, and I didn't know that bell could go all the way around. Like it they pulled it so hard, it was they had to reset it two or three times.

SPEAKER_03 34:29

I'm just gonna say I'm glad y'all put it on some new post. Oh, yeah. It shook a little bit. Because that last times you know that sungum would hit the old rock.

SPEAKER_00 34:38

I gotta ask it. What is your I I want to hear your I've already heard the story, but what is your version of getting sent home? I I got uh we gotta hear it.

SPEAKER_05 34:48

All right. So this is the for those of you listening, this is my my story at Bog Springs is a redemption story, all right. So um back in the day, stuff talking about the you know, cutting up, uh, especially in Ryan's day, Ryan can attest. Oh, yeah. It was uh it was the wild west. You know, there was people getting duct taped to trees, you know, you sleeping out every night, swirlies every night, people getting their head shaved. I mean, all are you I mean, riding a motorcycle through there, it was just crazy. Oh, I've got yeah. Yeah, yeah, there's there's a lot of stories. But so I was on the back end of that. I grew up with it. Grew up coming to but but they were trying, the the leadership was trying to cut a lot of that out. Well, you know, that's not camp, you know, to m to me. That's my that's my you know, 17-year-old mindset.

SPEAKER_08 35:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 35:42

I thought it's it's up to me to continue the legacy. This it's a legacy deal. I got no choice. So me and me and my cousin Spencer, which he got out of it, kind of that. And then Blake from another uh Blake Kennard from another church, we decided that it was not gonna die with us. So prank wars will continue this year. Uh so we we came prepared, smoke bombs, stink bombs, you know, close sticks, the whole nine. And we decided, we we kind of surveyed the situation first day who who who is our best target for those that would like pranking and to to do it with.

SPEAKER_03 36:19

We're going all in, boys.

SPEAKER_05 36:20

Going all in, yeah, we're we're finna start this off right. Um and there was a there's a college group here that was doing the wreck. Uh we thought college kids, perfect. You know, they'll be game. So they uh the the guy there, do you remember him? He's a big bald-headed guy. He had a megaphone and he'd say, It's wreck time. Oh yeah, oh yeah, oh yeah. Yeah, and they had like blue shirts on. Anyways, so uh somehow or another I I got a hold to that megaphone uh in the middle of the day after wreck's uh I got a hold of that megaphone, and at the strike of midnight, cabin five A, I opened that side door with that megaphone, and I said, It's wreck time.

SPEAKER_06 37:06

And then all of a sudden I had Spencer and Blake, they they had them them uh smoke bombs lit. They threw them over my shoulder, whoo. Cut open stink bombs, woo. Cut open some cloak sticks, woo. And we shut that door and took off brother.

SPEAKER_05 37:20

And man, I had I had I had people in the dorms ready for me. I took off my clothes. They buried it under there because it smelled like smoke. We had the system, we got laid in there. And I think Bryce Hoover was at the door. He was in on the whole thing. He's the leader. Yeah. Uh uh anyway, so immediately when that happens, they go to checking dorms like who did this, right? Yeah, well, we got back, we've laid down, you know. Everybody's here, count them up. Yeah, we're good. So they they move on to the next one. Boy, we're looking at that top window like this is awesome. It looked like we just stepped on the ant heel, you know, just who and there's smoke coming out of the you know, I'm just thinking about the positives here. Anyway, so uh we we watched it for a little while, it's awesome. So, all right, here we go. We're ready for the week. Yeah, we've done our here, you know. Let's get ready, boys. What are we doing next? They finna hit us. We gotta about two o'clock in the morning after I went to sleep. He said, Wake up, son, you're going home. What he said. I said, What are you talking about? I'm going home. He said, You're going home, I know it was you. He said, Daddy, I'm sleeping the bed. We dumb up. Oh my gosh, I said, we know about it. He said, uh, we found Blake. He bred you out. Yeah, so come to find out, Blake, he was, he was like, oh, I think we were in like four or no, but we might have been in three. So I was close. He was all the way in one. Well, he he didn't make it. By the time they start scattering, he got scared and he went in the woods. Well, it don't take long to count out who's missing. Yeah. So Blake's Blake's caught, and apparently Dad saw it, and he went up to him and said, Blake, was John involved? Yes, sir. No, no, sir. Well, you better tell me the truth. Yes, sir. You know. Anyway, so the uh the turned out, long story short, the uh the the college kids and the guy involved did not appreciate pranks. They commenced to taking us in the tabernacle, and we sat in front of them like they were the Supreme Court, and they told us, you know, about immaturity and how, you know, one day we're gonna learn to know better and da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da. Oh, brother. But old Davo, he decided to make an example of me. He was involved with leadership.

SPEAKER_03 39:21

How much trouble did he get into?

