Dive Deeper.

Noah Brown, a staff member of ours, was swimming in the lake recently. Seems uninteresting, right… wrong. Mr. Brown’s watch popped off his wrist and sank to the depths below. Panic set in as he began searching for the thing he lost. The parallels started to draw themselves. We, as Christians, can place distances between us and God, sometimes intentionally, other times accidentally. We lose our focus and allow our relationship with Jesus to fall away and sink beneath the sin. 

However, the thing we forget is that He is still there, right beside us, still loving us even in our time of rebellion, waiting for us to dive a little deeper, to grasp on to His will once more. As others helped search for the watch in the shallower areas, it was Noah who had to take the plunge. He went deeper than anyone else around him and found the watch! He came back up to the surface, watch in hand and a joyful smile spread across his face.

Now this story could have had a completely different ending. Maybe yours did. Maybe you have it in your head that you have put too much distance between you and God. Maybe you think there is too much struggle to overcome. I’m here to tell you, NOTHING can separate you from the love God has for you (Romans 8:35-39). So, maybe there are some things you need to remove from your life; that’s everyone. We all can improve our relationships with the Almighty. Some things just take time, some more, others less. Yet, we all still must take that dive of faith, searching out and finding Him. 

No matter what comes between you and Him, He is always there patiently waiting on you to just dive a little deeper…

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Author & Photography | Koda Moody
Groups Pictured | New City Middle School & Berry’s Grove

The Summer With No Camp

Without summer camp this year, many things were missed. Campers didn’t have outdoor fun with the mountains surrounding them or those memorable and engaging conversations with their Guides (counselors). Guides didn’t have the opportunity to pour into campers or find a community of people sharing a common goal with them, stretching them, knowing them, serving with them.

No one faced and overcame terrifying things like making it across and stepping off the platform of the high ropes course. Groups didn’t have the opportunity to grow together through team building at low ropes. Youth pastors weren’t given the time to just be and connect with their teens without the pressures of running the program.

Teens weren’t able to know each other more deeply, or find a sense of belonging, or to be known by people who truly care about them and believe in them. Teens and adults weren’t able to escape their noise to hear the whisper of God. To pull out of their every day context to contemplate big and important things or to find fresh perspective for their circumstances. They weren’t able to be filled with the hope that comes from hearing God’s Word and seeing it come alive to them personally. So much felt lost this summer as “COVID” shut the world down.

Sometimes that realization can feel hopeless, especially as the world continues to be so far outside of our normal. But this, friends, is not where we want to land. Because if you’ve walked with Jesus for any amount of time you know He makes a way where there is none. He brings into existence what doesn’t exist. He is the God of HOPE! So, we can’t sit in the place of what isn’t, or the fear of what we don’t know. We have to walk in faith if we are to be followers of Christ. What’s the old hymn?

Turn your eyes upon Jesus. Look full in His wonderful face, And the things of earth with grow strangely dim, in the light of His glory and grace.

Helen H. Lemmel, 1922

That’s the key. Looking to Jesus and not the mess surrounding us. He’ll lead you safely through, wrap you in His peace, and fill you with His joy. The world needs Jesus followers like this! Are you in?

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Author | Cassi Photography | Adrienne + Ellie B.

In This Season

This past year of my life has been unlike any other. It was the first time in 18 years that I wasn’t in school. I was super excited about being done and moving to my dream job to start working in a ministry I really wanted to get behind. I started off last summer well and was so sure I made the right decision to work at camp, but then the summer ended and everything got harder. All the people left and the ministering to people part of my job seemed to come to an end. For a while, I kept telling myself everything was okay because I love the place I work and the people I work for. Over time my view changed. It became harder and harder to do the background work for the ministry and not be able to do the ministering. I have struggled through this the whole year and have wanted to fix it, but I just held on to the hope that the summer was coming soon.

Fast forward to right now. As a camp, we have decided we will not be running our summer program this year (which in my opinion was logically the right decision), yet I feel crushed by the fact that it will be a whole year until I can do the thing that I love most again.

From most of the people I have talked to and also just from the things going on in the world around us, I think there is a lot of hurt and frustration. I don’t know what the answers to fix all the problems are (and if you know me, I want to fix all the problems) and I am so frustrated because I don’t know what to do.

