Marybelle Kim and Abbey Kolacz are Assistant Counselors from the Downtown and North campuses and will be reporting on Bethlehem’s Jr High Camp this week from Camp Shetek in Slayton, MN. Enjoy the reports and use them to keep Bethlehem’s 6–8th graders in your prayers this week!*

And it is my prayer that your love may abound more
and more, with knowledge and all discernment,
so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure
and blameless for the day of Christ,
filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through
Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.
—Philippians 1:9–11

Greetings from Camp Shetek!

The three buses of campers arrived safely Sunday night after a hot, windy, but fun bus ride. We enjoyed an indoor picnic dinner after being welcomed to camp—some for the first time and others who are returning. After dinner, we went to our first activity where the campers were split up into four teams for the week. Reflecting our camp theme of the Olympics, the four teams are Japan (Red), Cambodia (Blue), Ecuador (Yellow), and Ireland (Green). To show their newly found patriotic spirit, each team created a team flag, a national anthem, and a poem for their team leader. After a couple night games, Team Japan is in the lead with 165 points.

Throughout the week, the campers will follow a story of characters that reflect what we are learning in our sessions. This year, the story is about five prideful Olympians who get lost in a teleporter and must work together to make it back to camp. In the first two videos, we were introduced to the Olympians who the program team then teleported and lost in the system. In the next video, we saw the Olympians narrowly escape a gang of lemurs. As of now, the program team is busily working to get them back to Shetek.

We had our first evening session Sunday night and our first morning session on Monday. This week at camp, Daniel Simmons and the Jr High Camp Daniel Simmons Band will be leading worship before all our sessions. During the first evening session, Pastor Daniel Viezbicke introduced the book of Philippians by sharing the impact it has had on his life. For the morning sessions, the guys and girls split up following worship. Cindy Nelson is teaching the girls and Pastor Gil McConnell and Patrick Claytor are teaching the guys, with assistant counselors sharing testimonies. We are excited to continue to dig deep into the book of Philippians and see what God has in store for us. With that in mind, please pray ...

• that the campers will be receptive to the word of God
• that hearts of stone would be replaced with hearts of flesh
• for the protection of everyone’s safety and health
• that we would have good weather
• that strong, Christian friendships will be formed
• for good small group discussions
• that Pastor Daniel and others would clearly present the gospel
• for campers to have fun!

We appreciate your prayers and support. We are excited to see how God will work this week!

*The authors’ names were updated July 20, 2018.