SPEAKER_05 39:22

Oh, well, so so we're we're at three o'clock in the morning, I done got towed off. He says, I'm gonna get in your mom's camera in and go home. He's leaving right now. Gone. Well, six, seven o'clock rolls around. Kim Jacks wakes up. Where's my car? Where's my son? You send him home in the middle of the night. Why didn't you wait three or four hours, let him get some sleep? He gets drunk. He got in drunk. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 39:44

He didn't quite think that one through. And the and the phone, you didn't have the phones like we got ready.

SPEAKER_05 39:49

You couldn't send a message out and say, I find myself at home. I felt it's so funny. I felt like a, you know, here I am, you know, the 17-year-old man. I pulled I pulled I pulled my twin-size bed in front of the living room TV.

SPEAKER_06 40:04

I was over there watching watching ninja turtles, you know, even macaroni and cheese. They could please come over.

SPEAKER_00 40:12

I bet I bet I bet you end up being in the position that you're in now. I bet that never even crossed your mind at that point. Oh no. Uh uh. But here you are. Redemption story. Redemption story.

SPEAKER_05 40:26

Yeah. Lord can use me, he can use anybody.

SPEAKER_04 40:29

Man, amount of stories, the amount of stories that people have at this.

SPEAKER_05 40:32

Yeah, I'd like to hear Ryan's story. Come on. I ain't got many stories.

SPEAKER_03 40:38

I do have a story that sticks out to me. You know, it's always been, you know, back in the day, I'll start with this one. Back in the day, I don't even know if you remember this, John. You may have been too young. We used to have shaving cream war fights. Every Thursday night, we would get down there on the hill, and every church eventually got involved. But we come prepared with bottles of shaving cream, and we would duke it out. I mean, have a blast up there until I think it involved somebody getting shaving cream up their nose and it on down into their system, and they had to be carried to the ER. They shut it down after that. Shut it down. But as many years as that took place, but I got one good story here I want to share. You, I know y'all would remember this, but uh Jay was our youth pastor and he snuck us out one night, one Thursday night, and had us believing that we're headed to the pool and we finna have a blast. But he said, the deal is, he said, you've got to sneak over there. Man, we're up in the mountains and the hills, sneaking on our hands and knees, sneaking to the pool, taking us an hour to get there. And when we get there, it's like, all right, y'all swim. Everybody knows about this. I just wanted to. You remember that? Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 41:55

Yeah, it's funny, man.

SPEAKER_03 41:56

We were in for the surprise.

SPEAKER_06 41:59

Yeah, it was awesome.

SPEAKER_05 42:01

Yeah, he knew how to do that kind of stuff. Maybe that's what y'all need to do with the kids tonight. We know how to do that. We need swimming. We ain't swimming, but you can you can fake them out. No, that's that's what you need to do. The kids, the kids past couple nights have been giving them a little trouble. So they're trying to figure out how to murder me last night.

SPEAKER_07 42:20

Me and Ryan had to go rescue lane.

SPEAKER_03 42:23

Yeah. I done I come up in there and and and Lane come in there and look stared at me. He said, You need to kill him or I will. Let me get up, and I I come in there and and him and Michael and they're tidy whitey's looking at them. Two o'clock in the morning, I'm thinking, that's a team right there.

SPEAKER_07 42:42

I'm thinking look like Captain Murray.

SPEAKER_03 42:47

I'm thinking to myself, what am I gonna do? What I mean, what can I do that they hadn't done? And I really didn't do anything and went out there and looked at City Hall just.

SPEAKER_04 42:55

I'll go back to bed. Go back to bed. After I get a water bottle hummed in my head. Yeah, y'all quit picking a lot of.

SPEAKER_03 43:01

I want it looking like, hey, my side's good.

SPEAKER_05 43:03

They're sleep, you know. Yeah. Corey, you got any interesting hey Corey has joined us on the podcast. We got a rotating head. Put some headphones on if you want.

SPEAKER_02 43:15

For me, I think that um, like even what's sad about it is this morning. For me, it was this morning, and and the fact that I could uh you know, I had my alarm, I had my alarm set for 5 40, and I thought, I'm gonna try. I'm gonna try to make it.

SPEAKER_04 43:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 43:34

And uh if y'all were on the if y'all were on the walkies at 5 30 this morning, some of my kids have walkies and I heard them this morning, and that's what woke me up this point. I was ready to wring a neck this morning. But uh I'll tell you what's funny about your story with you going home was I remember it being Wednesday night that you went home because then the Ron and Cedric started. Show was completely different the next morning because that was during more in celebration. Oh, they weren't celebrating as much. They weren't nowhere close to celebrating. And then Paul Buck was looking at us like, I dare y'all to try to do this. Yeah, yeah. And we were like, no, we no, we're good. Don't worry about it. Yeah, we understand. Yeah, because Paul Buck didn't play. And uh that's kind of the way that we were raised with him. But I'll never forget that Thursday. We were all like, man, where's Ron and Cedric? They were like, they're at home because of some kids. Y'all try. Whoops.

