M3 - Merge Ministry Mostly
A behind-the-scenes look at camp and ministry leadership, told with humor and heart. This podcast offers honest conversations about Christian leadership in student and children’s ministry—sharing real wins, mistakes, growth moments, and the everyday joys and challenges of serving. With plenty of laughs and genuine passion, it’s where Christian leadership meets youth camp chaos—real, relatable, and rooted in purpose.
M3 - Merge Ministry Mostly
Kids Camp Rewind
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This week we talk about the good, the struggles, and the stories from Kids Camp 2026. Things do not always go as planned but sometimes they do. Camp started off with no AC in a vehicle and ended with no oil in that same vehicle. Things were not all bad and camp was a huge success. If you have thoughts, comments, or camp stories to share we would love to hear them, email us at mergeministries12@gmail.com.
Welcome back to another week of M3 Merge Ministry. Mostly I'm Daniel. And I'm Luke. And we are officially back. Officially. We tried to come back last week, but we only half the team showed up. Actually, the whole team showed up.
SPEAKER_01I'm about to say that I was here. I just I just had to leave.
SPEAKER_00We had to leave early. Uh so this week we are all things kids camp. And we will say it at the beginning and the end. If you would like to support the ministry, we could use your help. We need finance support. We need spiritual prayer support. Uh, you can also shoot us an email. And if you would like to buy things, I know we need a computer that's coming up here. We need some drum cymbal shields. I guess it wouldn't be drum symbol, it would be symbols. No, well, so they have the little round things that you just put in front of the symbols that you don't have to put the whole drum shield up.
SPEAKER_01I didn't know that that's what that was for. I thought those were just like decorations. I thought it's like to make it look cute as it's over there, you know.
SPEAKER_00No, so we had a new sound guy this year. Scott Schuster. Schuster. He I asked him, I was like, hey, look, you see what we have, what's something in that? He said that's something that we need. So if you would like to do that, uh, there are things that we need we know coming up for next year. So you can email us mergeministry12 at gmail.com. You can comment on the podcast that you listen to. If you go to the website merged ministries.com, there's a way, a tab that says donate. You can figure out, look to see how you can donate, where you can mail a check, how you can send money into us, and we'd appreciate it.
SPEAKER_01We would greatly appreciate it.
SPEAKER_00So we're gonna celebrate kind of be kind of celebrating, kind of looking back at some things with all things kids camp.
SPEAKER_01The first thing on here is not a celebration at all.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, there were some non-celebrations at the beginning of camp. Uh, but we're gonna talk about it all the good, the bad, it is a celebration in the end.
SPEAKER_01It just didn't feel like it in the moment.
SPEAKER_00No, it was a hundred percent not the first thing, not there's no celebration in the end. So we as merged do not have our own vehicles.
SPEAKER_01So if you want to donate a whole vehicle, and not only just donate the vehicle, but sign up for all required maintenance. We would gladly accept.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so the we have to borrow vans, which Somerville is gracious enough to let us borrow vans to use, and we take what we can get.
SPEAKER_02Oh yeah.
SPEAKER_00And up to this year, it's been it's worked out great.
SPEAKER_01So, so this is a slightly older van. It's not super old, and it actually doesn't have as many miles on it as I thought it did. It's it's in by comparison to the other two vehicles that we have, it's definitely the redheaded stepchild. Doesn't get the love and attention that it that it requires.
SPEAKER_00I would think this van is at least 20 years old.
SPEAKER_01It's not surprisingly, no, it is not. So, with that being said, the kids ride up on the bus. Right. Our wonderful youth pastor drives them up every year, and then we have a couple that drive uh in vehicles on their way up. So we don't need, but all we need is the bus. So we have two 15-passenger vans. One is one of those Ford Transit, it's awesome that I drive. That's a great one, yeah. That you drive, yes, and then uh there's a more stereotypical, you know, snatcher van looking or church van, just normal 15-passenger church van that Daniel drives, and every year you crank it up and it doesn't blow cold until you get going. So this year, after you know, we get it out, we realized the outside was kind of dirty, kind of, so it got pressure washed, it was cleaned up, sparkling, looking nice for Daniel, and then uh he got on we got on the road and he was like, Look, it's not blowing cold. And I was like, once you get moving, it will. Yeah, I was like, You've been in the city. He said, Give it an hour. I said, You've been in the city, but a little bit of time, you know what I mean? An hour, an hour, the drive's only two. So we get to our first stop in Alex City, and uh, well, actually, that's not really true. You told me long before we get to our first stop in Alex City, long before, but when Daniel finally gets to excuse me, our first stop in Alex City, his whole back is a whole different color than the front of his shirt.
