Camp Zion Week 6
Hello Camp Zion Families,
Carnival week was so much fun. Magic, games, inflatables and so much laughter. Our staff and volunteers had so many sweet conversations with the kid-o’s this week.
This week during lesson time we talked about the Shield of Faith. The Bible says that faith in God acts as a shield against evil. Satan is a super tricky bad guy. We need a shield to protect ourselves from his sneaky evil ways. With faith, we can defend ourselves. We can face any problem because we KNOW that God is always on our side. Faith helps to hold us up under pressure. It helps us to recall times when God has helped us up in the past, and that gives us reassurance that He will do the same in the future.
Here is what is coming next week.
July 23-26 The Week with No Theme.
Monday: Camp Zion Theater
Tuesday: Maplewood Park & Splashpad. Bring swimsuits & towels.
Wednesday: Movie Day (Wonder – rated PG) & Slip-n-slide. Bring swimsuits & towels.
Thursday: Soccer Zone. Online waiver required.
If you haven’t done so already clink on the following link to complete the online waiver for Soccer Zone. Anyone without a completed waiver will not be able to go on Thursdays field trip. https://letsplaysportsinc.waiverapps.com/locations/grandrapidssoccerzone
Code of Conduct update.
I am very thankful and happy that everyone’s listening skills were much improved this week. We do still need to work some more on watching the words we use. Not only with each other, but with everyone we meet throughout the day – at lunch, on fieldtrips and with visitors who stop in at church. Kindness and respect is something I want our campers to be known for throughout the community, but that takes some work on their part to always be using actions and words that built people up & not tear people down. Some more gentle reminders from you about this would be appreciated. 🙂
I hope you all have an amazing weekend.
See you on Monday.
Rachel
Zion E-News (7-19-2018)
On Tuesday this week, Camp Zion spent the day talking about the shoes of Peace in the armor of God in Galatians. As explained to them, the shoes of Peace are a willingness and a desire to share the good news about Jesus and our new life him, Rachel Verbrugge then explained that every staff member and volunteer was wearing the shoes of Peace and they would all be willing to talk about how to accept Jesus as their savior. And then, she prayed with the group as a whole and in the prayer asked God to give people who wanted to learn more about Jesus the courage to ask one of the staff or volunteers.
After the prayer, one of the students came up to Luke Austin to learn about Jesus. Luke explained the gospel and what it meant to accept Jesus into your heart. The child prayed with Luke to give their life over to Jesus.
Today, we celebrate a life changed by the gospel of Jesus!
Connect to God
Does prayer work? What can we expect from prayer? How do we pray anyway? Have you ever wondered why the disciples never asked Jesus how to preach or perform miracles – and all they asked Him was how to pray? Prayer gives us access to the very throne room of God. In prayer, we are shaped by the Holy Spirit. In prayer, we talk directly with the Kong of the Universe. Over the next several weeks, we will consider how Jesus taught us to pray in the Lord’s Prayer. This week, we consider the first of six request for God’s name to be made holy.
If you would like a copy of the worship service, you can receive a complete copy by contacting Tom Verbrugge or you can find the weekly messages on our website.
Grow in Community
We extend our sympathy to Greg and Michelle Stuyvesant in the passing of Greg’s mother Shirley Stuyvesant last week Tuesday. The funeral was held on Tuesday this week.
Mike MacGraw, Kathy MacGraw’s husband, had knee replacement surgery on Monday and is doing well recovering at home.
If you have been in church the last few weeks, you may have noticed the many children we continue to welcome in worship. Due to the continued growth in our children’s ministry, we will have a second room for children age 3 years old through 3rd grade to attend during worship this summer.
