Lao Evangelical Church

By Nha Long

Our First day at Heavenly Hills Camp

Twain Harte, CA – My wife and I arrived at Heavenly Hills campsite approximately 9:30 PM in the evening on Saturday. The temperature was in the low 75 degrees for that evening. We did not get used to the weather in the central valley because we came from the Orange County area. Our main purpose trip is to spend a good quality time with the youth campers for a week.

About 5:30 AM on Sunday morning, I woke up and wanted to check around the campsite. I started walking outside within the campsite perimeter around 6 AM. It was quiet, perfect, and peaceful morning. I could smell the fresh and clean air in the morning. I observed birds flying from tree to tree and saw squirrels running up and down on the campground. It started out with clear sky and beautiful day.

As the morning went by, youth campers from Banning were the first church group to show up at 8:35 AM with two-twelve passengers vans and a pick up truck loading with campers’ luggage. The rest of the church campers were arriving followed by one church at a time throughout the rest of the afternoon.

Banning church campers

According to the Youth Headquarter Board, the youth camp for this year, there were more than 150 campers, not including the parents and some of the children. It appeared to be a good turnout than the previous year.

The theme for the youth camp this year is R.E.H.A.B. “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone and the new has come.” 2 Corinthians 5:17

R.E.H.A.B will breakdown as follows: R = Renew, E = Energize, H = Hope, A = Attitude, B = Behavior

Many of the great pastors and speakers were invited to give a sermon about each of the mentioned-topic a day.