SPEAKER_00Yes, there was no AC in the van. Not at all, not like not like it was. I didn't tell you we knew that before we left town. I know, but I told you it was gonna pick up. He said, give it an hour. So we stopped. We stopped for lunch in an hour and turned the van off, but it never came on. No, it didn't. So we had some students in our van because at Glenwood, we said, if you don't want to ride in this van, you can get in the other van. This don't have air conditioning. Three of the guys got out, three of the guys stayed in. They were troopers, they said, We're gonna ride till we go. Coming back, only one of them rode in the van coming back. Well, we'll get to coming back because coming back, there was another issue with the van. So leaving Glenwood. Yeah, this is where we started. We got ready to leave Glenwood, and Grant goes to get ice in the coolers before. Well, he gets to Glenwood, and there's water all in the back of his pouring out of us, all over. So we started to look, and one of the coolers did not have a plug on the the little cap. Yeah, so melted ice water just running everywhere. So then we were like, Well, everybody can go ahead, we'll send yelling up the road, and me and Grant will run to the church, we'll get another plug or whatever you call that thing, and then we'll be on our way. Yeah, too easy, too easy, right? Too easy. So we do that. We go to the church, find the plug, and coming out of the church, you kind of skip across the highway, maybe illegally.
SPEAKER_02I don't know how we should be saying this out loud on the podcast.
SPEAKER_00But you kind of go across the highway, but you got to go up, probably about 20 feet up the highway, then to get to the next cut across.
SPEAKER_01But anyway, so I go it's designed for it to work the opposite way, right?
SPEAKER_00Right.
SPEAKER_01It's not it's not designed the way we utilize it.
SPEAKER_00Right, it's not designed for me, it's designed for the funeral home, probably across the anyway. So then I go and I take off, and you go through red light, you go up a hill, and I get to the top of the hill, maybe a hundred yards from the church, maybe a little bit more, and I don't see Grant. So I call and I'm like, hey man, where you at? And he said, I just made it through the light, which is maybe 50 yards from the church. He said, and my car won't go. I said, What do you mean? I pushed the gas and it won't go forward. And come to find out it's a new vehicle. I think maybe had 12,000 miles on it, probably didn't even have 12,000 miles on it. Transmission went out.
unknownOh my.
SPEAKER_00He pushed the gas, something didn't work. Transmission goes out, so it's him, uh, his fiancee, and another guy standing, and they got made it to a parking lot. So I turn around in the non-air conditioned van and go back, and we probably are what 30 minutes behind y'all now? Yeah, easy. So they had to figure that out, and they figure it out, and we get on our way, um, and then we drive for two hours with no air conditioning.
SPEAKER_01When you're really hot, you know, your emotions sometimes get elevated. You know, you get aggravated easier. Yeah, you see what I'm saying? Like it's a lot easier to be irritated by things. Uh, I felt like you handled that really well. You only seemed to to channel your anger and aggravation to me, and that was it. You didn't let it slip off into nobody else. So I think you handled that really well. It's a thousand percent my fault. You were hot as a mug.
SPEAKER_00Yes. I mean, at that point, I know I have to get to camp. I know we're probably gonna need the van. Like, what do you do?
SPEAKER_01You just gotta do you remember that one time we borrowed a bus and the tire went flat. Yes, and uh everybody except for me, you and BJ was really angry that we was still sitting on the side of the road in a stupid hot, and it's like another one of those things, you know. It's like it is what it is. There's nothing I can do about this. I said I'm sorry, but that don't help you none. I can't help you.
SPEAKER_00I don't know what to do. I mean, it's just hot, that's all it is.
SPEAKER_01Just gonna be hot.
SPEAKER_00So we eventually make it to camp, and the problems do not stop.
SPEAKER_01Oh, of course.
SPEAKER_00Uh we get there and we begin to unload. We have a guy that came down from Tennessee to do the set design. He's got 27 letters, I think we said what it was. So he's getting ready to bring the truss down. I don't think 27 works. 24? I don't know how many they were.
SPEAKER_01It's four letters, echo.
SPEAKER_0028 letters, maybe eight, maybe.
SPEAKER_01I don't think the math works on 27.
SPEAKER_00Uh I mean, I'm no math magician. So he comes down and he needs to hang it on the truss, and the truss is like way up uh we don't have a ladder that will reach it. It's real high. So in years past, you hook up a little remote to it. It's called a pickle, by the way. A pickle. You push a button, and the trust lowers.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Well, we start looking for the pickle, and come to find out, it is gone. It is gone. They have not seen at the camp place, have not seen this device since the beginning of summer, and this is now middle of summer. They have no idea where it is, and there's no way to lower the trust.
SPEAKER_01I feel like I try my best to be a positive human being and to talk. If I ain't got nothing nice to say, you know, mommy say, Don't say nothing at all. How do you go a whole half a summer and you can't lower the trust? We can't be the first people to say, hey, we would like to drop this thing down.
SPEAKER_00Apparently we were.
SPEAKER_01They said we were the only people that apparently we're the only ones that were jerks and it's like, no, that's not okay.
SPEAKER_00They were like, Well, there's nothing we can do, and we're like, no, you're there, you're gonna have to do that.
SPEAKER_01You gotta figure out something.