Then, I found myself reading Ecclesiates 3:1-8. It’s a fairly popular passage, but nonetheless it says:

“For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:

a time to be born, and a time to die;
a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted;
a time to kill, and a time to heal;
a time to break down, and a time to build up;
a time to weep, and a time to laugh;
a time to mourn, and a time to dance;

a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together;
a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
a time to seek, and a time to lose;
a time to keep, and a time to cast away;
a time to tear, and a time to sew;
a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
a time to love, and a time to hate;
a time for war, and a time for peace.”

I was reminded me so quickly of my need to sit at the feet of Jesus and recognize this is a time that needs to happen. This is a season I don’t understand and I wish I did, but I do know that through this, the Lord will be glorified. Of this I am confident. I don’t have to get it or even be happy all the time about everything, but I do need to continue to worship my Lord and Savior in this time and love everyone around me.

There will be a new season and new time eventually, but until then my hope is still found in the Lord.

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Author | Sam Wammock     Photos| Adrienne Cicero

The Balancing Act

by Marty Paul

Balance. There has to be balance.

I have lived long enough to know life can get really busy with lots of things taking every minute of my day. Early in my marriage with a young family, I was teaching school and coaching basketball. My kids were gym rats because I was always gone and they were usually with me. If I wasn’t planning my work, I was serving at church in student ministries or raising my family and taking time with my wife. When all this is going on, it’s easy to think I can get by with a few minutes of quiet time with God. It’s always easy to put God on the back burner because, hey, I was doing life!

In Galatians 5:13-17, Paul tells us not to turn our freedom into an opportunity for the flesh. He doesn’t want us to fall back into sin and worldliness. Paul goes on to tell us to walk by the Spirit and we won’t carry out the desires of the flesh. The flesh sets us against the Spirit because they are in opposition to one another. There is nothing wrong in living your Christian life like I was, but when it leads to less time with God and more time with works, there becomes an imbalance.

Life will become hard to navigate as more struggles come into our lives. By spending time each day in God’s Word, we will be able to pursue the life of sanctification, of being made holy, like Jesus. Can I ask: Are you putting in the time…the required quietness so God can speak into your life each day?

Let me encourage you today to walk by the Spirit. The Holy Spirit lives within you to empower you to walk in this struggle called life. We always make time for what we want to do. I hope you are making time for Jesus.

“Put on the Lord Jesus Christ…”

Romans 13:14

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Author | Marty Paul     Photography | Adrienne & Cassi

Life | When God Feels Absent

by Selah Werner

Hey guys!
So today I want to share something that has been popping up a lot lately, and something I personally need reminding of myself.

I have reached the point in my life where I am faced with the “what’s next” question. I need to decide where I want to go and what I want to do after I graduate high school. This feels so daunting and overwhelming. I sometimes feel like I’m walking in the dark or in fog and I can’t really see what’s in front of me. I’ve been reminded recently that the waiting is an important part of the process and can actually sometimes feel exciting!

Waiting is not my most favorite thing to do. In fact, I can be quite impatient in life. There’s a big part of me that wants the frustrating things fixed, the questions answered, the chaotic things quieted. But really, what’s the fun in just arriving at something without the journey? The adventure is where it’s at, so I’m told 😂.

I think God likes the adventure part because it stretches and pushes us to trust Him like never before. The adventure tends to pull us in close to Him and allows us to see Him work. Where will He take us next?

I love when people tell their stories of life. Taking a look back at our story helps us see a little better just what God was doing, how He perfectly timed everything and arranged things better than we could have ever done ourselves. During the waiting process, God can feel absent. It’s hard connecting with him during this time, but I wonder if by trusting that He’s present when He doesn’t feel like it causes us to actually exercise our faith in the best of ways. I know He really is there and has control of all the things. Sometimes we just need reminded.

