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
Youth Camp Rewind
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This week we look back on the success, struggles, and crazy start to youth camp. The best part of camp: lives were changed, the worst part of camp: Alabama summer weather, and the crazy part: no powerful for 5 hours! If you have thoughts, stories, comments, or questions let us know at mergeministries12@gmail.com.
Welcome back to another week. M3 merge ministry mostly got a new logo up there.
SPEAKER_01Took took Daniel's uh not looking old man old man face off. So much much cleaner. I I updated the old one and like put new pictures behind it. And I was like, can you fix the guy on the left and not look so old? And it didn't. I don't know. It's like chat GPT, so I'm not like trying to, you know, say, hey, this is Daniel Cook. He does that, whatever. Like, I'm just trying to keep it a little bit discreet. And uh it didn't work. It didn't, it didn't work. Did it change it at all? Yeah, but it wasn't better. You had a like super comb over, and well, I'll find it and show it to you.
SPEAKER_00Well, uh, if you haven't figured it out, I'm the old guy, Daniel, and I'm Luke, and he's Luke, and we uh are back again this week is all things youth camp, but looked at the numbers, brother, and I guess taking a hiatus of not recording really uh kind of hurt us.
SPEAKER_01As as we were contemplating at camp, should we go ahead and record one anyway? As it's three in the morning, we should have done it. Apparently, we should have gone on and did it.
SPEAKER_00So the June 30th podcast of Colby right before camp, we posted it, I think the week before, had 493 downloads. Is that the most? That is the most. I don't know what happened. I didn't really go in to look. Well, she ain't gonna watch this, but if she did, she would be commenting it's because I was on there. So it typically, I think the highest was 175. We might have pushed closer to 200 on one. So what happened wrong button? Oh my geez, what happened to get to 493? I have no idea.
SPEAKER_01You know what it was is all those weeks of us not having anything, people were like, I'll just go watch Kobe again. I guess so.
SPEAKER_00But then so then two weeks ago, Levi, we dropped all the way to 27. Yeah, and then last week, this is as of last night. So the one last week, we're recording this on Wednesday, it just dropped yesterday. While we're recording, so we got some time, we got some time. It's at five. So if you're out there and and you're one of the five, or shout out to you, man. I would say if you're one of the 493, but we we lost you. We lost you. You're not hearing this. So share, uh, let your friends know. We'll try to do another push maybe for a couple times on social media. Um, but it's all things this week is all things youth camp. Last week was all things kids camp, kind of celebrating, kind of talking about camp and how things went. Yeah. And we'll kind of go through the same process. We'll start the way things started, yeah, and then we'll move through.
SPEAKER_01Uh as far as I can say, well, so I've I've been a part of every youth camp we've had. I haven't been a part of every kids' camp that there has been.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01By far the most awkward, somewhat scary um start to camp that we've had. You know, it wasn't a cooler leaking that turned into a car blowing up, uh, but it was not the the funnest way to start camping. No, it was not.
SPEAKER_00It started with a child in the emergency room and then in the hospital overnight as two weeks ago we highlight on it a little bit. Levi.
SPEAKER_01We hit on Levi's highlight of camp. Right.
SPEAKER_00So we noticed before camp, we noticed Levi wasn't feeling well, drinking a whole lot of water, having to go to the bathroom a lot, lost a lot of weight, probably 15 pounds of weight. So we kept going. Well, maybe he'll get better.
SPEAKER_01What else would it be other than 15 pounds of weight? Water weight. Um there you go. That sounds muscle mass. Um, but anyway, you could have said he lost 15 pounds. Like everybody knows that it's weight that he's lost, 15 pounds of weight.
SPEAKER_00Maybe he lost 15 pounds of food or 15 pounds of his doll. Anyway, so he was getting a little more sick and looking more and more not well.
SPEAKER_01Levi is a very helpful human being when it comes to camp, like loading up, setting up, all that. Like he knows what to do, he's been a part of it about his whole life, I guess, and is a part of some of the planning of things. So when we were loading the U-Haul and stuff for kids' camp, he was not as helpful. No. And then I come in into the youth room there, and he's laid out on the chair. I was like, bro, are you okay? And he's Levi. So of course he says something along the lines of I'm a dog or something like that. And then he goes, I don't know, I might be dying. And I was like, Dang, something wrong with him, but this ain't normal.
SPEAKER_00Well, and then Quincy, one of his close friends, looked at him and was like, dude, what's wrong with you? Like Quincy hadn't seen him a whole lot over the summer, but he looked at him and was like, Man, what's wrong with you?
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00So Wednesday morning, Abby said, I'm gonna get up and I'm gonna take him to the pediatrician. She took him to the pedician, and within like 10 or 15 minutes, they said, You got to get to the hospital. So then that's what everybody wants to hear. Right. So they took him to the emergency room. His blood sugar was 300 and something A1C was 15, 14. It's supposed to be five, maybe four or five. Ended up then uh diagnosing him with diabetes. Well, the the whole time that's going on, which is a big deal. I'm sitting here going, well, what do I do? Abby's at the doctor hospital dealing with him. Pretty sure at this point we knew it was diabetes. There's a little bit of hope that it wasn't gonna be. Um, but knowing he's in the hospital, we called it before it got to ooh, is it DKA or KDA? K KDA. KDA. I don't know. I don't know, ketoacidosis or something like that. Yeah, something like that. We we called it before it got to that point, which is usually when people figure out they have diabetes and they end up in the hospital like fighting for their life type thing.