SPEAKER_00So the people who came and brought the sound and the lights, they were running a little bit behind. So we were thinking, well, maybe they have a solution. So they get there, and this is probably they were what, hour and a half late. So we're trying to figure out for an hour or so what are we gonna do? How are we gonna get this down? They're looking at us like it's just not coming down. We're looking at them like, no, something's gotta change, like something's gotta happen. So the sound and light people get there, and we think we have the piece, but we don't. They thought they could get it from somebody, it was gonna cost was it them that said they were gonna cost 200 bucks, something like that. 200, 250 bucks. They were like, so and so we know somebody may have one.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, he comes up to me and says, I think I have a solution for the pickle, but it's gonna cost 250. And I'm like, Great, go for it. Like, is it 250? Like, we'll we'll pay the 250 dollars. I didn't know at the time the remote was called a pickle, I thought he was saying the situation that we're in, which is kind of true. It wasn't fit, either way, it fit, but I was like, what in the world? I was like, I didn't think he would say, Hey, we're in a pickle.
SPEAKER_00So there's no solution.
SPEAKER_01So we end up changing there's no solution for the stage set design, yeah.
SPEAKER_00The guy came to do the stage set, he was leaving. He wouldn't spend the night. They were talking about, well, maybe we can get something in the morning. So we go playing, I don't even know if it'd be B, C, D, E, maybe Z. We figured out the guy that does this stuff for us is very talented, very great, easy to work with. So we ended up drilling holes in the wall, which I'm surprised we haven't got built for yet.
SPEAKER_01Oh, no doubt.
SPEAKER_00But they're like, Oh, we'll just put screws in the wall. And I'm like, No, we get built for everything we mess up. Please don't mess anything up.
SPEAKER_01So they do. Somebody saw a staple in the wood in the wall, and was like, Oh, we can drill into it. They put staples into it. Yep.
SPEAKER_00So he gets his like even further behind because what he's now doing is it was supposed to look like if you can go, there's pictures out somewhere. It's supposed to look like the word echo. So that each letter had seven letters, I think. Yeah, and they're six foot tall, maybe, or were they taller than that? Eight foot tall, seven, eight foot tall.
SPEAKER_01Seven or eight foot tall.
SPEAKER_00So he's having to climb up on a ladder with these shoes. Not easy to carry letter, right, and screw them in to make them look like they're overlapping in echo. And so he's later than he's supposed to be. Well, then we can't get the truss, still can't get the truss down that night because we needed to hang lights on it. Right. Uh, so they say eight o'clock in the morning, or by nine o'clock, I think it was, we'll have the thing for you. So all of that got pushed way behind.
SPEAKER_01Plus, the sound where we were supposed to hang the speakers from the conversation that the sound guy had with the guy at the venue, like I did that. Yeah. He uh basically told him wrong of how he was gonna be able to hang the stuff. And so he wasn't able to hang it like he thought he was, and so that took a lot longer. Oh, yeah, that did. Plus, we're having these conversations about the lights and the truss. We're trying to, I mean, we're trying to figure all this stuff out. But it the way the lights, I mean the the letters ended up being put on the stage, I think it worked out better than what it would have been. Yeah. Because it would we would have blocked out half of our stage. Right. So I think it worked out well uh in the end. I think it worked out for us, but it in the moment of we got to get all this stuff off the truck. Okay, now it's all off the truck and it's just scattered all throughout this daggum room. Now we got to get the things up that needs to be up. I know at one point I look in the lobby and I see it's lit up like crazy. There's lights everywhere. Uh, and then I look over again and there's like like string lights, you know how like you dangle them. Apparently that wasn't supposed to be like that. So I look again and there ain't no lights at all. The other people, like other little pockets, are getting frustrated as well if things are not working just right. But in the end, it it worked, it worked, got it figured out.
SPEAKER_00It did. Uh so then once the next morning hit, things were rocking and rolling, lights came up and everything was able to go as planned. Once celebration hit, now we're still tweaking lights and setting things and stuff like that. But for the most part, it was ready to go and camp began and we we rocked and rolled. Uh, so some highlights of of camp. We're gonna jump into some highlights here. Um, some shocking, some never thought would happen. Other things are celebrations of things that happened throughout camp. So uh the first thing was tug of war is a big thing at kids' camp.
SPEAKER_01It is a highlight of everybody's camp.
SPEAKER_00Whether you win or not, like tug of war is a everybody looks forward to it. You're split into teams. This is the first team competition. We have groups even this past year. Oh, yeah, brought cleats, gloves.
SPEAKER_01I think one of the teams even did research on the best way to pull they literally had done research and practiced two Wednesday nights before they came to camp, which I'm I'm all for, brother. I love it. Oh yeah, like if if you care that much about it and and like let's let's go. They didn't know and if you get and if you get frustrated about somebody caring, you obviously care too. You know what I mean? You I want to win, but I don't want to win that battle. You wish you had to put cleats on your packing list.
SPEAKER_00So the team that did all of this happens to be on the rope. We're probably middleways through, I would think. We're getting to the end, we're getting pretty close. And it's the red team and the orange team, they both pick up the rope, they yell go, and within I think it's like seven seconds of them going, we have the video.
SPEAKER_01So watching the video, I don't think I've paid attention to how quick it was. Oh, it was quick. It was quick. I knew it was quick, but I didn't know seven seconds.
SPEAKER_00I think it was about seven seconds, they begin to pull, and you hear a pop. It was loud. It was the rope broke. Like this is like an inch and a half. Well, I don't know what kind of rope it is, threaded, braided, and I don't know. Nylon, something something snaps in half, both teams go flying.