SPEAKER_04 44:34

Sorry. Oh, that's good. The amount of stories that are just made at this place, it is it is unreal.

SPEAKER_05 44:40

I think it's uh, you know, we it's a very serious thing we're doing here. Yeah, you know. And and it needs to be that. But there is that balance. I mean, we have so much to enjoy, and especially you you talk about Acts 2, Fellowship of Believers, and coming together and um prayer and in service and in hearing the word, and um we get wrapped up in that, um and that's the priority. But that that that fellowship, this is one of the greatest times of fellowship. For me, and I I don't know about it for you guys, but you know, you get to see people you don't normally get to see, you get to worship with 700 people, you don't get to do that all the time.

SPEAKER_03 45:23

Well you you get to relate with with the other pastors that, like you said, that you see once a year. Yeah, you know. Yeah, isolation for nine months at that point.

SPEAKER_02 45:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 45:37

Oh no, that's so true. Is there here's a crazy question. Is there a church that you ever dread to see pull up? Yep. Yep.

SPEAKER_05 45:47

SGBC, shady grove badge. There is one infamous church. Oh, it's funny you say that. Um I'm trying to remember that.

SPEAKER_03 45:59

I don't know if he can answer that on air.

SPEAKER_05 46:01

Oh no, I ain't proud. I want to hear that. Definitely I warned, I kid you not. You can ask my kitchen staff, you can ask my I warned them of shading off. 100%.

SPEAKER_04 46:12

Now, that's pretty much well, I think I can remember the day when Brother David told us, hey, John just applied for Bog Springs. The light that just went off of me and Ryan and Rosie's head.

SPEAKER_02 46:34

It's just like, what do y'all have? Why y'all got this chip on each other before? Yeah. And then I can remember some of the others who are like, oh, we can because we can't.

SPEAKER_03 46:45

Oh, Praetor is the ringing leader here. If we need something, if we need something, he'll just go. So I'm I'm gonna develop that in my head. I'm just gonna take I've got a drill in the room over there that I've had since Monday.

SPEAKER_04 47:06

You will get it back Friday, I promise you. He comes to me. There's 700 people in this tabernacle. I feel a hand on my shoulder. Where's my drill?

SPEAKER_03 47:15

I'm gonna car off. I wouldn't car off with it. And I didn't want to walk back over, so I said, I'm gonna use this again Friday. I'll take it back. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 47:26

No, I love it. That's uh uh I love that part about you know people that know me, and of course Shetty Grove is full of them, but even even uh beyond that, you know, there's uh of course this is a business and I run it like that and manage it like that, and I want to have structure and there needs to be some rules and things like that. But the fact that, you know, people can come in there and get you and get some ice or go get a drill if they need to, you know, that's awesome that everybody feels that comfortable to just you know do what you need to do. Yeah. Um but it's like a family, you know. And and I love that part of it. Of course, you know, when I when I don't get my drill back though, you will get it.

SPEAKER_03 48:05

Although I do like it. I I didn't ever use that kind of. It's pretty sharp. Or you may be missing a charger come Friday.

SPEAKER_02 48:17

It's like Lane bringing in the other night. I'll be back. Yeah, he's like, hey, I'm gonna go get John John's blower real quick. I was just like uh it just almost sounded like he's uh part of Shady Grove. He knows the expectations. John does not want this place to look like this. And he was like, I'm gonna go get the blower.

SPEAKER_05 48:41

Yeah, I hear about it that morning. He's like, I got told Jordan uh next Christmas uh she knows what to get me. I mean he go blower. I didn't know he got it.

SPEAKER_06 48:50

That's uh you know, he didn't get it. He just oh, okay, you I guess you went to my job, I got all this stuff.

SPEAKER_03 48:55

Hey, I will say growing up as a kid, I that's one place you didn't go was in the shop. Oh, yeah. Yeah. And one reason was you you would get lost in there.

SPEAKER_06 49:04

I mean, everything was everywhere.

SPEAKER_01 49:07

I just want to I want to hear one conversation because I think uh you guys, several of these guys at the table experienced this, but the y'all had the amazing race yesterday. Oh yeah. Back in the day. Now we're gonna go. I know where we go on. We had uh we had some interesting games here at Bog Springs, but one was the red wagon race. Oh, I thought do you remember that? Oh, yeah. The red wagon. Terrible. Was you here, Corey, but for that one? I don't remember it personally.

SPEAKER_05 49:31

We died.