SPEAKER_01Right.
SPEAKER_00So he was good. They had him, they were getting him fluid and all this kind of stuff. So my mind as a dad was what do I do? Yeah, do I stay at the hospital? Do I stay in town? Because we were leaving at 11:30 or 11.
SPEAKER_01We were meeting.
SPEAKER_00We were meeting at 11.
SPEAKER_01Meeting at 11.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so all this was going on the two hours leading up to it.
SPEAKER_01And oh, we were meeting at your house at 11, meeting up with everybody at like 11:30.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I think that's right. And then in the whole time with that, Colby was getting ready to be moved to college. So part of the plan was we were gonna move her while we were there because it's halfway or whatever. So part of it was if I stay, how are we getting Colby to college? If I go, what's gonna happen with Levi and Abby? And it was just a whole whole um, I don't know, I don't know what the word I'm looking for here. Uh debate in my head of what to do. That's the easiest way. Not the best wording, but easiest way. So talking to Luke and Johnny and's like, I don't know what to do. Like, I don't know. So Abby the whole time's telling me, you can't do anything here. Right. Like, we're good. He's sitting here, there's nothing you can do.
SPEAKER_01Well, uh, a part of that, so I those of you that don't know Daniel super well, he doesn't wear his heart on his sleeves. Um, he he doesn't always share what he's going through. So obviously he's sharing this with me. We're trying to figure out you know what to do. So as I typically do, I call his wife and I'm like, I know how I feel. I I wanted to tell Daniel, like, if if you want to stay, stay. Like, I I got this, like be with your son. But I said, I know on the other side of me, knowing Daniel, what he probably needs to do is work to keep his mind off of it, which is not going to keep his mind off of it, but it'll help some. Right. I said, What do I need to tell Daniel to do? She was like, Tell him to go. I was like, Bet, no problem. I was like, Hey man, you need to come on. Abby's got this, you good, you know, which is not my opinion. Like, I'm saying I think if it's me, I would want to be with my son too, you know. So, like, right, but knowing, you know, knowing you, talking to Abby, figuring, you know, uh that was probably the best thing for you was to move on and let's get to to camp. Not uh as hot this time, correct.
SPEAKER_00I had air conditioner because I drove my own car, but that was it was, and it was the the whole staff, the people that knew about it at this time was very like, do what you want to do, like do what you gotta do. Like, if you want to stay, stay, and we'll take care of it. And if you want to go, go and we'll be there for you, and that kind of thing. So I ended up going. Uh, like I said, probably good that I went to get my mind off of things. Uh left them at home, kept up with them, trying to get ready for camp while also all that was going on. So that's kind of how it all started. Uh which was very different. Not very different.
SPEAKER_01Not it ended up being fine, right? But you know, hindsight's always 2020. You don't you don't know you don't know if you're right in the moment, right? You know, and so all those Daniel is a is a thinker. Uh so that whole ride up there, I know his wheels were spinning, he's trying to figure out you know what he's gonna do, what leave what's Levi's life gonna be like, and all I mean, all of this stuff is running through your head, obviously. And uh when we got there, thankfully, everything was ready. You know, sometimes we go to camp and we got an hour to kill, right? But here, everything's wide open, and we're the only camp that's there, so we're able to get right to work, which I also think helped a lot for your sanity.
SPEAKER_00That it did. Uh, so like we said, getting there, much better trip. Nobody broke down, nobody broke down, didn't have to ride without air conditioning. Um load in, as I said, we got there, we were the only ones there, came right in, started putting stuff together. Stage uh light and sound people were there early.
SPEAKER_01Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_00They were there already working when we got there.
SPEAKER_01Um, so all in all, the main guy had been there an hour before we got there. He he texted me on the way up and was like, Hey, just got here, what's y'all's ETA? And I was like, brother, we in Alex City. Like, we just ate like what do you mean?
SPEAKER_00Uh it's gonna be a hot minute before we get there. So the only loading in setting up really the only thing that I think was a hurdle was our stage design. Yeah, so we had the stage design that we used at kids' camp, all 20. What do we figure out? It was 20 letters, we think it was. We had the letters, and you couldn't hang it from this place, you couldn't put stuff in the walls, put tape on the walls, screws in the walls.
SPEAKER_01There was there was two places center stage, like left and right, that we could have we could have hung stuff, but we didn't have a ladder that could get us there. Once again, so the you know capability was there, but uh we weren't unable. Maybe we need a ladder, a big ladder. Well, that's another thing is me and me and Johnny are talking about that, going, we definitely have ladders that can get us up there. We've never needed it, right? And so you don't think to bring it. You do you think about it, but you say, I've not used this once. Why are we gonna take this gigantic ladder? I try to tell y'all. But uh I and I'm I'm with you on most things. The only thing that I've ever booked you on is taking those old signs that there's we've not put them out since we've changed our logo.
SPEAKER_00I don't matter, it's the old signs, it's the old part of we haven't put them out since what's it hurt them riding in the U-Haul? What's it hurt? What's it take? They take up no space whatsoever. So what's it hurt? Just throw them in there just because they out they're the they're they're the OGs. You know where they need to be thrown. Are you gonna throw out all the OGs and everything? So all the old OGs in church, like, hey, you've been here too long, you're not doing a whole lot. I'm throwing you out of my church. Unbelievable. I apologize to all you OG people out there. People are different. Uh they are than logos.