SPEAKER_01Which typically, if a team goes flying, that means you win.
SPEAKER_00Right.
SPEAKER_01If a team is you you wind up on your back, not forward. You wind up on your back, you won.
SPEAKER_00Right. You mean that's both teams now thinking they won. Right.
SPEAKER_01They're not sure what's going on.
SPEAKER_00So everybody's up looking and going, What what what just happened? Well, it broke, snaps straight in half, both teams go flying. So then we're we're standing there and we're like, what the heck? So all the men, of course, all the men get together and everybody's standing out there and everybody's got an idea, and somebody goes to start tying it, then somebody else goes, Well, if you tie these two knots, then it's pulling at two different points. And I don't, I don't even know.
SPEAKER_01They had a here's what I know the guy who grabs the rope and says, Hey, let's do it like this, is an army ranger. And I'm thinking, all you other Indians need to be Indians and stop trying to be chief, just let my man work. Yeah, you know, and in his defense, although it did break again, it didn't break at the knot. Right.
SPEAKER_00So it was so he tied it somehow two points because he said if it's two points, then it'll be stronger and it's not gonna pull something, something, something, something. So we tied it off. We got both teams back on the line, ready go, and within probably five seconds, did it again past one of the knots, yeah. Further on down, further on down, it popped again, and I was like, somebody's gonna get hurt. Yeah, but I don't we can't keep doing this.
SPEAKER_01So look, when Daniel Cook decides, hey, we could possibly get somebody hurt doing this, you probably should stop. Yeah, you know what I'm saying? Like, I'm thinking, should we keep going? And Daniel's like, I think somebody's gonna get hurt. And I'm like, hey, cut it down, grab the rope, y'all too, y'all grab them ropes, get them out of here.
SPEAKER_00We do a lot of stuff that probably look at and go, that might not be a good idea, but kids constantly just falling back on other kids. And so I break some of those kids got cleats on, some of them got cleats on. I just remember when I was little, uh, I went to kick a soccer ball. This was in my before my surprisingly athletic days, and I went to kick a soccer ball, and somehow I missed the soccer ball and went to fall backwards, and I landed like set on the soccer ball, but I went to catch myself and I broke my arm. And I'm thinking, all these kids, they're gonna fall, somebody's gonna stick their hand down, they're gonna break an arm, they're gonna fall on each other.
SPEAKER_01Maybe they're a little more athletic than you were at that time.
SPEAKER_00They but they might have been. Uh, but then uh we could have would never thought it would happen. Now there's so we went to the rock, paper, scissors. Yeah, last week we learned changed.
SPEAKER_01Last week we learned that that was the worst. That was it was the worst.
SPEAKER_00And when you never thought, like, hey, we need a plan B in case it breaks.
SPEAKER_01Plus, in that moment, one, it's hot, two, you got a schedule to keep.
SPEAKER_00Right.
SPEAKER_01Like, we can't we can't sit take 10 minutes to set up another game. Right. We got to do what the next best thing is. Now, what we should learn from it is we should always have a backup plan, a backup plan. Just in case that's the easy to set up again.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so that was tug of war.
SPEAKER_01That was something that's but we got another, we got another rope, so we should have a good, you know, another what 15 years out of out of this until we put it in the tug of war at youth in a ditch of water. We didn't use our rope, they had a rope for it.
SPEAKER_00Uh that's their rope. Okay, because I'm thinking this is a new rope, it's now soaking wet and gonna dry out and then break again.
SPEAKER_01Our rope is stupid long, that wasn't that long.
SPEAKER_00Okay, so that happened. So this whole
SPEAKER_01Time you've been thinking we used our rope?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I wasn't uh I wasn't paying attention. I just figured they Oh yeah, you went you weren't there.
SPEAKER_01We'll get there next week.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, that's next week. Um so that was the rope broke. Uh some let's see, some good things that did work. Uh every year we do object lessons that go along with the kids' stuff, and uh all of them work.
SPEAKER_01All of them actually work this year, which is uh unique. It is. I don't think a lot of the I don't a lot of times I don't think the people know that they don't work or they don't work how we intended for them to work, but we always have them not work in some way, and it's best when it's not Luke, because I don't do good under pressure with like making you think that this is how it was supposed to go. You and Daniel, and you are Daniel, you and Matt and uh even TO last year, he did something last year that didn't work and he just rolled with it. Yeah, I don't I don't think on my feet.
SPEAKER_00So we always try like last year we did the balloon drop, that didn't work. Now, if there was something that didn't work, the confetti cannons didn't shoot the confetti very it kind of just all went straight up and more than out. Like it wasn't like a a packed shot that went out over the crowd, it was more just sitting in a cannon and it kind of just shoots straight up. So yeah, that would be something, but nobody knew what it was supposed to look like.
SPEAKER_01Um, so even the guys running it wasn't real sure what it was supposed to look like, right?
SPEAKER_00They went, yeah. When Kuffetti cannons were like, sure, and they've never used them before, so then they learned. But it did.
SPEAKER_01Now they know, and now we know.
SPEAKER_00Now they know it. So yes, everything went went well with that.
