Sugar Pine Winter Camp 2010

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Hope you can join us this winter!

What's Going On Now

This summer at Sugar Pine was pretty amazing! Listening to all of you share at Friday night campfire was a testament of just how good and amazing God is. But we know He's not just amazing at camp. So this is the place to talk about what God is doing with your life since you left camp. Many of you are back at school and doing everything that goes along with that, and it offers you tremendous opportunities to share with others what their true identity is. So whether God has continued to show you things for your life or he has been using you to impact others please comment below and share with everyone else how God continues to to be amazing in your life.

Do You Know Who You're Talking To?

Ah the famous line, "do you know who you're talking to?" It usually ends in a fight, which isn't so good. But in reality it's a pretty good question for us to think about. Who are we talking to? Who is that classmate who seems so strange to you and who is that guy on the street asking you for some spare change? What is their Identity? We tend to treat people different because they seem different. But in reality they aren't different at all, at least not in a bad way. Check out this quote from C.S. Lewis. It comes from his book, The Weight of Glory.

There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilizations--these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit--immortal horrors or everlasting splendours. This does not mean that we are to be perpetually solemn. We must play. But our merriment must be of the kind (and it is, in fact, the merriest kind) which exists between people who have, from the outset, taken each other seriously--no flippancy, no superiority, no presumption. And our charity must be real and costly love, with deep feeling for the sins in spite of which we love the sinners--no mere tolerance, or indulgence which parodies love as flippancy parodies merriment. Next to the Blessed Sacrament itself, your neighbor is the holiest object presented to your senses.

So most of this quote may not have made a ton of sense to you so allow me to summarize. The people at your school, on your team, in the band, even your family... they aren't normal. I don't mean they are weird, I mean that they are all extraordinary people! They are intended to be people who live forever along side their Father, God. We should see each other not as too short or too clumsy or too smelly, but rather as people who God loves so incredibly much that he wants to spend all of eternity with us, or as Lewis writes, "immortals." If you look at people in this way does it change how you view them? Are they still the person who isn't smart enough, athletic enough, attractive enough or is he/she the person who God thinks is so great that He has invited that person to be an important part of his life for all of eternity? Try spending your day looking at others not as you see them, but as immortals who are one of the "holiest" things you can physically experience.

Summer 2009: IDENTITY

This summers theme at Sugar Pine is Identity. What exactly does that mean? Well, too often we attempt to derive our identity from what we do: sports, grades, the way we look, who we hang out with... In reality it's not what we do but who we are that gives us our identity (If you saw the movie Batman Begins they got it backwards). So who are you? You are God's chosen one, his child in fact. When we live our lives based on this identity it truly changes everything. We look forward to joining with you this summer to come together and better understand who we really are and why it matters!

Speaker Bio: Roger Royster

Roger is a visual arts educator, artist, and family man. He has been involved in educating students for nearly 30 years, eleven of which have been as a visual arts teacher. Roger has been speaking at camps for over 20 years and he likes to incorporate his art into his speaking. He started the ArtSplash festival, a sidewalk chalk festival for the students at his school. You can check it out here. Roger also loves Mountain Bike riding and having a great time. Roger will be speaking at Senior High 2 this summer.

Speaker Bio: KJ Stephens

K J Stephens is the High School pastor at Bayside Church in Roseville, Ca. He has been involved in youth ministry for over 13 years, and most of those years were spent with Jr. High students. He is in youth ministry because he has a passion to help students love people and love Jesus. When not hanging out with students, KJ can be found snowboarding with his wife, Brooke, or wrestling with his 120-pound dog. He and Brooke are expecting their first child in September. See what K J and his youth group are up to at www.thebridgeatbayside.com. K J will be speaking at Junior High 1.