SPEAKER_01Old logos can be thrown in the trash can. I'm not saying we should throw our old people in the trash can, they have a place.
SPEAKER_00Uh that sign didn't know it's a yard sign. It's a like there's six of them. Three.
SPEAKER_01Okay. Yes, and they're six sounds worse.
SPEAKER_00It does, but there's only three, and they're yard signs. Like, why can't they just go? Because they've been there since the beginning. They have nostalgia. Yes, they they would feel left out if they didn't go. They did.
SPEAKER_01Right on. Well, they got there both trips.
SPEAKER_00They did. Um, I don't even know what we're talking about. I don't know. We should have brought a ladder, is what we were saying. I don't know why. So the cool thing with the stage design, with everything going on with Levi and all that, people were um looking and going, what do we do with the stage? And I was like, Y'all figure it out, like whatever. So Micah, Colby, Johnny, Ava, Ava, and BJ, BJ and Mitchell. Yeah. They're coming up with, they're trying to figure it out, they're trying to think of what to do, and they lay it out, and they end up having to go to the store to get some stuff. It's like an hour and a half trip to Home Depot to get some two before. Right. It was one of those things I went, whatever you want to come up with, you do it, y'all figure it out. And they did. They did.
SPEAKER_01And that's what what we talked about a little bit last week with with kids camp and you know, people having their role, you know, and those that's kind of shifted over over the years. It was, you know, great to be able to look at BJ and Johnny and say, I do not care. Right. Figure it out. Right. And sometimes when you say that to people, you say, I don't care. It makes them feel like it's not important and what they're doing isn't worth my time. But what we what I typically mean when I say that, what we meant then was I trust you. Right. Figure it out. Right. Like, I don't, you don't need to sign nothing off. I don't need to sign off on nothing. Like make it happen and it's gonna be great. Right. And I was we were setting up the computers and the cameras and all that stuff, and Ava comes in and she's like, I'm a construction worker now. She's like, I worked a saw. I've never touched one of those in my life, and I cut wood. It's like a power saw, like not like a handsaw.
SPEAKER_00We brought a saw, but we didn't bring a ladder.
SPEAKER_01We brought a bunch of tools that we didn't use.
SPEAKER_00But it was, I remember Colby and Michael were like, hey, we came up with this design. And at first I was went back there and gave my opinion, and they were like, We don't like it. And I was like, Okay, then do what you want, like do however. Like you think it looks better the other way, do it the other way. And sometimes people have a hard time with that. I guess then they more than the others of they know you, right? And if I don't like if I changed and I said, Oh, I what about doing it this way? And they put it together and they're like, No, we don't think that looks the best. And if I say, Okay, well, just do what you want, they're kind of like, Well, should we change it because he don't like it? Right, but in that I'm looking and going, I don't like if you really think it looks better, I trust you, right? Because y'all have a different eye for things than I do, right? So if it looks better, then do it, like fine.
SPEAKER_01The the way that ended up working out at youth, you know, the theme was echo, and it had the appearance of like it was distorted almost being multiplied behind, right? Which not that it wasn't cool at kids' camp, I liked it better at youth. I was like, I was like, man, that looks cool, especially when the video got on it. You it it was like the video, the camera couldn't focus on it.
SPEAKER_00Right.
SPEAKER_01So it literally looked distorted, it did, like it was echoing back, like right. It was, dude, it was it did.
SPEAKER_00It turned out I did, and that's what I told him. I was like, I like this design better than I like Kids Cat. Um, so that that was cool to see come together. Uh that they jumped on it and they tackled it and made it, made it happen.
SPEAKER_01That's one of the cool things I think that's unique about merge is I I don't know that it's always been this way, where we've had the capacity to allow that to take place, but you know, allowing them to take that ownership of it and say, here's my opinion. You you don't like my opinion, right? Figure it out. Like we genuinely, I genuinely mean figure out. I'm not, you know, I'm not taking my ball and going home, right? I'm not being ugly or whatever. You don't like my opinion, just get however you want to do it. It's nothing nasty or nothing, it's just do it. Like if you don't like it, figure out a way that is gonna work. And they did, and they owned it, and it was it was great.
SPEAKER_00It was, and it took a while and it took a lot of effort, but in the end it worked out. Um, yeah, hour and a half trip to Home Depot. The only other thing, which this was kind of uh uh it's not really a highlight of camp, so that's why I put it where I put it, is this year weather was not I say weather was not our friend. It was not that and it's Alabama, every time during free time it rained.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it was yeah, it wasn't like we had these crazy, you know, thunderstorms, right? It it it was some, there was one or two, but it it rained at what what you would call the worst time. The worst time. I I don't know that any time is a good time outside of like worship, right? You know, when we're all inside together, if it rains then, it's who cares, right? Outside of that, like there isn't a good time for it to rain outside of that, but you know, when it's free time, when you you've you've had this schedule you gotta keep, and now you can relax and do what you want. That was wild. Speaking of weather, do what you want, and then uh everybody's out there. I was three people from launching my wife into the lake on the blob. And then they told us we had to go off to the beach, and then after about 10 minutes, they were like, It's four minutes away, so you've got to clear the area. I'm like, No, I was about to send my wife across the doggone pond.
