Pray for B16 at Honey Rock

A friend just sent us a beautiful prayer letter for their son, who is leaving for Honey Rock next week, the same camp where B16 has been for nearly two weeks.  In a similar manner, I'd like to ask my readers to join us in prayer for B16, at least as you read this!

First of all, he's gone for a month...and we really miss him!  So pray for us!

Most of all, pray that he encounters God in a deep and meaningful way.  Especially while he's "unplugged," (no cell phones or iPods allowed), may he recognize God's voice in the stillness.  This happened for him last year, at the two week camp, and his counselor commented that B16 would benefit from a longer time "unplugged."  This is my daily prayer for him, that he would hear and recognize God speaking to him.

Pray for godly wisdom for his counselors.  His relationships with his counselors the past two years have been significant in his life, and he expected to have one of them again this summer.  After he left, we received an email introducing his counselors, and neither one is his guy from last year, so I'm sure he was disappointed. I'm praying that he will connect with the new guys just as well and benefit just as much from their spiritual leadership.

Pray for safety.  They spend 8 days camping in the wilderness (and I don't know how well-prepared he was for that, since I didn't help him pack), plus they'll spend a lot of time in and around a lake.  One of the counselors drowned in that lake two summers ago, swimming alone one morning, and B16 isn't really a swimmer.

Lastly, he made a big decision just before he left, and I'm praying that God will confirm it with a great sense of peace, or show him if he should change his mind.  It's about his education for next year, for 10th grade. This past year, his guitar-playing and song-writing have really taken off, and he wants more time to practice guitar, pick up piano again, take voice lessons, and play regularly at church and with his band.  We keep telling him the only way he's going to have time for all that is if he goes the virtual school route, just for a year, and this is the year to do it, rather than his junior or senior year.  (I keep signing him up for iQ Academy--the virtual charter school that B12 attended last year--every February during the open enrollment period, to keep that option open.)  He can always change his mind and pull out of the virtual school and go back to the Christian school, but he can't do the reverse.  And the virtual school will give him a Fine Arts Independent Study half-credit for all the music activities, plus another for any theater production he's in, so he comes out ahead on his transcript.

Since February, he's come all the way from "absolutely no way I'm willing to leave my friends and be homeschooled again" to telling us before he left: "I'm going to do the homeschool thing so that I can spend next year focusing on music."  Only God could have effected that change in his mind and heart!

I want to wait and see how he feels when he gets home, though, before I send in any school fees. I've had a strong sense that this time at camp will be significant for making this decision, and I'm fine with either choice he makes.  I am excited about the opportunities this next year could bring for him, but I'm also aware of the time and energy it could require from me to have him around again.  At least he should get his license in October!

Thank you, Lord, for the experiences B16 is having at camp.  Good or bad, I know he will receive them as for his good, and I pray he can hear clearly your voice speaking to him.  Whether in the silence or in the midst of much activity, may he hear you and develop ears and a heart to always hear you.  Shape his character, his masculinity, his gifts of compassion and mercy, and most of all, his relationship with you.  May it grow strong in virtue to withstand temptation and vice.  May he be strengthened spiritually as he is physically. Thank you for your love and care for him always and everywhere.  Amen.