Psalm 62 demonstrates this well. Verse one and verse 5 are similar:

“For God alone my soul waits in silence; from him comes my salvation. (v1)

For God alone, O my soul, wait in silence, for my hope is from Him.” (v5)

Isn’t it interesting how verse one says, “My soul waits in silence”, while verse five says, “Oh my soul, wait in silence”? It’s that reminding of, “Okay, Self, keep waiting because God really is my hope and salvation.” Just as David reminds us all throughout the Psalms, we can have peace knowing “that the power belongs to God (v11).” We can overflow with peace and find patience to wait in silence when we remember who He is. (see also Job 40) The scary trek in the dark then becomes a hope-filled adventure!

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Author | Selah Werner    Photography | Cassi

Living In Tents can be Intense!

by Shaun Werner

“For we know that when this earthly tent we live in is taken down (that is, when we die and leave this earthly body), we will have a house in heaven, an eternal body made for us by God himself and not by human hands.”

2 Corinthians 5:1

I don’t know if you’ve heard me say it or not, but one of the phrases I like to use at camp is “Camp is intense! We sleep in cabins, but camp is in-tents!” This play on words, among many others, is one of my favorites. So much so, that my lovely wife made a shirt several years ago that expressed this saying.

We also used this idea of camp and life being intense for our summer camp theme — were you here that year? Based out of 2 Corinthians 5:1-2, we talked about how our bodies are earthly tents and we have an eternal home in heaven.

Remembering this earth is not our home, this life is temporary, we are just passing through offers hope in times of trouble and encourages us to not invest in things that are fading away.

I Peter 2:11 also encourages us to abstain from worldly desires because we are sojourners or temporary residents. Our perspective, or rather God’s perspective from His Word, helps us to stay on track as we seek to follow Him. God’s Word encourages and calls us to this higher road of living for what we cannot see, to walk in this faith that stretches beyond our right now.

I don’t know about you, but what’s happening around me seems to distract me from this big picture living more than I want it to. My focus gets so easily pulled from the eternal things and placed on things that, in the end of all things, really don’t matter at all.

So I leave you with this encouragement: stay in the Word daily so God’s perspective becomes ours and can rightly be placed on the eternal things. Let’s keep stepping toward abstaining from the “worldly desires” today so we can be in pursuit of those eternal desires as we keep passing through to our eternal home! Keep walking, Young People!

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Photography | Cassi Werner

Being a Foodie is Super Spiritual

Written by Patti Paul

Food. I must confess, I think about food much more than I’d prefer. Being the WM Head Cook is honestly not my favorite WM task, however, I recognize the importance of food for our guests as it provides daily nourishment and represents friendship, community and welcome.  If you’ve been to Whisper Mountain maybe you’ve experienced the “voted #1 favorite meal” – Poppyseed Chicken.  However you may prefer the Grilled Pork Chops or the fun Fiesta Bowl! Yum! So, tell me, what is your favorite food at WM, or anywhere?

In the Gospels, food is mentioned about 90 times. Luke’s gospel is full of stories of Jesus eating with people. When God created humans He articulated the human body to require the need of food for energy,  growth, repair, and warmth.  Lack of proper daily nutrients will cause malnutrition and will lead to a variety of health problems and ultimate death.

The love of food is universal!  In fact, did you know that Americans spend more than $60 billion annually on nutrition and weight loss products? In the past 12 years, over 5,000 publishers produced 200,000 cookbooks. There’s also a plethora of food information available on social media and tv chefs. The human race seems obsessed with food and over indulging in it.  In the end, most nutritionists agree that eating a daily, balanced diet of small portions of healthy food will provide ample energy, keep off those extra pounds, and prevent many lifelong diseases.

On occasion, Marty and I have the privilege of traveling on behalf of camp ministry.  We have found it to be true, that whenever we meet up with friends of the ministry, both new or old, our time is automatically planned around a table surrounded by delicious food, snacks, or dessert. Very sweet fellowship is automatically produced in this setting. Valued time spent together with others deepens our relationships together and gives us the encouragement we need as well.

Food connects people together with traditions, memorable moments of celebration, gatherings of family and friends, and turns strangers into friends all while sharing a meal and conversation. Knowing food was a daily requirement for man, Jesus used meals in his earthly ministry as an expression of grace, community, and His mission. He sought to save the lost and carry on a personal relationship with all, and He still does.