SPEAKER_00Well, and so it was the the blob, the zip line, a swing in the pool.
SPEAKER_01Like, I don't think anybody got to do the zip line, which because they have eventually was one group that did, but then the rest of them got stranded up there and had to did they really. I think one group got got up there. The guy was leaving. He had dropped him off and he was leaving, and then they sent over the radio. They were like, Hey, we're probably gonna have to. He's like, Stay where you are, we're probably gonna have to bring them back. And so that was like, you know, a lot of our leaders were on the on the little little trail. Somebody was asking, it's a trailer with hay bales that they take them up there uh to the do the zip line. They were like, they got a hay ride here? I'm like, no, they're gonna zip line.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so that was one of the things, like it was a new place, so you wanted to do the new things, right? And it just which they're their weather thing, I will say, and maybe it's normal. I'm not into into knowing into the know of this, but a 10-mile lightning strike radius, yeah. That's a long way. It is to me, that's like I've I've heard of like five miles or three miles, but 10 miles like in Alabama during the summer, right? You ain't gonna be doing a whole lot, yeah. So anyway, so that was not uh that was not a good thing. Uh it just kind of and it wasn't terrible. I mean, we were able to do everything, right? Other than when you had free time and wanted to do the stuff. So highlights of camp. Um, a couple of these things. New place things seem to work well. They did.
SPEAKER_01I I genuinely enjoyed being by ourselves, just being us on on campus. Not that at any other place has other people bothered us, right. It's not like we're fighting to be able to do what we want. Like it's everybody's got their own schedule and it's fine, but you know, you weren't looking at kids walking up wondering, are you a part of my camp or not? Like, are you like you knew everybody here is our folks, and I like that kind of it we've said we're becoming a big camp with a small camp feel, and it was much easier to to retain that. Um sometimes I'll be walking up to Bagley and I'm talking to this dude thinking he's a part of our camp and he's not. Like, nah, I'm trying to, you know, get get to know the people and it's not our people.
SPEAKER_00And this is our what was it, fourth year of camp? Yeah. Fourth new location. Fourth new location, yeah. So it does like at with kids' camp, we know the place, we know how things work, we know how long it takes to get from one to the other. We we know the people. Yeah, we have all of that worked out, and this place was new, and there were some small learning curves, like how the food lines worked, yeah. The food option seemed to be a thing that we gotta kind of look at for next year of uh some things, not really that we can change a whole lot with that, but listen to some of the the criticisms, I guess, of like the students.
SPEAKER_01They weren't a big fan of the large bunk house kind of rooms. Um, but all the youth pastors loved it. Right. You know, like they're like, hey, there's nowhere for you to go. You know, they're every once in a while, you know, with those smaller rooms, they sleep six. Well, that's with two people in a queen size bed, so you only put five of them in there or whatever. So you end up with you need the next room because of how you're doing it. So you got two kids in one room. Well, it's easy to isolate yourself when you do that. Well, yeah, one room with everybody, right? They ain't no getting to know everybody, and uh sales service wasn't great, which was great for the youth pastors. Like I asked, um, we did you know a merge kind of recap for the kids and youth ministry at my church. And uh, I asked the teenagers, I sent me some pictures, and they legit sent me like 12 pictures of four or five different teenage girls and one dude sent me, I mean, it was not very many. And uh I was like, Is this all y'all got? And they were like, Yeah, service wasn't great, so we didn't have our phone on us, so therefore we didn't take pictures. And I was like, I love that. I love that so much. Like, that's awesome.
SPEAKER_00Well, and then for youth pastors, if you're all in one room, that's less volunteers you have to bring. Yeah, because if you have five rooms and you want an adult in each room, which you can or cannot do that, that's up to you, but um, but it is, it was 30, could have been, which none of the rooms had one of two of the rooms might have had 30. You can sleep 30 and have four showers, maybe, and four toilets. So, I mean, it's camp. That is what camp is. Shacko's kind of spoiled everybody, yeah.
SPEAKER_01That's that was the other thing that I would I was sharing with people was like, you know, Shaco has kind of spoiled us then in that it feels more like you're staying in a hotel than it does you're staying at at a camp. Right. I was like, this is a true camp feel, and there's not anything wrong with that, right? Like it it's great, right? I uh I enjoyed it. There's a lot worse out there. There are a lot worse, and like our room was like the motel style buildings. I mean, it wasn't it wasn't bad.
SPEAKER_00Like, I didn't have good pictures on the wall, yeah. I mean, it was yeah, it was kind of kind of plain game, but so there were some uh thing. I mean, things you learn along the way, the rec stuff we have been we'll look at to see if there's a different way to do there's a a game or two that needs to be modified or or just replaced, right? Yeah, all in one new place, it all worked out well.
SPEAKER_01Uh small groups, the rec stuff was set up way better at this place. I mean, it was a little bit tighter, but you were able to get from place to place a lot easier. Yeah, the only hard one was there was one that was a long way out, long trick. Yeah, it was it was way out there, getting all the way out there. But once you started rotating, it was fun. It was just getting them started, everybody going to the farthest.
