Pre-Game Speech

I love football.  Everything about it.  It has been a part of my life since I was able to toddle around the living room and play tackle football in the living room with my dad.  I began playing flag-football in 3^rd grade and then played tackle football 4^th-12^th grades.  In college I played on some great intramural men’s and co-rec teams at the You of A (Go Hogs!), and I have been playing every fall on a men’s league team here in Rogers.  I really love football.

One of my favorite parts of playing football and being on a team was the Pre-Game speech.  After a week of practice, watching game film and getting ready to take on your opponent, our coach would sit us down and give us a final charge. 

A good pre-game speech isn’t long and it doesn’t take a lot of words.  It is your coaches’ final chance to get across the big picture… the things that matter.  Sometimes it isn’t strategy; most times it is about life and how to live.

Here is an example of one of my favorites:

In John chapter 12, Jesus begins his final week on earth.  He is aware of what is about to happen.  It is almost “Game Time.”  So in the chapters that follow he is going to line out the big picture.  What really matters and what he wants to leave his disciples with. 

As a staff, Monday morning we looked John chapters 12-18 as if it were Jesus’ Pre-Game Speech to us and tried to point out some of the main points.  As “Game Time” approaches, what does Jesus want us to take to the field.

Here are a few of our notes:

Chapter 13: Jesus washes his Disciples’ Feet- servant

Chapter 14: 6 “I am the way the truth and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through me.”

Chapter 14: 15-23 He repeats that if anyone loves Him, they will obey his commands 3 times!

Chapter 15 He is the vine and we are the branches and he will send the Holy Spirit to be with us.

These are just a few of the thoughts that we had.  What do you take away from Jesus’ “Pre-Game Speech?”

Jesse

A Word of Encouragement

As the summer is now over we begin to look at next year but before we move on we need think about last summer just for another moment. As program staff we get to read all your wonderful surveys around this time to see what we can improve on for next year. One of the best questions to read on the survey is to “take time to comment on your summer at Camp War Eagle”.  Below I wanted to highlight some of the comments from our surveys to encourage you now a few weeks removed from camp.

“It was a great experience! I loved getting to know a bunch of people and hanging out with kids.”

“My summer at cwe was fantastic.  I am really sad that it was so short.  I learned a ton from the individuals in higher positions, other counselors and most importantly campers.  Camp War Eagle rocks.”

“It was one of the most spiritually led times of my life. I felt so much love and support in everything that I did.”

“I absolutely love the staff here, and their ability to encourage other staff members!”

“It has been amazing! Loved every second and the opportunities The Lord gave me! Push me beyond my limits and I will be forever grateful for them!”

“I'm going to miss y'all dearly! I think that working with Ozone would be awesome and you guys are my favorite.”

I believe all of us can say that this summer changed our lives forever and years down the road you will still be seeing how much working here one summer has changed your life. I hope that these quotes are encouraging to you and help encourage you as the year goes on. We all need to hear encouragement through out our life and one great way to do this is writing a little note to somebody. As a staff we did that today during our devotional and this can be a powerful thing to do. I want to encourage you to take a moment and write a quick note, text message, or pick up the phone to call someone to encourage them. You might have not got a chance to encourage someone you were a co-counselor with, coached with, or helped taught a class with. Now’s your chance to encourage them it only takes like 5 minutes to send a quick note to someone to encourage them so you have no excuses.  

Shameless plug: If you miss camp and need to hear some encouragement we are still looking for a few more workers for our Mish Mash Live event at Camp. We are inviting families to come out and enjoy Mish Mash at camp September 15^th. Trust me seeing these families out here will bring encouragement to you  to see how much this summer impacted the home. If you’re interested email brad@campwareagle.org

Andy