SPEAKER_01Um, we had a little bit of a different setup this year for we had cameras that were ours that had the PTZ, you know. Uh it was it was different, and so that was a little bit of a learning curve curve on the setup that I'm frustrated because this thing ain't working the way that it I think it's supposed to be. Right. Uh, but then I finally figured out like I'm I'm not the best delegator because I know how it needs to be done, I'll just do it. Right. And I finally let other people help me and it worked out. Worked out well.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so the cameras did. We purchased new cameras this year. Um, we wasn't able to get the computer because Apple drug their feet on the computer, which things worked without the computer, so nobody that wasn't really a big deal, but we did have new cameras that uh helped and gave us without having to borrow stuff and all that kind of thing.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so that was good. When we do get the computer, we're gonna be able to do more with the video stuff, but it it wasn't like it was a didn't work or a letdown or anything like that.
SPEAKER_00Another good point, uh, or good thing from Camp, which this was coming from children's pastors in a meeting, they said the curriculum was more on point this year than or they were it connected well this year. They were pleased with the curriculum. We have Amy Young, who now is in enterprise, writes our small group stuff for us. We send her what we're doing in services and ideas of hey, this is where we would like to see these connect. She writes the small group stuff, sends it back to us, we send it out. But the whole planning and writing of camp takes a full year. Oh, yeah. We meet, we come up with ideas and themes, and then we find object lessons and ways to teach it. And sometimes you look at the stuff and go, I'm not real sure how this is all gonna come together.
SPEAKER_01A lot of times you look at the stuff and think, I don't know how this is gonna come together. Oh, and looking back at this this past year of I mean, we meet most Tuesdays. Um, there's there's a lot of time that is set aside to to go over a lot of this stuff. Right. You know, some of it's not just curriculum based, but my point is, you know, in the in years past, we meet on MLK weekend that Monday. Right. That's it. Yeah. And uh this year we had a whole planning weekend, you know, it's two full days of of planning versus just the one. Right. And it, I think it showed. I mean, I think it was yeah, because we also did a couple other things from that weekend that were brand new, like the VIC, very important chaperone. I think people loved that and genuinely felt appreciated, right? Not just like, hey, here's your little something to satisfy you. Like we genuinely wanted them to know, like, we care about you, y'all are awesome, camp don't work without you. Right. And for the most part, I think it was felt that was felt. Like we got that across. There's a lot, there's a lot of a couple of new things this year that seemed to go very well. Yeah, and it came out all came out of that one.
SPEAKER_00So you're pulling videos, like we write the material, and then we try to find supporting things to go along with it, videos, songs. They we there was a little struggle harder, connecting echo, like video-wise, yeah, getting those to go.
SPEAKER_01But the concept that we would come up with to create to make a video that we thought, oh, just go find this video. And there in past, that's how we've been able to do it. This year we had to go and create those things, right? Which you make videos, I make videos, Levi makes videos, but we're not professionals, you know, and Johnny makes most of the videos. Well, then and then Johnny comes in and he like he does stuff that I don't think about, right? You know, that the three of us don't think about. And so it's like, hey, brother, you gotta do this, man. And he's like, What other videos do I need to make? I was like, brother, you got a list.
SPEAKER_00Thanks for using your giftings.
SPEAKER_01We can do we can do the simple ones, the ones that's got to be created for service, yeah, brother. That's you, right?
SPEAKER_00And that's hard. Like we we pray about it, we have a list of of topics of hey, what do we want to the theme? Yeah, and so you pray about that, but then you have to come up with the days of that, and then you have to come up with the material that and it's it's kind of do you go with oh, well, this is a theme that we could find a lot of videos on, but then you gotta maybe have a little bit harder time connecting things to it, or do you go with a theme that's like, hey, this is easy for kids to understand, and we hope we can find videos that support it.
SPEAKER_01Well, I think I think the way it worked out this year, um the biblical content was what drove most of it. Yeah, you know, not that I'm saying that we don't care about the Bible in the past years, I'm just saying, like that was why it was so easily connected. You know, they're out there on the rec field and they're one kid's being ugly to another kid. Wow. All right.
SPEAKER_00We just had a loss of lights in the studio.
SPEAKER_01Listening, uh the pause was because uh I thought a ghost was coming in here. Uh I don't even know what I was talking about now.
SPEAKER_00So it was relatable, connectable throughout count.
SPEAKER_01They're saying on the rec field, kids being a jerk, whatever, and they're saying, hey, are you echoing Jesus? Are you echoing love? Are you echoing whatever? And it's like, oh man, like it is that all of that was super applicable. Whereas it was, I mean, I thought I thought it was the we had the most like scripture in this one and then in years past.
SPEAKER_00Well, and I think my thing with it, I thought it was good was we really didn't talk. We did talk about echo, but it wasn't echo as in a sound bouncing off something coming back. We looked at like an image, like what that is a reflection, but also we took it as hey, that's an echo of what you see.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, but echo sounds better than reflect.
SPEAKER_00Right. Well, but then we did like the ball bouncer, and it it bounces off like that.
SPEAKER_01Is what an echo does, it bounces off something, which I think is what made it so impactful that it wasn't just this one right niche thing, it applied you know universally.