SPEAKER_00They went and it was hot, and they're teenagers, and they were not real true. Small groups, past couple years, small groups has been one of those things that we had to redo kind of when we got there a little bit. Yeah, people added some at the last minute, people were being dropped, we didn't really know who was coming and who wasn't, so we did small groups, but then also trying to get the kids to go to the right small group. This year, I I don't I mean, I wasn't in on all that there were 12 students that were not assigned a small group.
SPEAKER_01Some of that was just my fault um on the front end of things. Some of it was, you know, the they added them late or whatever. So it was like 12 of 200 is great. Yeah, like it's way better than it was last year, and then you had we had I know of three that went to the wrong small group, but they did it on purpose. And they like we gave them bands this year, right? And they they lost theirs. I'm like, you have to purposefully take them things off. Like that ain't uh this didn't snag on something and it fell off or it's too big for your hand. Like, come on now, yeah.
SPEAKER_00And you got them, and then within an hour, you're going to your small group.
SPEAKER_01Your small group.
SPEAKER_00So you you're a teenager that lost a yeah wristband that attaches.
SPEAKER_01Right.
SPEAKER_00Come on, right.
SPEAKER_01So other than that, like I think it went well. And the the rosters didn't, we didn't have to rechange, you know, swap out rosters back and forth. Like I think last year we gave them three different ones.
SPEAKER_00We couldn't get them right. And last year, some small groups ended up with like a whole bunch of kids, and some ended up with not very many, but this year they were all pretty easy. It was all pretty even.
SPEAKER_01So much, much better on the placement of all that. Plus, I think the doing the small groups before service, they made them go a whole lot better.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Yeah, I think it I think it worked. We're learning. Figuring it out. Four years, figuring it out.
SPEAKER_01It only takes four.
SPEAKER_00Right. Um, salvation night. So with youth, it's a little different than kids. They're older, they understand things differently, they are able to to say kind of more of what they're thinking and feeling. Um, so Salvation Night is kind of done like kids, but different.
SPEAKER_02Right.
SPEAKER_00Because it's we also do invitation. I say invitations at the end of service, there is some form of invitation, a recall to response, maybe.
SPEAKER_01Maybe I think that's probably a better way to put it.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so we give the kids the opportunity, like our students, if you want to come and come to the front and pray or talk with someone. So we once again we don't track it like a lot of people track it, right? Good or bad. We've already been through that time and time again. Um, but from what we saw and from some conversations, right? God moved. Oh, no doubt. And students responded. Yeah. Um, we uh filled out sent out a survey. I didn't even looked at the surveys. I don't know. Youth pastors aren't good at filling out the surveys anyway. No, they're not. Uh but uh all in all, we'll say that like lives were changed from what we saw in some of the conversations that we had.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so and we had planned to do the whole like walk out and like go go talk to your leader now. Um you know, it's one of those in the moment kind of things that I I didn't have them leave before we started worship. And there was not a huge you know, influx of people walking out to go talk to their leader. Um, but because their response at the altar was so went so well the night before, I was like, well, let's just keep it the same way. And uh so there was a lot, you know, that move came forward and and did that deal. But then they had their large group afterwards. So those conversations were you know were able to happen right then. And anyways, it well it wasn't exactly how we talked about it on the front end, but the way it worked out, you know, I we're not sitting here looking at numbers going there's 23 that went out to have the conversation, so we had 23 salvations like we don't we don't know anyway, so yeah, so it works it I think the services went well.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, they didn't. I think everything flowed well, probably a little more critical than others because I was the one speaking, but uh yeah, but it was. I mean, the stories, and we'll get more of those on the surveys and different things, but um lives were changed, seeds were planted, and that's always the good part of camp. Yeah, um, so another highlight for me was I left camp. Yeah, it's not a highlight, buddy. So camp started on Thursday. Friday, we took Colby to college. Abby and Colby left early. Me and Micah stayed around till six o'clock on Friday night after dinner, maybe, and then we left. Yeah, it was great. It was wonderful, and Luke was in charge for I think it was like 24 hours.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it was close to that. So, how was it? It was fine. I mean, the good thing about camp, the way we run camp is it's it's planned out so much so well, you know. It wasn't like I'm having to come up with nothing on the fly. I'm just trying to keep everything floating. That's right. So the morning service and all of that stuff went super well. The only you know hiccup in the whole deal uh was Daniel paid this guy to come cut down a tree onto the power line.
SPEAKER_00Um part of the plan.
SPEAKER_01So we had a you know tree falling power lines and power went out. That was the only like real thing we had to deal with. You know, everything else was easy. Like a kid got blisters on his feet, and Daniel left, and so did the nurse. So now we uh don't have a kid that ran across the road, like ran so all the way across up a gravel hill, then across asphalt, which is you know, it's a hundred degrees outside, so it's probably 130 on that dog on asphalt, yes, and then comes back and say, I got boosters on my feet. Joe Joe is like standing by the med bag going, what do you want me to do about that? Like, okay.
SPEAKER_00So this was not a junior high kid. No, this is a senior high kid. I think he was a senior, I think he just graduated, just graduated, like so uh, so yeah, I was coming back all because he left his phone. Yeah, he was going to get his phone, anyways. I was coming back from dropping Colby off and uh talking to Luke. And leading up to this, things were like we had a conversation, then I'll be back, yada yada. Well, then I think you call me back and you tell me not to come. You're like, turn around. I was like, what are you talking about? And you said the power's out.
