CYIA East 2011

My summer started off when I headed to CYIA East. Little did I know, I was in for one extremely tiring first month of camps. Christian Youth in Action(CYIA) is a Christian training for teens. The training is based off of CEF(Child Evangelism Fellowship). The main goal of CYIA is to equip Christian teens to share the gospel with children in a 5 day club. At CYIA East when you sign up for a camp you're required to commit to teaching at least four 5-day clubs throughout the summer. This is a big commitment as it means committing a good portion of your summer to ministry. Keeping that in mind the young adults that come to training are there for one reason- to share the gospel with children.

My cabin for that specific week was extremely energetic. For the most part most of the girls knew each other before coming to camp. Although, it was a blast- it was definitely very tiring! Honestly, it makes me laugh looking back on it. God was preparing me for what the rest of my summer would look like. The girls I had in my cabin that week were so much fun. However, I'm not sure there was a ever a time when we got to sleep on time. *innocent look*. We had lots of silly times in the cabins together. When it came to settling down and having evening devotionals- these girls were such an encouragement. I loved spending time with them all. They had a lot to say and it was great. 

Funny highlight of this week...At the beginning of the week I heard tons of screaming ANY time ANY type of bug was in sight. The girls soon learned not to scream. If they screamed- I would come to the bugs rescue, pick it up and place it outside. None of the girls really liked that all that much. :)

 

Here is a slideshow put together by Ryan Folken(one of the CYIA staffers) 

Unfortunately, picture taking  has never been my strong point. This summer was no exception. I didn't take near as many pictures as I would have liked. Hopefully this gives you at least somewhat of an idea of what this training looks like. As you can see there's lots of studying involved. There really isn't that much free time during CYIA. Teens go there expecting that, too.

The theme for CYIA East 2011 was "For God and God Alone"

From the things I saw that week most of the campers desired this in their lives. They desired to live for God and God alone.  It excites me so much to see teens wanting to live their life for the Lord! I pray that they would have the strength and courage to carry it out. Also, that I would also be an encouragement as they try to live this out in their daily lives.