SPEAKER_00Yes. Yeah, so that was, I mean, we had some good feedback from children's pastors of how it connected and related and those kind of things. Um, another the big night of why we do camp um salvation night. So we do salvation, we're not gonna go in. We've talked about this before. Um, we don't raise a hand and repeat after me and everybody saved. Yeah, we give the kids the opportunity. It's very clear if you want to go talk to your leader, go outside and talk to. We'll raise your hand, your leader's looking at you, trying to make sure they see you. You're gonna go to the back of the room and find them, and then you're gonna go outside and talk to um your person, which we know in those conversations, sometimes those go great and kids are ready to make the decision. Sometimes kids just want to get up and walk out. Um, sometimes kids are not ready yet. So we don't have a number today of this many people got saved at camp. I know from the children's pastors meeting there were some stories shared the next day. That number probably got to about 15, just hearing people say, I had one, I had three, I had two, or whatever. So I don't have a final number, but so we do the invitation and we give the opportunity, and then I always sneak out the back door because we got to kind of see how, like, not just looking to go, ooh, did anybody come outside, but like the flow of service, this worship team needs to keep seeing that kind of thing. Yeah, um, so I walk around the corner and people want to hate on me for getting emotional and crying. I walk around the corner, Aaron's tearing up, Luke's tearing up, then another leader's just gets done talking to a kid, he walks up, he's tearing up, and I'm sitting here going, y'all make fun of me all the time and want to make jokes about me, but I just walk around the corner. Kids just got out here, and all y'all standing over there tearing up.
SPEAKER_01I wasn't even tearing up, brother. I was crying, I can't even pretend, and I don't hate on you because I be crying. I I can't I can't help it. It is what it is, especially if I see a grown man cry. Oh man, it gives me man, it gives me. But as you're telling the story, I got a little one right here. Like it was it was good stuff, man. Well, it is as I walked around the corner. I see one of my students with her mom who's sharing. I mean, that that was that was cool. My nephew is over here uh giving his life to the Lord. Like it was it was a cool moment, man.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so and it is me while I wipe my eye.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, really.
SPEAKER_00Like that is why we do camp. And that it like to see that all the work for a year comes to that night, and and it's not just that night. Like, I'm not if no kid walked out like I really think if nobody gives their life to Jesus out of camp, then it's not a complete fail, but like that's why you do this.
SPEAKER_01Uh well, even at the same time, like we understand that that ain't nothing but the beginning for that kid's life. That's right. You know, like this their journey is beginning with the Lord that night, you know, and so it's like it's not the finish line, it's not the Super Bowl, it's not we did it. It's it's uh the tears are excitement of another one into God's kingdom. But two, like they're a brother, they're a sister now, right? You know, yes, that's it's just cool.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it is, and to see that you plan for a year, you hope that things work and come together, the stress, the worry, the late nights, all of those, the the the I say complaints of rooms don't work or t-shirts or whatever it is that you're dealing with all for the year, getting up to that moment, and then to see a life changed and a kid surrender their life.
SPEAKER_01It's just I mean, well on top of that, I know how I feel when you have an event and you're not the one speaking, like you don't you you said, hey, this is the topic, but you don't have any control over what they're gonna say because you're not the one speaking, right? There's three speakers up there, yeah. So as the things are being written with three different people in mind, the first speaker wasn't the who it was written for because he wasn't able to be there, right? So you know there's little a little bit of communication of hey, are you good? Like you got the content, whatever, and it's like, yeah, we're good, and you still you're it's out of your control, right? And then I imagine you feel that way about me too, as I'm speaking, there's nothing you can do, then I'm done, and now it's on you. And that's so it's it's one message being shared by three different people, and so that's a lot that's gotta come together, and there's a lot of trust in the people that are speaking that that's gonna say what the Lord tells them to say. Like if I don't say what's on this paper, I I hope I'm trusted in that you said what was needed to be said, right? You know what I mean? Yeah, and so it's it's a lot, it is into it.
SPEAKER_00And I think obviously the anchoring point of it all is for a year, like this is being prayed over. Oh, yeah. Like the the content is not just something we sit down and we pull up and go, hey, this is what we're gonna do. Right. Like we're praying over camp, we're praying over the material, we pray obviously, and every every other camp does too. It's not anything that we do, but before service, every service we're we're like seeking God and like all of those things, like it is heavily bathed in prayer and led by the Holy Spirit. And then when all of it comes together, you just see wow, when we get out of the way, when we lay aside what we want done and our desires, and we follow Him, like as we said time and time again, there's no stopping or putting a limit on what God can do to a group of people.
SPEAKER_01It's it's cool to see the heart behind all of the things that we do, that there is that joy, that it's not a prideful, arrogant, look what I did, right? But look what God did. Right. You know, it's it's being on staff is a is a special thing. As much as the the people love attending, you know what I mean? Right. Being on staff is is a whole nother animal.
