Learn about Jesus

Hello,

I hope you are all doing well this winter and that you are serving and fighting for Jesus despite your circumstances. He is God and will be worshipped.

Things are going well here at Jonah. We just had a group of 80+ this last extended weekend and we had the blessing of extra help from some staffers that came up from The Dalles and Gresham. It is truly a great thing to see people willing to serve Jesus with camp.

Also, many of our staff are able to attend conferences this week. I had the great opportunity to head to Gresham last weekend to attend the Fighting with God conference featuring several top ranked UFC fighters that love Jesus and 5 great speakers: Bill Russell, Scott Knight, Ryan Dobson, Darren Patrick, and Mark Driscoll. It was great to go to a conference that was all about Jesus and fighting for Him in this life with all we do. It was also cool to see how a very popular culture for young men is being permeated by Christians and ultimately Jesus.

Many of the rest of the Jonah Staff are currently in Jefferson, Oregon attending the Great Commandment Church Seminar at Jefferson Baptist. The Conference is mainly about Prayer and it implementation in Ministry.

So the cool thing is that we, as a staff, are being given the opportunity to learn more about Jesus. He is the one we serve, He is our camp director and to learn more about Him is a great thing because, by His Grace, we can serve Him better.

I pray that you are all learning more about your King. Begin studying the Bible if you are not already. The whole Bible is about Him, so check it out. Start reading books, listening to sermons, or going to conferences about Jesus. It is very important that we study the faith we should be living. If we know nothing about what we claim to live for, how deep does it really go?

Also, we are accepting staff applications for this summer, so if you or someone you know is interested in serving Jesus this summer at camp check out the application.

Keep Jonah in your Prayers and Worship Jesus.

Soka

For more about studying the Word check this out http://theresurgence.com/the_studying_christian

The End of Camp, The Beginning of Eternity

I would like to proclaim that the Jonah Programmed Winter Camps are now completed for 2009. We just finished the winter camp of the Jr. High persuasion and it went very well. Fun was had by all and all were challenged by the message of Jesus. I believe God challenged many campers, leaders and staff this weekend and He saved at least three people. Praise God for His grace and salvation.

This weekend was a crazy, fast-passed, exciting whirlwind. There were some great games led by Log the Game Guy. Snow time was very cool, combining field games, zipline, caving and tubing behind some snowmobiles. The Ugly Sweater Party was a hit and very ugly because campers did a good job at picking sweaters or a horrible job. Campers went through all the stations and were entered into a drawing for summer camp. We were able to give out 6 gift certificates for Summer Camp 2009. Tractor and the band came back and sang some great music to Jesus and Pro told the camp about Jesus and challenged them in the Word, which is a great thing. Thank you all for your help, Jesus used us to put on a great camp and that is really cool.

I was thinking about how easy it is to be pumped up about camp and not as pumped about “regular life.” But I was thinking how THREE campers were saved by Jesus during this camp. What a great thing to be a part of. Obviously, camp was a really cool weekend for them, but the end of camp is the beginning of an eternity. They have the opportunity to worship God with everything, to live every day for Jesus, to begin growing by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, to find there joy in Jesus and nothing else. What a beautiful thing.

I hope you can all realize that if Jesus has saved you then you are living the beginning of eternity and you can live for yourself or Jesus. I would hope that it is an easy choice, but it is so often not. Living for Jesus now means getting a great head start and storing up great rewards in Heaven instead of grasping for the fleeting treasures of the present. I can think of no better words than the ones I wish to hear when I first see Jesus, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”

 

Proud to do Kingdom Work,

Soka

Keep on Pushing

Pushing Forward

I will periodically be letting you all know how much we have raised towards the important purchase of the bus barn. 

Slush or Snow, Winter Camp for Jesus

Hello Jonah followers,

I hope the New Year is continuing to roll on nicely for you all. I hope, also, that you are living your life for Jesus, because if you’re not doing it for Jesus you’re doing it wrong. What grace from God we have that we even exist today let alone have a relationship with Jesus. A friend of mine recently said, “The only thing we deserve is Hell. That should make our lives seem
pretty awesome.”

Everything is rolling along here at Jonah. We just had a group here last weekend for an extended weekend retreat. It was a Ukrainian group from Kent, WA. They brought 40+ from ages 15-22. They were a great group and used there time to have some fellowship and learn from the Word, which is a great thing. They also got to play in the snow and go caving as well as take some rides on snow mobiles.

We are really excited about Jr. High Winter Camp coming up. We get to tell more people about Jesus and His amazing gift and grace, it is a wonderful thing to be able to tell people about Jesus and I hold it as a high honor to be given the opportunity to do so. I would ask that you be praying for all that are planning and executing that we will be pointing to Jesus and never ourselves.

Here are some more prayer requests: Snow mobiles are important, but they are in the shop, the weather looks like rain and then sunshine which equals slush and not good snow,  and we don’t have any inner tubes yet because they were burned/melted in the fire. All of this to say that we may be hard pressed for a snow time, so pray that this problems will be remedied or that God will work through us with inspired creativity so that by bringing fun to the campers we can also bring Jesus to them.

I pray that you are praising God for the grace in your lives and that you are sharing it with others. Thank you for your prayers.

Proud to do Kingdom Work

Soka