SPEAKER_01I was like, obviously, you on your way back is not a good thing. Turn around and go back to Kobe's uh school. So this was around was it after dinner? It was 5 30. It was right dinner. We had I had just finished eating.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, we were at dinner. Yeah, so we had dinner, then small group, then what would be service? Service, yeah. So we are going through the the thoughts, and Mitchell works for Alabama Power. We thought he could kind of get us some info. It was it could be back on by 7:30 or right at service time, eight o'clock. Uh so we were trying to figure out well, do you wait or do you not?
SPEAKER_01But and then he's telling us, he's like, Look, this is how this works. Like, they give you this time, but we don't know until we get there, right? He was like, Ain't nobody there yet. He was like, they just it's out, so they're sharing this, which is is true, is this window could happen, right? He was like, But ain't nobody even there yet, right? He was like, give it a minute, you know. We're like, We got it.
SPEAKER_00So it's all like you gotta make a decision, stuff's supposed to happen. So we come up with the the thought we have generators, so we go, Well, let's just prepare as if the power's not gonna come on, right? Get the generators, we had a portable sound system, we had some lights. Um, so from what I was told in like 20 minutes, all that came together. Oh no, 20, 30 minutes.
SPEAKER_01So me and me and Daniel are on the phone, and the worship guys, thankfully, they they care, you know, so they're formulating a plan. Right. And they're like, We're gonna do it here, we're gonna do it outside, we're gonna blah blah blah, just acoustic and whatever. And me and Daniel, I said, Look, they they mentioned this. I was like, I don't know about that. And he was like, Yeah, that ain't gonna work. And so we ended up saying, Look, yeah, we got the generators, we got these lights, like, because at the time when we're making this plan, all of the power in the worship center had not gone off yet. Yeah, so I am not an electrician. What I was told, and if I'm wrong, if this is not how power works, whatever, call me stupid. It is what it is. They're saying it's a three-phase power in this room, and only two of the phases were gone. So they had not cut the power yet. It was just what was what was left. Right. I don't understand how it works. I'm just telling you what I was told. So the like emergency lights and that kind of thing were on, and then that went out, and it was like, it is pitch black in here. So somebody was saying, like, we bring these these, you know, the portable speakers and and bring that system in here that we've been using at Rec. Right, and we'll just go with this, like it's fine. And I was like, I don't know, man, if these lights go out, it's gonna be dark in here, and then boom, it goes out. I was like, Okay, yep, bring the lights, bring the lights. So, what was cool was I called Johnny and they happened to be down there at the rec field, they had just moved the stuff where we had volleyball that night. Yeah, and uh I was like, Hey, don't leave. He was like, Okay, I was like, load up the sound equipment, get all those lights that you just set up, bring them all up here. And he was like, Okay. So by the time we got off the phone, I drove down there, and when we get down there, they're putting the last light on, had already put all the sound equipment on the U-Haul, and was like, This is awesome! Like, I ain't even have to do anything. So we get up there, and it was just like the problems with the letters like nobody's whining and complaining, nobody's going, Well, what am I what the hell is this gonna work? It's just like, give me my orders and I'm marching, right? And it was it was great, yeah. In about 20 minutes, everything was all set up, and well, some of the youth pastors jumped in to help.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, they did they might have been down there, so it was cool, and we had service, and it was kind of acoustic, which we had the sound system, so it wasn't completely, it was somewhat acoustic. Um, it was a little hot, yeah, but uh service still happened.
SPEAKER_01The only thing we didn't have was the bass. We had the piano and we had the drums. I think the bass was the only thing that they didn't use. We had all three vocals, yeah.
SPEAKER_00So it was good, it was cool. I think it was a cool service.
SPEAKER_01Um, and we were hoping my opinion, it was the best service. Yeah, I mean it was hot as a muck. It was hot. I do, I think it was the best service, yeah.
SPEAKER_00And it was cool. Everybody went along. I mean, what was the other option not to have service right? So uh, but that was cool, and we were thinking, I was thinking, man, the power's gonna come back on, middle service, it's gonna be an ordeal, blah blah blah. But it didn't, and it actually stayed out until about 10:30.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, we we had uh the conversation with the the sound guy. I was like, look, man, my luck, all this power is gonna come on in the middle of service while I'm talking, and it's gonna be super distracting. I was like, what's gonna flash? What's gonna start beeping? Is there a way for us to get all this stuff cut off so that this isn't a thing? And he was like, Man, I'm way ahead of you. And he was like, because if we leave all this stuff on and there's a surge at all, right? He was like, all my stuff shot, and then we ain't got nothing to mark. Yeah, and I was like, Okay, good. So nothing's gonna come on. He's like, nothing is gonna come on. He said, My entire system is unplugged, and I was like, Praise the Lord, and power did not come back on until 10:30, which we had at a worship service, supposed to be at 11.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so that pushed that a little a little behind. We had volleyball in the dark, uh, which was wild, which was and you had teenagers. The other thing, you had teenagers running around a camp with no power, no power, nowhere, and we didn't.