SPEAKER_01 49:33

Imagine you remember the Well, we we had uh yeah, the teens had red wagons. We give every cell group team a red wagon and had to decorate the red wet red wagon. Yep. And oh uh, what was his name? Didn't he write the wrong? Rayhorn. Ray Sinkhorn's name, but he had a toilet and he mounted to that red wagon. And somebody had said in that, you pulled it, and we started at front of the where the director's cabin is now, the loop around the cafeteria and come back around the red wagon, and when he came down this hill, the finish line, that was a humongous mistake. Oh, yeah. Because you talk about a it looked like a NASCAR pile up there in that curve. Ambulance, we had ambulances coming. Oh my gosh. I thought I thought some of y'all probably experienced that.

SPEAKER_03 50:13

I don't know. Well, you picture a kid sitting in that wagon going downhill fast as you can, steering with that little black hammer. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 50:20

And that's that's a that was a hill. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 50:22

That road, and there was a nothing but a turn at the end of it. Yeah, you had yeah, there's a turn down there. Yeah, a big old tree. Oh man, whoever I people died twice that day.

SPEAKER_05 50:31

Yeah, it was it was bad.

SPEAKER_03 50:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 50:34

Yeah. It was fun, though.

SPEAKER_03 50:36

Yep.

SPEAKER_05 50:36

Some of the ways you think about stuff they did. That like Tube City Tube City. Tube City was the greatest.

SPEAKER_03 50:42

I explained that to some of them this week.

SPEAKER_05 50:44

Yeah, it was the most dangerous, but it was awesome. All right. For those context, for those that are listening, imagine with me. Open field covered in black plastic with bale on the top of it. Yeah. Wet. And you put about oh, 40-50 tubes in the middle of it with numbers on it.

SPEAKER_03 51:04

Tractor tubes.

SPEAKER_05 51:05

Tractor tubes with the stems on the side. You got some, big ones worth like 25, small ones worth like a hundred. You put two teams on each side, like a hundred people on each side, and you say, Go get the tube. Get after it. And then they're all just imagine the full speed, just coming together. I mean, just an absolute train wreck. People would run and leap on top of it. It was awesome. It was terrible. I don't want to, I don't want y'all to play that game now. We need to bring that back. Yeah. It would be kind of awesome.

SPEAKER_02 51:37

I'd rather, I'd rather not break another bone here at this. Oh, did you break a bone at camp? I got I became peg leg Corey because I forgot about that. Three weeks. I worked for Doug for three weeks. I'm sitting in front of the basketball court over there. These kids would not throw me a football to save their life. And I went after it, and this kid absolutely obliterated me. I'm looking down, my kneecaps straight up, but my foot is to the right. I'll tell you what. And then I looked at Michael Rabb because he was right next to me and we were working together. And I said, it's not broke. He said, It's brother, it's broke. And they put me in the back of Doug Curtis's big old long white limousine that he had over here, that big old Yukon. And man, I went into town and they were like, Yeah, you're done.

SPEAKER_07 52:31

Peg Lake Corey.

SPEAKER_02 52:32

I totally forgot about that. It still says it in the if y'all hadn't painted the inside over there at the at the concession stand. Oh, yeah. It still says Peg Lake Corey in the. And it's all because of uh because of Matt. Matt wrote that one. Sounds about right. Yeah, his 72 years here.

SPEAKER_05 52:49

No kidding. He he if if he hadn't, I I believe he had the longest, what do you call that, 10 year at the uh so most staffers, you know, they last you know two, three, four years because you know it's college age. Matt, I think, did like seven. Seven tours. Yep. You know, so and I think towards the end, he purposefully wanted the the title.

SPEAKER_03 53:11

So man, talking about staffers. I can remember being that kid here and looking up at those staffers and thinking they were legit.

SPEAKER_02 53:20

Well, it's like him and his wife were right at the very end for me, 11th and 12th grade was when they were starting to do it. And then what's the big old boy from OBU that married his man? I was like, that dude. I did not want to mess with him.

SPEAKER_03 53:36

I mean, I was just like, that dude is a tank. I remember my first several years, there was the same staff every year, it seemed like for when I was a kid. And uh I can't remember all their names. I remember Jeff, though. Oh yeah. Yeah, like a pterodapter or something running around. But I always remember, and I've done it with our teenagers before, they always put a skit on one night, and that skit was the champion.

SPEAKER_05 54:00

Yeah, you know, got the strobe light out.

SPEAKER_03 54:03

Yeah, man. And over there, you know, 25, 30 years ago, over there in the other tabernacle for a strobe light to come on in there, it was something, right?

SPEAKER_05 54:11

Tensions flared.

SPEAKER_03 54:12

Yeah, and they played this. If y'all hadn't ever seen it, you won't know what I'm talking about. But there was this video, The Champion. It talked about God being the champion, and I can still tell you it was everything about it.

