The warmth of the sun and salty breeze of the ocean surrounded Bellevue’s high school students as they arrived in Panama City Beach, Florida. For many, Beach Week is anticipated for months, and for one week in June, students get to be decked out in themed attire and gather on the beach to hear of the good news of the Gospel.
During camp this year, the high schoolers went all out. Team shirts were designed, competitions were held, and nightly sermons were faithfully shared. Throughout the week the students were constantly poured into by the speaker, leaders, and their peers. High school junior Faire was excited to see how the Lord would grow her and her friends closer together and closer to Him.
“Bellevue is my church, and High School Ministry is my ministry, so getting to go away and be with everyone where everything is centered around the Lord, it truly filled me up with so much gratitude,” Faire said.
In preparation for Beach Week this year, Faire knew she wanted to make a change in hopes of allowing God to work in a way she hadn’t seen before.
“I am on SLT (Student Leadership Team), and we met weeks before Beach Week with Pastor Steve Spence, talking about how this year needs to be different and how we were going to make camp prayer-focused,” Faire said. “So this year we started something new, and as we would transition from Late Night games to worship, we would go out into the lobby into student-led prayer groups. The Lord was so faithful—everyone was immediately in a prayer group, and it was so natural and organic.”
This year was Faire’s third time going to Beach Week, and with the new framework of prayer, camp brought her a whole new experience with the Lord than years prior.
“It was truly more than just camp to me,” Faire said. “That first night on the beach with everyone that I love around me and singing with one voice while worshiping the Lord led me to drop to my knees and say, ‘Lord, do whatever You want with this week, it is simply to glorify You.’”
Because of Faire’s open-hearted posture before the Lord, she was able to leave all expectations behind and focus on the mighty works of her heavenly Father.
“This was the first year that I didn’t have any expectations for camp because I didn’t want to be chasing a camp high or a spiritual high,” Faire said. “The Lord put on my heart that this week was simply to praise Him and give Him glory, and camp is just a new setting to do that.”
The impact of Beach Week on Faire’s heart allowed her to experience a joy that only exists in the presence of the Lord and had her wanting to come back and share her experience with others.
“It’s the call of the Great Commission; it’s our job to not just keep it to ourselves—we have such good news, and it would be foolish to not share it,” Faire said.
Even though camp was just one week long, it was evident to Faire that God spoke to the hearts of many and called students into deeper relationships with Him. God is not limited to Laguna Beach, and He will continue to move in the lives of students now even after they have returned home.
“I know my God will work, but I don’t have to know how yet,” Faire said. “I have a confident expectation of who He is, and I trust in His character, so simply getting to praise Him and be in His presence is enough for it to be an awesome week.”
To find out more about what’s happening in Next Gen Ministry, visit bellevue.org/next-gen.