Serve the World
CityFest West Michigan will be held the weekend of September 8 and 9. For the last several months, the Luis Palau team has been working with churches and local service agencies to help churches connect with their community and celebrate all the ways the church is already blessing West Michigan. On September 8 and 9, there will be concerts, X-game type events, and the proclamation of the gospel. As part of the festival, we are looking for people who willing to be Festival Friends who will be trained in helping someone make those first few steps of discipleship. If you are interested in being a Festival Friend, there will be training on August 7 at 7 pm at Remembrance Reformed Church. We will also offer training at our next Leaders Meeting in August 26.
If you are interested in helping advertising and raise awareness of CityFest, we will have yard signs available in the narthex following worship on Sunday. This is an easy way to let your neighbors know you are open and willing to talk not only about CityFest, but also about your faith. We will also have prayer cards and invite cards available on Sunday.
There is only one more Neighborhood Park Party (formerly Hoops and Hotdogs) on July 31 from 6-7 pm. We had a great time at the first few Park Parties and are looking forward for the last one. These are great evenings to connect with neighbors, invite a friend, let the kids get some energy out on the playground, and enjoy a hotdog! A huge thank you to Tom MacGraw and Megan Taylor who make this event happen each time.
Administrative Details
Beginning this fall, we will be giving our first time visitors a new 30oz Zion travel mug and a free beverage at Biggby. But, you can get your very own Zion travel mug already on Sunday. We will be selling the mugs for $20 and you can buy as many as you want. They come in two colors, silver and gunmetal and both have a cool looking Zion logo. Cups will be available for purchase in the lobby following worship. (If you don’t want to buy one on a Sunday, they will also be available from the office during the week.)
We continue to thank God for his provision of all of our needs and for the generous support of our congregation with their time, talent, and treasures.
Fiscal Year to date budget: $76,126.40
Fiscal Year to date contributions: $56,514.01
Camp Zion 2018 Week 5
Hello Camp Zion Families,
It is hard to believe we passed the half way mark of our camp season this past week. Our time together is flying by way to fast.
This week during lesson time we talked about two different pieces of the Armor of God. The Breastplate of Righteousness & the Shoes of Peace.
- The breastplate of a soldier is what protects his heart from being hurt in battle. Our physical hearts are a great reminder of how wise and wonderful God is in creating our bodies. But we also have a different kind of heart – it’s the combination of our personality, our feelings, thoughts, hopes, and dreams that make us the special & unique people we are. Our hearts are very special to God because he thinks we are amazing. He doesn’t like our hearts to feel hurt or broken so he has given us the Breastplate of Righteousness to protect our hearts. You see God knows we are in a battle. A battle against Satan. Satan is the one who loves to cause trouble, spread lies and make us doubt Gods love. When we believe in Jesus, we can know we are right with God and that he does love us. This knowledge is the breastplate that protects our hearts. Just like a soldier will still feel the hurt of battle his heart is protected from fatal wounds so can the knowledge of Gods love protects us from Satan’s lies.
- Shoes help us to be ready for different situations in our every day life. Are we really ready for school or work if we don’t have our shoes on? There are even special shoes for playing sports, for swimming, fishing, hiking, rain, snow, parties, the beach and so on. We are excited and motivated and prepared to do the thing our feet are ready for. God has a special pair of shoes for us to put on called the Shoes of Peace (also called the Shoes of Readiness). When we have faith in God we are ready to show & tell Gods peace and love to other people.
Here is what is coming up next week.
July 16-19 – Carnival Week.
Monday: Magic Bob & Suzie.
Tuesday: CZ Carnival.
Wednesday: Learning Lab. (Lunch served at Zion. Menu includes: Hotdogs, chips, watermelon & lemonade.)
Thursday: 1st-4th graders = Play World. bring socks. 5th-6th graders = Mystery trip. Bring swim suits & towels
Reminder about the Soccer Zone waiver that needs to be completed for our upcoming fieldtrip. Thank you to those who have already gotten this completed. For those of you who haven’t yet follow this link https://letsplaysportsinc.waiverapps.com/locations/grandrapidssoccerzone When you have completed your waiver for your child please shoot me an email and let me know it has been submitted.