SPEAKER_05 54:24

Zach, it was it was the two staffers Andrew Curtis was Jesus. Yeah, and then another old boy was the devil, and the strobe blight come on, and boy, they was slow-mo doping it out.

SPEAKER_06 54:35

Oh, it was just like this.

SPEAKER_02 54:37

Epic. Boom. And it's and then the next thing you know, it was just like strobe lights were hitting so hard. And you saw the fighting, and they were sitting there doing this, probably with like, you know, lightsabers, probably. I'm serious. But at the same time, we were all like, This is all like, oh, I've been waiting all year for that.

SPEAKER_06 54:55

I remember one statement.

SPEAKER_03 54:57

I remember one statement in there. The devil's, you know, him and God are getting after it, and God looked at me and said, You shut your face up.

SPEAKER_06 55:05

Oh yeah.

unknown 55:06

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_04 55:07

We did we do that? Did we do that during Springboard? I remember that with the kids and stuff. That was awesome. That's awesome.

SPEAKER_05 55:14

Yeah, I tell my staffers, it's a unique opportunity. Of course, they're they're they're doing, you know, they're they're doing the real version of ministry because they are taking out the trash, washing the dishes, doing things that you do that for nine, ten straight weeks, it gets old. Right. So you have a choice in that. Of course you're having lots of fun. But um you got a choice, you can you can really just focus on that or you can see the opportunity that you have, because there are a lot of kids looking up to you and they're watching how you're gonna handle this. Um in your own heart, you know, it can be a blessing or it can be a curse doing the doing the dirty work. Um and so we have I I I'm I'm you know, I don't get to be involved in like that kid that that says I got saved here. I don't get to be involved in a lot of the spiritual part of the camp. Unfortunately, I wish I could, but that's just nature of the beast. But I do with my staffers.

SPEAKER_08 56:08

Right.

SPEAKER_05 56:09

I really like that because it it's uh it's an opportunity to help them and think through things. Well, the way we started this whole thing was the servant heart. You know? Yep. And they all gotta have it. Yeah, yes, yeah. You uh or you develop a little bit more of it.

SPEAKER_04 56:24

You have got to tell the story. Uh we're coming to uh almost the end here, but you've got to tell the story of your staffers.

SPEAKER_05 56:30

Was it last year that uh Oh no, I don't know if I can tell that one. That was bad.

SPEAKER_04 56:34

That was so funny.

SPEAKER_05 56:35

All right, I'll tell it. I'm so bad. All right, so ahead of time, I realized I went too far. Okay? I'm gonna on the outside. Anybody listening? I went too far. I'm sorry. Okay. I think we have like five people this time. I didn't put him on his pod on here, so I'm sorry ahead of time. He shouldn't go viral. It was pretty funny, but I went too far. All right, so I had one old boy that was here, his name's Thomas. He was gullible. Everybody liked him. He was one of those kind of kids, but he was so gullible. And everybody seemed to mess with him, even myself. I kind of feel bad about it. Well, he had a buddy, um, and uh Thomas was gone for a day, and we had some time. We sit around with the staffers, and we said, hey, we ought to we oughta pull a prank on Thomas. Well, what can we do? Well, somehow or another it came about. Uh it's like, well, let's let's pretend like his buddy, his best friend at camp, gets hurt on the zipping. And it escalates from there. So sure enough, we we put a plan into place. So Thomas comes back, we do the rope scores, everything's normal. We come back down, and so their schedule is once they get done with the rope scores, they immediately come eat dinner, and then they're gonna go either serve dinner or wash dishes. So we're sitting around the table. Thomas gets there before everybody else all of a sudden over the radio somebody says, Ashton fell off the zip line. Ashton fell off the zip line. You know, like, oh no, we got an emergency situation, so I pretend like I scramble. You know, and then the other staffers are just sitting at a table just waiting to see what happens. Well, they they had they they'd put Ashen, he hung his head off the side of the mule, put some ketchup on his head, and drove him, flew him past the flew him past the window put some ketchup on his head. And so they thought, oh no, this ain't good. Uh and so come in there and we're like two minutes to service. Like, hey guys, we're gonna have to take Ashen to the hospital, but we got a job to do, right? So, and Thomas has to serve dinner, and Thomas is petrified. So he's serving dinner. The cafeteria lady, everybody knows about it. Oh, oh, uh except for the some of the campers, they heard us radio and they were like, hey, did somebody actually? And I was like, No, I'm sorry that this is a joke. Nobody fell off, everybody's fine. But boy, he was serving dinner the whole time. He was just like whiteface, you know. Let him go through the whole dinner thinking, Oh, I know. It's too far. I'm again, I apologize. What? Uh so uh, anyways, um after dinner, they all went back to the house. So we're we're action, we're having to move around so so Thomas don't see him. Anyways, they go back to the house. This is where we take it too far. Is that the is this story you were talking about?