SPEAKER_01I didn't that flag waving is really distracting me. I keep getting the shadow of it over here, anyways. Out of my periphery, you can't see it, it's right through this window, anyways. My point is where were we? Teenagers running around in the dark, yeah, yeah. And I didn't realize, obviously, we're in the country. I didn't realize just how dark it was because there's a bunch of streetlights, right? And when all them streetlights out, brother, it's dark. It was dark. I was gonna man, I had to be just talk that morning about nobody likes the dark. Like for people to say they do, they don't. Like, and we may not, as men say, I'm afraid of the dark, but nobody likes it, you know what I'm saying? Yeah, and so as I'm going down to the rec field, I can't tell you how many teenagers are like they see me and then they run up so that they can pass me. You scared? You scared? I ain't scared. I'm scared it's dark, and I don't know what's around here. And I got weak ankles, man.
SPEAKER_00I you know how bad easy you can twist the ankle in the dark, so that was uh interesting uh way for the last night of camp. But probably the highlight one of the biggest highlights of camp. Um, there's two of them. We have like not a lot of time. Um, we'll say this the VIC area, very important chaperone. Oh, yeah, that was worked fantastic. We had talked about it a little bit last week, but it was a place that chaperones could come and they got a treat, they got dirty sodas, or we had bags for them, or we had ornaments, Christmas ornaments, and we had different things for them that just kind of told them, hey, thanks for coming. We see you, we notice you. Thanks for all that you do. And that seemed to go, and it did, it went very well.
SPEAKER_01At kids camp, it was outside of the worship center, set up kind of off to the side. It was obvious just for them. They came in and they kind of passed through. We didn't really have that option at youth, so it was in the little room in front of the worship center, and so it turned into like a lounge area for for a lot of the the elite. It was like, y'all can sit out in the hot sun until they open these doors. We're gonna go in here and chill. And so at one point, I was coming to get something from from Joa, and uh, I opened that door, and there's like nine youth pastors laid out on the floor, just literally laying on the ground. Dude, it's not just youth pastors, but volunteers and all. It was it was so funny. I was like, what is this?
SPEAKER_00But that was a cool thing we did this year. Uh somebody, I don't I think Johnny came up with the idea, talked it through, had some different people that's interesting.
SPEAKER_01I I loved that Johnny took credit for most of it until like the last night of of kids camp. And uh it was all Brandon's idea. Was it? Yeah. So Johnny had the idea of I want to do something, right? Um, and he's texting Brandon, he's you know, operator of Chick-fil-A. Customer service is huge for them. So he's like, Y'all should do this, and laid it all out there. And Johnny's like, okay, and he shares that like he I I remember now him saying it. He gave Brandon the credit at that first meeting while we were at Shaco still. He he's like, I was talking to Brandon, he's like, blah blah blah. But then that's it. So this whole time I've been hyping Johnny up and all this stuff, and then uh I was talking to Brandon about it. He was like, Oh, this was my idea. I was like, What in the world? Because part of me was wondering, like, why are you here? You know, like I'm glad you're here. And he was of huge help. He was, but I was thinking, like, where's your the draw? Like, where's the tie in here? It was all his idea. It was a great idea, which with that being said, Johnny executed Brandon's idea extremely well, right? I mean, it was excellent. Kaylee, Kaylee killed it. She did. I don't know, you know, what we would have done without without her, because Johnny and Brandon both ain't making that happen. Right. Kaylee, they're the all the all of them, their minds together, and then Kaylee was able to you know put it put it into fruition. That's right.
SPEAKER_00Uh, so then the most talked about thing at Youth Camp, the three on three basketball. Tournament, brother.
SPEAKER_01I felt like I he ain't my kid, but I felt like a proud dad watching your son and Quincy and Lex play against those sixth graders. Man, it was it was the coolest thing.
SPEAKER_00All right. So we allowed the team, the people, students to make a team. They could it could be anybody. So it ended up some junior high teams, some senior high teams. Well, Levi, Lex, and Quincy were senior high. I don't know how many other were there more senior high, junior high.
SPEAKER_01Well, there was there was some that were mixed senior high, junior high. One of the junior high teams was two junior high boys and a youth leader, like church leader. Uh which we said if you don't have enough, if two of your boys want to play and whatever, that's fine. And uh so it was it was probably more senior high than it was junior high.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and then them junior high boys was good, yeah. That so it came down to the finals, Levi's team, Lex and Quincy versus a group of junior high kids. Yeah, I wasn't there. It happened, of course, happened the night that we were not there. Um, but these kids they said those junior high boys could play, but they were ballers now.
SPEAKER_01They said they were good. I ain't I ain't no basketball player, but I know ball, we've had the whole athletic uh conversation. Them kids was athletic, and to be able to handle a basketball is not a common thing, right? You know, people can dribble, people can shoot, but they had handles, and so like they're driving right purposefully to fake right and then go left and eating kids up, like it was it was awesome. Like they're pump faking and passing it behind their back, like they were they were actually good. Yeah, I mean they were they were legit. So the champions beat some senior high right kids to get to the championship. It wasn't like they had an easy run, right?
SPEAKER_00So the championship game, Levi said they jumped out to like a 9-3 lead. Now, the setting of it, I don't know, it sounded like the entire camp was down there watching.