Other stuff:
Please be praying for our CZ staff members Jeremy, Brad and Kim as they are leaving Sat morning on a week long mission trip with the Zion HS youth group to Philadelphia, PA. We hope they have an amazing time serving in the community there, that they have safe travels both there and back, and that they are inspired and brought closer to God through the experience.
See you all on Monday,
~ Rachel
Camp Zion Week 4
Hello Camp Zion Families,
We had a great week 3 at Camp Zion. Leaders and kids alike were tired after staying up late watching fireworks but everyone did a good job staying positive and having fun with each other.
This week we introduced your kids to the first piece of the Armor of God, The Belt of Truth. Belts are an important part of a soldiers outfit. Not only are they fashionable but a belt holds the pieces of a soldiers armor in place so nothing falls apart or falls off in the middle of battle. The truth is like a belt – it also holds everything in place. The Bible, in John 14:6 Jesus tells us that He is THE TRUTH. He also says that the Bible, the word of God, is TRUTH. We need to make sure that we have the truth, both Jesus and the word of God in our lives. When we take the time to learn more about God and Jesus by reading the Bible we are filling ourselves with truth.
Our skit this week was about three young men, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego that believed so strongly in the truth of God that they were willing to be thrown into a fiery furnace rather than worship a golden statue that King Nebuchadnezzar had built. Because Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego were willing to die for the truth rather than disobey God, God saved them. When King Nebuchadnezzar’s saw the three men walk out of the furnace unharmed his eyes were opened to the TRUTH that God is real, and the King began to worship God immediately.
Here is what’s happening next week at camp.
Week 4 – July 9-12 – Community Week.
Monday – Learning Lab @ Zion
Tuesday – Wedgewood Park
Wednesday – Camp Zion Serves.
Thursday – Spartan YMCA. Bring swimsuits and towels.
Important Reminder: We have a fieldtrip to Soccer Zone coming up. Everyone needs to complete an online waiver for Soccer Zone or they will not be able to attend the fieldtrip. Follow this link to complete the waiver. https://letsplaysportsinc.waiverapps.com/locations/grandrapidssoccerzone
When finished send me an email confirming that your waiver is complete so I can mark you off of my list. Thank you.
Have a great weekend,
Rachel
Camp Zion Week 3
Hello Camp Zion families,
We had a wonderful week 2 at camp. It is nice to see the campers trying new things and making new friends.
This week during lesson time we talked about the strength of God. For one of our lessons I asked all the kids how strong they were. Two of our kid-o’s and one of our staff members thought they might be the strongest in all of camp so I asked them to prove it. I placed a ping pong ball inside a paper funnel. I asked the three of them to blow the ball out of the funnel. Despite their best efforts none of them could blow the ball out.
Just like the ping pong ball was too heavy for us to blow away, our problems can be too big to be solved without Gods strength. We can (and should) always ask God to give us strength to help us through difficult times. Sometimes He will give us physical strength, sometimes He will give us mental strength and sometimes He sends other people to help us.
Here is what’s coming next week.
July 2-5 Super Hero Week.
Monday: Gymnastics Unlimited. Dress cool – it gets super hot. Signed waiver required.
Tuesday: CZ Field Day: Bring Swimsuit & Towel.
Wednesday: CAMP CLOSED – HOLIDAY
Thursday: Tarry Hall Roller-skating. Wear socks. You are allowed to bring your own skates/blades if you would like.
I just finished putting the last load of tie-dye T-shirts in the dryer. They turned out cute. I will put everyone’s shirts in their cubby’s on Monday. I recommend washing them separately from your others clothes for the first couple of washes just incase they release more dye.
Don’t forget to check out all our photos on our Facebook page and Instagram to see what we’ve been up to at camp.
Hope you all find ways to keep cool this weekend.
Looking forward to week 3.
~Rachel