SPEAKER_04 59:12

No, but keep going. Oh, you're talking about John and then keep going with this one. I was gonna do it too.

SPEAKER_05 59:20

Yeah, you put this yourself in this one. Keep going again. I'm sorry. Uh anyway, so they get to the house and uh sitting around and it's somber. Even like Callie Holland, she made herself cry. Oh yeah. I mean, putting on a show. Oh, dude, it's it gets so much worse. Again, I'm sorry. So I come in there, I come in there and I say, hey guys. I said, hey guys, um, we got some bad news. So he's uh he's got some trauma to his head and they're gonna have to induce a coma. Uh oh, good lord. Oh, dude, I took it too far. Uh they're gonna have to induce him into a coma. And I said, uh I said, I think it I think this would be a good opportunity to pray for him right now. He's probably taken too far. I said, Thomas, would do you mind leading us in a way? Again, guys, I'm I'm sorry.

SPEAKER_06 1:00:15

That shouldn't let him bless his heart. He said the sweetest prayer, but boy, he started crying.

SPEAKER_05 1:00:21

That's when I thought, oh, I went too far. I shouldn't have done this, you know. And so he gets done with his sweet prayer and he looks up and Ashes is sitting there and he just he just freezes. He's like, you don't know what to do. Oh yeah, and he just looks up and he's like, uh anyways.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:36

My prayer worked.

SPEAKER_07 1:00:43

I made him cry. You made him cry.

SPEAKER_05 1:00:45

All right, I'll tell that one short. Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 1:00:47

All right, sorry for the good one, dude.

SPEAKER_05 1:00:49

Yeah, I know. He didn't mean to. Once again, he saw it. I'm sorry. Uh now, so last year, or year before last, maybe. I don't know what it is. Mowing, would would y'all all agree? Mowing and weeding is not that hard to figure out. No. If it's tall, cut it. Yeah. All right. Some of them boys two years ago, even last year, they just could not figure it out. Start of the summer, I guarantee you, I'm not kidding, Corey. I guarantee you, they they might have mowed and weeded it 60%, thinking they did a good job weed right around. I go half the summer and I'm trying to tell them, you know, think through the process of being patient with them. It ain't happening. So one Saturday, and I I always tell them, I said, hey guys, you got a job to do. And if you don't do it, you know who's gonna who's gonna do it. I said, I'm gonna do it. Because it needs to be done, and I'm gonna do it. I said, but understand, I I work a lot during the summer, and if I have to do it, I'm taking time away from my family. On a Sunday afternoon. So this is this is you're you're impacting my family. So just so you know, do your job, we're gonna be fine. But I'm gonna I'm gonna I'm I'm uh there's a limit where I'm just gonna do your job. And just understand that. So I tell them trying to motivate them. Well, they wouldn't do that. So whether it was one Sunday afternoon, I told I told Owen, I promised him, uh, that I'd play games with them. But they ain't weeded nothing. I didn't feel like I'm gonna bark at them, so all I did, they was over there playing basketball. I went and got a weed eater. I started weeding. Well they saw me weed it. So they come over there, John, let me do that. No, I'm tired of it, I'm gonna weed it. So I weeded it. And we had this time we had two weed eaters. All all all uh uh we had six boys. All six of them boys was on a mule with one weed eater, swiping them one at a time. I weed eated, I kid you not, and I'm a pretty good weeder. I weeded it for an hour and a half. That's how much they had left over. And so through that hour and I didn't say a word to them, I just weeded it. And through that hour and a half, they slowly realized that I I was on to something with you know getting on to them. So, anyways, I ended about my house. So they come walking up to me because I knew I was about to do it. They come walking up to me. I'll in like a group and they said, I'm sorry. And I said, I said, you don't need to apologize to me. I said, uh, you need to go tell my son who I promised I'd play games with, you're sorry to him. Oh yeah, yeah. And they said, they said, I said, Oh, uh they said, Are you serious? I said, Yeah. If you want to tell somebody you're sorry, I said, go there, go knock on the door. And sure enough, they did. So boy, they started slow too. So they they went, they went and knocked on my door. Jared and the kids don't know anything's going on. Knock on the door. I mean, they look like you know they're about to fall apart. When he talked to Owen, Jared's like, all right. Owen comes to the door, he ain't got no clue. They do. They say, sorry, Owen, that your dad had to do our job. Anyways, they get done with that. They go back to the house, the staff house, apparently. Girls come over to our house because I'm done. They said, What's wrong? So the boys are all crying in the staff house.

SPEAKER_06 1:03:54

Oh, yeah, I'm crying. And then we said, do what?