SPEAKER_00It is so, and that leads us to the next part. So we did a commercial, and this is gonna be brief because I know we run out of time, but we did a a guy came in to do a commercial, and he was talking about what is special about merge and the impact that you're making and all that, and those are like we just talked about why we do what we do. But as I was I was trying to come up with a way to talk about how special the staff was, yeah, like that is like merge camps happen twice a year, yeah. But the merge staff is family and we get together and plan and all those things, but then also seeing staff members grow in their roles at merge um to where they begin to take responsibility, like that to me, like Salvation Night is why we do what we do. Yeah, but the the joy that comes from merge for me, probably more is is the staff. Oh, no doubt. Like being on staff, being with everybody, working together, like that is the highlight of camp outside of Salvation Night. And I know some people are like, oh, there should be salvation, and it is, but it's the staff, is yeah, it's merge.
SPEAKER_01Well, there's so many names that come to my mind that we could we could probably say something about everybody, but we're not going to because we don't have the time. But Levi last year, or I think it was two years ago, said, I want to make the game time video. Yeah, and he does that. And then last year he came up with a theme.
SPEAKER_00Right.
SPEAKER_01You know, this year he danced, acted, and spoke. Right. And it's like the the opportunity for you to step out and to operate inside of your gifting at camp is is there. You know, Melissa had to leave LJ and Dakota stepped up and played a different role. Right. Um, and you know, Jonathan, who came last year for the first time to for a specific role, right? You know, comes back, does the same thing, kills it. You know, it's like he there's so many people and so many different, there's so many different giftings that are that are there at camp. And all this goes back to the, I think it's Henry Blackerby that said, God's at work, find where he's working and join him. Right. Like quit trying to make it so specific to you, like God's at work, go join what God's doing. And I think that most of them have that mindset, right? You know, and you it's evident in how their role kind of changes.
SPEAKER_00Right. Well, and then I think of Ty Smith, who went off to college. He's not uh around here, but he didn't think he was gonna be able to come to camp. So he kind of said, Hey, I don't think I'll make it a couple of weeks before camp. He said, Do you got a spot for me? Yeah, of course. So he comes and we're trying to find a spot for him to he used to be color captain, right? Now we're putting him with Johnny and Matt to go, hey, learn how to do color games and learn how to help with rec in a different way so you can begin to move along the path as well. Um, and I had a conversation with some people, which we'll get into youth camp, of their getting kind of older to be a college leader because they're getting married and having jobs. How can they then rotate back into a different position to continue to grow in their role with merge?
SPEAKER_01So, well, funny enough, that's the biggest need we have at Youth Camp.
SPEAKER_00College leaders, that is hard.
SPEAKER_01Yes. But we need those college leaders and then the like the Todd Smiths, the adults that are still young and you know, can can be that uh gopher, you know what I mean? You know, like that that that that's their role, yeah.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so the staff is and see, and we mentioned some people um this year there was a conversation of how do we move people or how do we find people like Levi's easy because he's my son, and we can have a conversation and spend time with him and kind of develop him into doing different things. But how do we tap into the other teenagers or college leaders that have been, let's say, color game people, but now how do we tap into them to go, hey, do you want to do more? Yeah, can we help you to take that next step? Because if you look back over marriage all along, you have people like even JD Harwick, you have TO, you have people who started as just help, yeah, and then they ended up speaking.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, that's how they're ministry. How did I end up being the admin lady? And she had to step up and do a whole role that she's she's not naturally the hey, let me let me call and figure this out for you, right? You know, it's like, hey, I have a doctor's appointment tomorrow that I can't go to. Will you call for me? That's what she's telling me. And then, like, this lady needs towels. Yeah, you gotta call Shaco's office and tell them that you need towels for this room. Like, you can do it. And she killed it. She did, she did a great job. She did a great job. And like, there are a lot of those, like, some of it we just gotta like Joe, just throw into it. And then there's others that you know, kind of like it worked with Levi, you have that conversation. It's like, hey, I do this. So, one of the things that I I saw this year is the merch like designs and things like that. There's a lot of good ideas, right? That I I told two two or three different girls, put it on paper. Yeah, you put it on paper, we can make it happen. Otherwise, we just it just is complaining. But outside of that, like you want to be like you want to help in that world in that way, you want to serve in that role, like serve, right? Put it on paper. Let's make this happen, right? You know, because I'm trying to throw some of them into the fire too, you know. Like, I ain't no t-shirt designer.
SPEAKER_02Look at me, look at my shirt.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and that's the cool thing is when you hear people who who want to do more, yeah, and who have ideas. And I promise you, you come up to me with an idea, like it happened, which we'll talk about next. We got a youth camp. One couple of college leaders had an idea, had a thought, it morphed into something not exactly like they thought it was gonna be, right? But because they said, Hey, this is something we see that we think could be a benefit. We talk about it, we make it happen, and like part of it, like in you kind of mentioned it before with Levi, maybe not on this podcast, but like he came up with a theme last year, yeah. And if he cares enough about it and God gave him that theme, it may not be the best idea ever, which it was a good theme, it was, but like we can we'll put it to use just because we want to show you like when you come up with things and you allow God to work through you, like this can happen. Yeah, and we'll make it happen and we'll make the best of it.
