DIRT Update

If you want to hear an amazing story call me and I’ll tell you about DIRT Camp. Especially our worship service on Friday where seven students received Christ! Both leaders and students said they have never experienced anything like it. 
Our theme was “Supernatural” which is the perfect expression for this camp. God was in our midst and it was supernatural...


7 salvations, 11 rededications & 20 other decisions!


496 Man-hours Served on Mission Projects!

These projects included painting the house of an elderly lady, raking yards for shut-ins, serving at four nursing homes, moving a thrift store and the projects described below.


$419 Donated to Third World Needs!

Students earned $1 coins each day in competitions. On the last day we gave students the option to purchase items for third world families out of a Samaritian’s Purse catalog or they could buy candy with their coins. Only $4 was spent on candy! Now listen to this: We only gave out $282 worth of coins. The additional $141 came out of the pockets of our students and leaders!


36 Parachutes Made to Drop Hope in Columbia!

This project targets the Farc Rebels who kidnap students and force them to be gorilla fighters. Often suicide becomes their only escape. The parachutes drop Bibles, radios and hope!


Operation Beanie Babies was a Success!

67 beanie babies and 53 pounds of candy were collected to be given to children in the middle east by our soldiers in hopes of winning their hearts. Students also created 66 cards to encourage our troops.

God is Awesome!

With our new location at Sequoyah Caverns and 98 participants, DIRT Camp could not have been anything less than “The Best DIRT Camp Ever”.  Students loved the worship time in the caverns’ “Ball Room” where lives were changed every night. We experienced 6 salvations, 31 rededications, and 29 other spiritual decisions!

Each morning the students went out and got their hands dirty while racking up over 550 volunteer-hours of community service. They served at assisted living and nursing homes, remodeled an elderly man’s bathroom, cut fire wood, did yard work, cleaned-up people’s property, cool sealed roofs and anything else we ask them to do. Each day two teams went to downtown Chattanooga to respectfully share their faith through conversations and tracting. Many students said this was one of the highlights of camp!

As a new twist this year, we let the students choose their adventures. We offered Caving, Skeet Shooting, Horseback Riding, Kayaking, Canoeing, Disk Golf, Ultimate Frisbee, Swimming, Mountain Hiking and of course the famous Mud Bowl! We also had exciting games, food challenges and the “Mayonnaise Skit” (you just had to be there!). Soon we will have a camp video available that can be viewed on our web site. The video will include the “Mayonnaise Skit”.

As always, camp was not without it’s challenges. Many students stayed in tents this year and we had some storms that drove us into a local community center one night. We picked-up a few bumps and bruises and by the end of camp we were all worn out, but without all that it would not be camp.

For all of you who have prayed and all who have given donations to sponsor students and underwrite this camp, there are no words to express our gratitude. Because of your partnership in this ministry many students and adults have been touched spiritually. You are the heroes of DIRT Camp. You may not have been there physically, but I carried you in my heart every moment of camp...

THANK YOU!

HEART OF A HERO!
Our theme for Winter DIRT Camp was “Heart of a Hero” and everything we did was designed to inspire students to allow Jesus Christ to give them a hero’s heart filled with His love. From start to finish, this camp was something very special and God’s presence was very real throughout.

LIVES WERE CHANGED FOREVER
We rejoiced as seven students accepted Christ as their Savior and eight others came forward to rededicate their lives to the Lord. In all, out of 75 attendees, there were 43 spiritual decisions made! Students committed to serve more, pray more, honor God more, and grow spiritually.

HEROES TO THE COMMUNITY
On Thursday and Friday, we sent teams of students out to serve in the community of Norman Park, Georgia. We visited and ministered at nursing homes. We served elderly folks by working in their yards and houses. We helped to beautify the community by raking and spreading pine straw in various locations. It was a blessing to partner with the Georgia Baptist Conference Center at Norman Park to log over 500 man hours of community service in two days. These students proved their hero’s heart!

HEROES TO THE WORLD
To drive home the “Heart of a Hero” message we did something really crazy. We put up $500.00 for students to win during camp. In selected competitions students could win $1.00 tokens that they would be able to cash in on the last day of camp. You can imagine how excited they were about that! Our scoring system allowed every participant to win anywhere from $6.00 to $18.00.

On the last day of camp we all gathered in Hope Chapel to allow students to cash-in their hard earned rewards. But instead of just handing out money, we handed out catalogs from Samaritan's Purse. These catalogs are a wonderful bridge to offer hope to the needy around the world. They offer the opportunity to purchase and send a wide range of items, from school supplies to water purification systems.

We promised the students that we would pay out cash to whoever wants it, but we also wanted to give them the opportunity to be a hero to the needy of our world. We shared that with the money due them, which for most would not even be enough to buy a CD, they could be a hero and change someone’s life forever. Needless to say most students grabbed up the catalogs and began to  browse the many opportunities to express their Hero’s Heart.

HERE IS WHERE IT REALLY GETS INTERESTING
There were some items that students could buy for $10 or less, but many of the high impact items were pretty expensive. For example, a goat cost $70 and a family water filter cost $100. Students started calling out, “Who wants to help buy a goat?” Others called out, “We are trying to buy medicine, who want’s to help us?” Teams of buyers began to form and their financial goals were soon reached with cheers! When the coins ran out I watched students start pulling their own money out of their pockets to help purchase items. As I think about it even now I’m almost moved to tears. It was thrilling and inspiring to see.

OUR HEROES’ FINAL TALLY
Here is what students were able to accomplish:

• 1 week of dinners for one hungry child.
• 30 seedling fruit trees for a family’s food and income.
• 2 Dairy animals for a family to have milk and income.
• 1 warm blanket for someone who is homeless.
• 4 life saving Mosquito nets to protect small children.
• 2 hungry babies will be fed for one week.
• 12 baby chicks for a family to have eggs and income.
• 50 people supplied with vital life saving medicines.
• 1 family water filter with health-and-hygiene training.
• 1 student took cash to buy groceries for her family.

Better yet, every item will be delivered by a Christian worker who will share the love of Christ with every individual. Now, I know you are wondering how many students took the cash. When we were all done over 90% of the students had given their earnings to Samaritan's Purse. That told me that we accomplished our goal to inspire students to be heroes!

I need to mention one last group of heroes. They are the handful of heroes that pray and give faithfully to this ministry. Without your prayers and financial support this camp would not have happened. Let’s rejoice together because today we have more treasure laid up in heaven!

1 Corinthians 3:8-9 “Now he that plants and he that waters are one: and every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labour. For we are laborers together with God.”