SPEAKER_05 1:03:58

Yeah, they bundled up in blankets crying. It's like, somebody die? Oh, yeah. So I let them, I let them marinate in that five, ten minutes. So I go, I go over to the staff house. I just opened the door and I said, I said, boys, I want you over at my house in five minutes. Shut the door. That's how I give them. So sure enough, about five minutes later, here they come. They walk. It was so funny when I opened that door. It was like there's six of them. There's three by three.

SPEAKER_06 1:04:25

There's three in the front, three in the back, they was all straight as a board with their head down.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:29

You know, they're totally insane.

SPEAKER_05 1:04:31

They said, We go, boys. I couldn't help but laugh when I opened the door and I said, All right, y'all gonna, y'all gonna uh y'all gonna do your job? Yes, sir, yes, sir, we're gonna do our job. And sure enough, after that, well, that's what I think they were so paranoid all summer the rest of the summer, they made sure they come double check with me. Are you did we get it all? We'll do some more.

SPEAKER_04 1:04:49

I think what was funny is the next Sunday was next camp, and we were here for training weekend, and we made the commentary, man, look at these boys, they're working hard, man. We did say after, dude.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:00

I'll tell you what, we worked like when we were working for Doug, you know, for the three weeks that I was here, you know. Uh I'll tell you what, Michael Rab, he was like, I don't know about any of you. I've been here longer than all y'all. Y'all ain't sitting on the zero turn, because I am. I think him and Katie were hardcore about that, and then Matt was too, but when when we were doing that, but man, like they they made sure that you understood you have to be here for a certain amount of years before you can sit and work. And uh I earned it. Yeah, I earned this zero turn here. You you go pick up the weed eater, you know, and that's what we did, and that's just weed walk around and get in. What did I feel? Oh, it's plenty of it. The memories those Friday afternoons where you're just dead tired from the week, everybody's leaving, and uh yeah, we would be sitting there just weed eating for hours.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:54

That's what I remember as a kid. The day we were leaving is when the lawnmowers and the weed eaters. Would come out and they'd start doing the campus. Back in that day, though, it was an old four-tractor with a finishing mower on it and a little old tractor style lawnmower, you know, mowing this whole campus. Yeah, I can't I can't believe we did it with a finish mower.

SPEAKER_05 1:06:17

But it's good, you know. How many blades do you go through around here? Man, a lot. I think there's some rocks. I think I've I think these ain't rocks, these boulders. Yeah, we produce them. They grow out of the ground here for some reason. No, we uh yeah, I think I've worn like a six or seventh set since in in like eight.

SPEAKER_04 1:06:37

Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_05 1:06:38

I did one of each other. There's a there's one rock I can show it to you, and I can show you where he hit it with a lawnmower. It's bigger than my head. Bigger than it's a little bit more.

SPEAKER_04 1:06:49

Your head ain't that big, it's bigger than my head. Yeah, I don't know about that.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:53

But uh, yeah, no, they they they they definitely find them. But preacher helped you mow this spring, and I think he made two rounds and had to come to you and say, hey, I broke a blade. I broke a blade, yeah. Yeah, it happens.

SPEAKER_05 1:07:05

But they broke one three days ago.

SPEAKER_04 1:07:08

So well, we are to a little bit over an hour of our podcast. We have thoroughly enjoyed, I think, this morning. Just reflecting back, but also just uh like I kind of started off this heart of a servant and the amount of servants that step on this campus. And then too the the servants that are grown into this campus as well.

SPEAKER_05 1:07:28

Hey, I'll say this, I know I was kind of the guest, but um I don't get the I don't get the opportunity to sit down with some guys too often, but uh I tell you, from my side of it, I do appreciate you guys because it wouldn't be camp without y'all. Um and your willingness to serve and your your love for the place. Um it does my heart good. Um but it also gives me peace and understanding that you know I I there's people all around me to help me do this. Catch your back. Oh yeah, yeah. It's an awesome deal. And you understand the impact you're having, but um I know it's Thursday, I know y'all got two hours of sleep, but you're doing a good thing.

SPEAKER_04 1:08:10

Just stay out of his shop.

SPEAKER_05 1:08:11

Yeah, yeah. Just stay out, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:08:13

What's your drill? Well, hey, what we always do uh at the end of our podcast, we always go around the table and kind of just give a little motivator Bible verse read-off, what you've learned on the week. So um I I'll start us and we don't go around, we'll start, we'll go around Duke Wayne, we'll go that way. Preacher, you want to come back up here? You can say your final motivation words, whatever. But the word that the the verse that comes to my mind and just searching to the scriptures a while ago a little bit. We've been talking about the Holy Spirit a lot this week. But it says this uh you became followers of us and of the Lord having received the word and much affliction with joy of the Holy Spirit. And just the joy we have when we show up here on Monday or you know, when cell group leaders show up on Sunday, and ultimately when we leave on Friday morning, you know, there's a lot of weariness and just wore out, you know, a lot of energy's gone, but the joy of what just where we just been a part of. It's awesome to really think about it.