SPEAKER_01So literally everybody was down there, and not everybody was down there from the beginning, but watching them kids, they I think they played the first game, and so obviously people are texting people, yeah. Like, and then next thing you know, there's what four, six sets of bleachers, six, yeah. Every bit of them are filled up, all right. And there's chanting, like when it when it's the finals, they played half court, and so then you start getting people standing at the back, you know, on on the second court, and like they are not a single person there was rooting for Levi Lex and Quincy, not one. It was awesome. There, I mean, legit chanting defense, defense, you can't do that. Like, it was awesome, and then the refs obviously got into it a little bit as well. Uh there's no lines for out of bounds, not a single one. And uh the first time he caught it, you could see Levi, he wanted to say something. He like he got anger was all over his face when Craig points at the ground and and then says he's out, and he's like, Ain't no way like he's legit mad, and then he switches it to he's saying something sarcastic, he's playing it off, whatever. And then there was times where they'd call something and he's pretending to be mad, but he knows what they're doing. He finally picked up on what was happening. Oh my gosh, dude, it was yeah, it was so cool.
SPEAKER_00So it was nine to three. Levi and them were leading, and then the junior high kids start chipping away and they come back, and it I think it yeah, it's nine to nine, maybe. Yeah, Levi and them score, and then somebody, you gotta win by two. Yeah, yeah. He said, Ain't nobody said anything about winning by two.
SPEAKER_01Not this whole time, and they had said we're playing to eleven, it don't matter, right? Like that's how the the rules were going at the beginning until Levi scores hit eleven. It was like I gotta win my two.
SPEAKER_00So they went back and forth, and I think it ended up 15. Like they and it kind of went back and yeah, they kind of stayed together. And then uh the junior high kids won. They came back and they ended up winning, and Levi said they rushed to court.
SPEAKER_01Oh man, and the benches cleared. It was like uh they just won the NCAA bracket, like a tournament challenge, whatever it's called. Like they they legit cleared, I mean, dumping coolers on these kids, like it was awesome. I mean, it was awesome. Yeah, so cool, cool. The coolers were still out from wreck. I mean, they're just sitting there, so they're not full. These guys go and fill them up so that they can dump them on them. Like it was at they're like calling timeouts and they're coaching up the younger ones and stuff. It was it was so fun. Bringing them water bottles and all this stuff, dude. It was great. Yeah, so that was definitely uh the highlight of of camp.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so that was cool. I mean, knowing everything Levi went through and then having the for all three of them to have the mindset to to not make it about them.
SPEAKER_01Levi and and Quincy did it quickly. It took a little bit longer for Lex to catch on. At one point, Lex hit a three, and when I think Joe or somebody around me asked, like, are they letting them win? And I was like, uh, not like yeah, I mean, they're not not not, but they're do it, they did it in a way that the kids didn't feel that way. But two, Lex hit a three, and Levi looks at him like, What are you doing? He's like, Come on, man, like, what are you doing? I think that was to go up nine three, and uh it was like brother, like, come on now. So then I I think Levi was at the point of like, all right, let's put it away. Let's just be done with this. He throws it to Lex, who's standing under the basket, and it's Lex, he's tall. There's about two foot taller than this kid, don't even come up to his belly button, and Lex misses twice. What I know was on purpose, right? But he's like just hitting it too high, right? So it's hitting the edge of the rim, and then he's I mean, he's tall, so he's just grabbing the rebound, and then uh you could see Levi was like, I thought we was gonna be done, like we was gonna end it, and anyways, he ends up knocking it down to try to pass it to Levi, and the boy grabs it, runs up, and scores. It was like, Oh crap, okay, what are we doing?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so that was a cool um moment for I mean, even the kids, the junior high kids, like that's something they'll remember for the rest of their life, dude. Levi kind of wore it after after that. Had people come up to him.
SPEAKER_01Oh, the whole next day, man. It's like, bro, you gotta be my sixth grader. He's like, I did, but he, you know, it's Levi, so he's like, I got diabetes. He's like, My shoe was low.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_00So it was it was cool. Um, all in all, very successful camp. Um, so much that we're gonna do it again next year.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah, baby.
SPEAKER_00So our dates for next year, kids' camps July 5th through the 8th. Youth camp is July 22nd through the 25th. Um, so we look for other places for youth camp again to be a fifth year in a new place, but um the size we are and the dates just didn't work. So we are back at Springville, uh, July 22nd through the 25th. So if you are a church and you're looking for somewhere spots will fill up fast. Uh, so we will start putting stuff out here pretty soon about registration. Um, but if you want to support the ministry, we will love for you to be a part, whether that's donations, whether that's praying for us, or whether that's you serving and coming to help um at camp. Share the podcast, man. We yeah, five views is rough, bro. It was 493 to well back in June to to five uh so far.
SPEAKER_01So I guess that does tell us we need to uh record at camp next year.
SPEAKER_00Oh wait, we're up to six. Uh so merge ministry12 at gmail.com. If you have thoughts, comments, or just want to say hey, uh websites merge-ministries.com. You can find out about camps next year. We got to update the website, but find out about how you can be involved in different things that are going on. Um, so next week, I have no idea what we're gonna talk about next week. But we're done with camps, we'll figure out something. We'll figure it out. So if you got ideas, send us some ideas of things you would like to hear us talk about, things going on in your life that us two geniuses can give you our opinions on. We can help you, baby. I promise it'll be the right thing. Um, but other than that, get plugged in at your church, find somewhere to serve, and be Jesus to people. I don't know what else to tell you. So uh that's all we got. I guess until next week, we will see you then. Say bye.