SPEAKER_01And Well, me and you had that conversation. You were like, I don't want to make this the theme just because he's my son. I was like, I don't care whose kid he is. Right. Like, if a teenager is gonna care enough to say, not just, hey, this word would be a cool theme, but had a word, had a a verse, and had three days worth of points and scripture to go with all those. Now, we tweaked some of those, you know, like there was things were modified and changed and whatever. But if a teenager is gonna say, hey, I I've thought about this, I've prayed about this, I care about this, like merges means this to me, and they hand that to us. Why would we not?
SPEAKER_00Right.
SPEAKER_01Like absolutely, yes.
SPEAKER_00So so that's the cool thing. It was the staff is if you haven't picked up on it, is people look forward to camp because they get to be with their people. Oh, no doubt. We have a thing, the board Matt Law sends out a Bible verse and a little thought every Monday of hey, this is things you could pray for, keep keep going, encouraging type thing. Um, but getting everybody together, serving together, working, and even like when we got together at Johnny's and we played kickball. Yeah, like some of the funnest times of the summer of the year is when the merch staff gets together and just just hangs out. Um, so any other highlights, any other uh on the way home from camp, uh we mentioned it. I get ready to pull out of Shaco. We got a two-hour drive home, and a check engine light comes on, and I call Luke and I'm like, Hey, what what what's going on here? Like, is this something we need to worry about? He's like, Well, stop by the stop side and we'll check the oil. So stop by the stop side.
SPEAKER_01How much oil was in that thing?
SPEAKER_00I don't even know if it registered on the stick.
SPEAKER_01I have never in my life after a vehicle has been running, pulled the dipstick out, and there's literally nothing on it. Never in my life. I grab that napkin and I'm like, oh, this ain't good, Daniel. So if I wouldn't have stopped, I wouldn't have made it very far. Look, I knew. So if you get into it's it's not as old as I thought. Again, if you get into an older vehicle and there's a thing of oil sitting right there, you know it either leaks or it burns it up. Right. You know, so it had that. Uh we should have checked it before we left. It's been sitting for a hot minute, you know, about five days. I should have checked it and I didn't. So when you said the check engine light came on, I was like, I didn't got no and it is gone. And it did not, it was gone. Uh but we made it back. You were hot, but we made it back.
SPEAKER_00It was hot, it rained a little bit on the way home.
SPEAKER_01So that cooled you down some.
SPEAKER_00Grant's tire started going. Uh his tire light came on on the way home in another vehicle. So we had to stop for that. But we made it home. And all in all, kids count was a huge success.
SPEAKER_01Um, how many years have we been operating?
SPEAKER_00Since 2012. So that'd be 14 years, but minus the COVID year. So 13 years.
SPEAKER_01So it took us 13 years to figure out how to have like it's like the color captains, how to have somebody over each kind of area. It feel like it felt like this year was the smoothest that all of that kind of ran. You know, there was not it wasn't that they had to go to you for every single thing, every single detail. I felt like this year was the best year of that, right? Operation-wise. Operational. That it was, you know, it was you had key people in each category and they go to them and make it work. Allowed me the opportunity to stay inside Ricker for an entire day without coming out of there, uh, unfortunately, because of the stupid pro presenter.
SPEAKER_00But anyways, but it was, it was very operational-wise, administration-wise, all that went very well. People did their thing and things flowed, and Christmas in July went off great.
SPEAKER_01Much, much better than last year, having all the rain.
SPEAKER_00Shave and cream flight was great, wreck was great. Like, all in all, other than the rope breaking, um, everything went very well for kids' camp. So if you're looking, we'd love for you to join us. We do have our dates for next year, July 5th through the 8th. Um, then in 2028, we're going to drop back to the 10th of July. So this year, it is very well, next year will be very close to the 4th, but it's kind of way Shaco does their calendar. But we would love for you to have us uh to join us. I will say camp fills the kids' camp will fill up fast. Yeah, it will. If you are thinking about coming, we will announce the dates. We'll put it on social media when registration will open. Uh, but you better get your day your numbers in quickly because that one will fill up. And we we have trouble getting more room at Shaco. Um, so make sure that if you want to come, you sign up quickly. Uh, but if you want to support the ministry, if you hear these stories and you're like, hey, that's something I want to be a part of, we do open up uh for staff. We bring in new staff every year. We also need the support financially to be able to continue to buy things and uh function the way that we do. We will have a fundraiser bank rate in February, but you can donate uh on our website, merged dash ministries.com. There's a donate tab that will tell you how to donate. And then if you want to give comments, if you went to camp, have a story about camp, we love to hear those. Mergeministries12 at gmail.com. Um, reach out and we are back. We should be recording every week now, putting those back. Uh should be glad to be back. Should be. Usually we get those out. Lord willing in the creek, don't ride. Next week, we're gonna look at youth camp. We'll talk about all things youth camp, uh, kind of like we did for kids camp this week. So uh make sure you're paying attention to the podcast and join us back next week as we look at Youth Camp. But we hope you have a great week. Um, if you've been encouraged, let us know. If you want to be a part, let us know. Or if you just want to say hey, let us know.
SPEAKER_01Let us know.
SPEAKER_00Until then, have a great week, and we will see you next week.
SPEAKER_01See ya bye