SPEAKER_07 1:09:17

So Duke, what you got? Uh I've said this before on here, I'm gonna say it again, but 1 Corinthians 15, 33. Um, don't be deceived, for bad company corrupts good morals. Just separate or or surround yourself with good people and good faithful people, and things go a whole lot better. You know, you put good people in your lives, good people that live for the Lord. Um that's right. That's exactly right.

SPEAKER_04 1:09:45

Will, you want to say any words? I know you've been pretty quiet. You've been sitting there listening. Yeah. John, what you got?

SPEAKER_05 1:09:50

Oh, I get Galatians 5. One of my favorite verses. You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free.

SPEAKER_03 1:09:58

Amen. I brought that up against me. I'm not gonna get tired. I know.

SPEAKER_05 1:10:03

We got uh this is this is a place where we can be free. Yeah, we're free from sin, we're free from from the shame of it. We're we're we're free from all the corruptible things.

SPEAKER_04 1:10:14

First Peter chapter two.

SPEAKER_05 1:10:17

We can enjoy this, we can experience the joy of the Lord. We are we are we are to be free.

SPEAKER_00 1:10:23

We are truly set free.

SPEAKER_04 1:10:25

Exactly what you got.

SPEAKER_00 1:10:26

Well, I'm just gonna kind of echo what our uh worship team has kind of been studying here. Um we kind of have a a collective group that's kind of been assembled through, I think it's three different churches that's on stage every night. And and um Brother Bob is are leading us there. And kind of what we've been studying is in John chapter 4, uh verses 23 and 24. It said, But this the time is coming, and indeed it is here now, when true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth. The Father is looking for those who will worship him that way. For God is spirit, so those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth. So uh that kind of has hit me pretty hard between the eyes there. Um you know, God knows the heart, ultimately, you know. Um, and a lot of us kind of get we kind of tie worship in a fleshly mindset, you know, or a worldly mindset. But ultimately our worship is what comes out of the inside and and what's true in in in our hearts, and and God knows our hearts, and he wants us to worship him that way. You know.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:56

Well for me, I would probably say that uh the theme for me in my life would probably be just Proverbs 13, 20. And uh for those who walk with the wise become wise, and a companion of fools suffers harm. So for me, it's more of helping my students understand that you know, if you get the right people around you, you can get around you can get a lot of distractions away. And we know we've been talking about distractions this week and um just hearing God's voice because you know the the world around us is really loud, but if we can hear the whisper, then we can we can do a lot in life. And that's awesome. Um a lot of it has to do with the people that are around you. And uh if we can walk with the wise, we'll become wise. But man, if you're around those fools, you'll become one too.

SPEAKER_04 1:12:39

Amen. That's good stuff, Watson.

SPEAKER_03 1:12:41

Uh yeah, I will say this. If you had never been to Bog Springs, you probably don't know the what really takes place during service time. But the crowd, the multitude multitude that comes forward, you know, to get on their hands and knees in front of whoever. Right here. Yeah, right here, right where we're sitting right now, to pray. And the one thing that I've told our teenagers is look, don't just go up there. Don't just go up there. Be genuine. Be genuine about it. So if I'm encouraging anybody, it would be be genuine in your life, your walk with Christ. Whatever you do, be still and be genuine.

SPEAKER_04 1:13:22

That's good stuff. Good stuff. Once again, we appreciate y'all joining in. We're gonna be back here again next week. We're just gonna leave our equipment uh in the box. Get it ready right back up. Yeah, just leave it right here. We'll have 185 Philip Roberts back with us too, so uh we'll have John need to get some more bread.

SPEAKER_05 1:13:40

Yeah, did you take on my bread last night? I heard I heard you broke into my loaves. Hey, I one loaf of bread. I don't need to be able to do it.

SPEAKER_04 1:13:48

I'm gonna end up using it or not. I lived halfway through, so I don't know if they ended up using it or not.

SPEAKER_03 1:13:54

We needed this mess and pray.

SPEAKER_04 1:13:56

Hey, John, why don't you lead us in prayer? Close us in prayer this morning.

SPEAKER_05 1:14:00

Lord, uh, I love you and I thank you for the opportunity that you give us to be here this morning in in your house and um with your spirit. And uh Lord, I thank you for these guys. I pray that you give them energy to finish it out strong, and I pray that um you give them the words to say when they get in conversations, and I pray that your spirit move today as it does, and um and that kids be saved, that lives be changed, and that um that you do what only you can do. Uh Lord, we trust you in that, and we'll do what we can in the meantime. Give us the strength to do it, Lord. Um I thank you for this day. I pray that you keep everybody safe, and I pray that you uh you go with us in Jesus' name. I pray. Amen.