Survival camp teaches teamwork and fellowship

T
he biggest growths come through the biggest challenges, and this last week was an indescribably incredible and challenging week at Survival, through Bold Ministries, at Camp Judson in Keystone, S.D. 
Team bonding, fellowship with like-minded believers in Christ, stargazing and worshiping our Creator under the curtain of bright and clear lights and just enjoying being outdoors in God’s beautiful creation made this week full of joy. We also learned so many valuable lessons about teamwork, what to do in a survival situation, reading maps and so much more. 
It’s difficult to narrow down my experience to just a few activities, but one of my favorite things about the week was getting to know my team and working together to accomplish all the various tasks we had to do. One of the most challenging was the obstacle course – especially scaling the 12-foot wall! 
Beyond the obstacle course, the week was full of “obstacles” that each team had to overcome. We cooked food over fires, made survival tools out of natural materials, hiked to an abandoned gem mine, tried our hand at various shooting sports, helped find “lost hikers” in the woods and put into action some of our survival training, and more! 
But one thing in particular really stood out to me. The speaker at our evening sessions this year was Bill Jack with Worldview Academy. His messages were challenging, inspiring and encouraging, and much of what he spoke about centered around worldview.
Our worldview is the lens through which we see the world. How we define right and wrong, how we act and how we believe. Everything we say and do stems from our view of the world. As Jack put it, “What you pour into a person’s mind will determine what he thinks, regardless of his heartfelt faith.”
It is with our hearts that we believe in Jesus Christ and cultivate a relationship with Him, but it is our minds that can be led astray. Jack reminded me of the importance to be secure in my worldview and confident in what I believe.  
“We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” – 2 Corinthians 10:5. 
We live in a society in which everything that opposes the truth of Christ and sets itself up against the knowledge of God is vying for our attention, trying to pry us away from our knowledge of the one who created us. And so often, we let those things win out, sometimes without even realizing it. I felt challenged to be more intentional to immerse myself in the truth of God’s Word. 
In addition, our society steeps everyone in secularism. Many people don’t even have exposure to the one truth and its source, but instead are bombarded with so many different versions of “truth.” Instead of hearing and seeing a clear representation of the truth, they’re told that everyone has their own truth, all of which are right in their own eyes. This comprises society’s worldview.
In light of this reality, Jack challenged me, as a Christian living in this world, to look beyond my own comfort zone and be bold about sharing the truth. Not with condemnation, not with pride, but because I genuinely love people and desire for them to know the sweet truth of Christ and the freedom only He can give. 
So, I ask you. What do you believe, and what is your worldview? How do you know that what you believe is true? And what if you’re wrong?
If you can’t answer these questions with confidence, then I challenge you to read these next words carefully. 
There is only one truth, and that is the truth found in the Bible, the inspired Word of God. That truth says that man is sinful, that we have all done bad things or thought bad thoughts. We’ve told lies or said things to people that hurt them. We’ve taken things that aren’t ours. The Bible is clear that these things lead to death, and there’s no way for us to cleanse ourselves from them. 
Fortunately, it doesn’t end there. I know a savior, his name is Jesus Christ, and he was and is God. Many years ago, he came to earth in the form of human flesh and lived a perfect, sinless life. The Bible says that the punishment for sin is death because God is a holy and righteous God. Atonement for sin has to be made. But Jesus, because he loved us with an undeserved love, took our sin on himself and died a horrible, pain-filled death on a cross. Crucifixion was reserved for criminals, but Jesus had done no wrong. By dying on that cross, he paid the debt for our sin once and for all, so that there’s no longer any debt left for us to pay. And to prove that he is God, he rose from the dead and conquered death and now offers eternal life to you and to me. All we have to do is trust in Jesus and accept his gift. 
It’s not by anything we can do; it’s all because of what the Creator did. And all that we do in this life is because of the Creator and for
his glory.