Big Stuf 2008

Hey Guys! This is Student Ministries and we just wanted to update you all regarding the trip that Mt. Bethel just participated in down in Panama City Beach, Florida called Big Stuf! All eighty of us crammed into one floor of a beautiful beach front hotel. The camp consisted of around 1,500 students from all around the nation from Texas to Indiana. The main theme of the camp was BROADCAST, meaning that everyone’s life broadcasts something, usually what we care about most. They challenged us, leaders and students alike, to question what messages we were sending out into the world and how we could better represent the Kingdom of Jesus Christ in our everyday lives. Big Stuf also partnered with an organization located in Kenya called Compassion which seeks to use our bountiful resources to aid children from Kenya to give them a hope and a future. To better understand what type of experience we had we would like to tell you more about what we learned from Big Stuf and BROADCAST and the Compassion organization.

The camp itself consisted of two daily sessions which included two talks from either Clay Scroggins or Jared Herd, phenomenal speakers, and an incredible worship band! Like we touched on the BROADCAST theme, each session focused on a sub-theme such as Live Loud, Live Clear, or Live True. We feel that the material focused on and the BROADCAST theme was incredibly relevant to all 1,500 of the students, middle school to college, which elected to say “yes” to Jesus and give Him a week of their lives. All together we believe that the kids walked away with a great message and a challenge to live out the message of Jesus Christ and broadcast His love to the world. One of the coolest things that we saw coming from this camp was the fellowship and general love for each other among our students. This was greatly developed through the sessions but mainly flowed from the small group times where the kids were able to be real with each other and get into each other’s lives. We believe that this week fully prepared each of the 1,500 students to now make an effective decision to follow Christ and broadcast His message to the world.

Earlier in the letter we mentioned Big Stuf’s partner organization, Compassion, located in Kenya. The kids were each given an opportunity to sponsor a child in Kenya for 32 dollars a month. This money provides food, education, and medication to allow these children a hope for the future. We believe that whether or not the kids decided to sponsor a child it truly made them question the stewardship of the material that they have been blessed with by God and to open their eyes and make them aware of the poverty throughout the world.

In closing, we as the Student Ministries team would like to thank you for giving your child the opportunity to experience the Big Stuf camp in Panama City Beach. We hope that your child will tell you all about their experience and share with you what they learned. We greatly enjoyed the fellowship that was ignited among us through the sessions, amazing praise and worship, and small group talk. We hope that you will encourage them in their jog with Jesus and encourage them to continue to stay involved with us in student ministries. Let us know if there is anything that we can do for you or your children and we will hopefully see you soon!

Your Student Ministry Team