God’s Word feeds us spiritually, encourages, convicts, directs, and helps us grow to be more like Him. I truly believe that nourishing my spiritual health must be given even more importance than my daily food. Without Him I will be spiritually deprived, dried up and useless in the life He’s given me. I’m sure you relate. Many times busy life and interruptions can shortchange my daily quiet time with Him.   Growing in my spiritual relationship requires:

• regular scripture study
• communication with Him throughout my day
• keeping a short list of forgiveness of my faults
• and listening & looking for Him to reveal Himself to me in big and small ways.

I can tell the difference in the days I devote quality time of building my relationship with Him by my personal attitude, reactions to those I am in contact with and in my general well being.

Can I ask, how are you doing at making Him a priority in your daily walk? Here’s a couple places the Word uses food figuratively and practically:

• “Oh taste and see that the Lord is good, Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him!”  Psalm 34:8
• “Beloved, I pray that all may go well with you and that you may be in good health, as it goes well with your soul.” 3 John 1:2
• “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.” Matt 5:6
• “And they devoted themselves to the apostles teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.” Acts 2:42

I sincerely hope you will practice enjoying God’s Word as much or more than the good food enjoyed in your daily living! Think of the satisfaction and joy you’ll experience if you do!

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Photography | Cassi Werner

Zooming In on Your Walk with God

Sometimes the whole idea of pursuing God or knowing God can feel too big and overwhelmingly vague that we quit before we really get started. Even when we are doing what we are “supposed to” be doing, we can feel far away from God.

In case you’ve felt the struggle, our staff understands and we have a heart to walk along with you and to zoom the lens in a bit more in your understanding and growth so you can experience a close-up, vibrant walk with the Lord.

Because even while God may feel far away or this vibrant life you hear about may feel just out of your grasp, God actually does see you and know you and desire to be close to you.

He wants you to know His presence in the midst of your struggle. He wants you to know His love in personal ways that light you up in the deepest parts of your soul.

He wants you to know the balance He can bring to your life. He wants to redeem whatever mess you are in and heal whatever brokenness you carry with you. He wants to direct your path where you will flourish. He wants you to know Him so personally that you can’t help but make Him known to others!

And it all begins by interacting with Him through His Word!

We say all this to let you know that our staff is pretty excited (and thankful) about being more intentional with encouraging and leading you through weekly blogs and monthly YouTube videos throughout the year! We can’t wait to see how God is working in your lives and to share how He’s working in ours!

Feel free to reach out to us with questions or struggles you’re having or to share how you are experiencing God in your life! We sincerely want to share in the journey with you!

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Author | Cassi Werner      Photography | Ethan + Adrienne + Cassi

Building Community

Every summer I get to enjoy watching a community form almost from the ground up as our new summer staff team arrives. People from around the country are here this summer with the hopes of having fun, growing in their own lives and pouring out by proclaiming Christ to teens.

We have welcomed people from different backgrounds and families, having had many diverse experiences and in different places spiritually. But all this different helps make up a strong team as each person adds their own strength. I get excited seeing the process play out all summer long! A process allowing room for failure and struggle. A process producing growth as Christ remains central.

All that to say, what an encouragement for you and for me as the body of Christ to continue welcoming in all the people different from us, in different places in their walks with God, with a different approach to things than we might have. We need to pull in together as a team to stay on mission with Proclaiming Christ to a world hungering for Him.

Go Team Jesus!

We look forward to continuing to share with you bits and pieces of our summer camp season! Keep checking back.

Have a great day, friend

[Author + Photo Creds: Cassi Werner]

[a new testament] Bible Reading Plan

Feeling discouraged because you’ve been dropping some intentions is a pretty common feeling around this time of year! New habits are hard to build. Because we believe getting into God’s Word changes everything, we want to encourage you and help you get back on track to reaching your goal!

Shaun’s video on instagram last week was a good jump start, but he wanted to follow up with a better explanation of how to get it done. In a perfect world, we would have started January 1 in the book of John and ended in Revelation by mid summer. Since we are getting back on track here in February it might take until mid September to get through Revelation. Then we can circle back and hit the gospels before the end of the year and we’ve completed the whole New Testament. Like a boss! What?!

Like Shaun encouraged last week, connecting with God is what matters, so pick up today where you left off or get started all together! No time like the present!

Let us know in the comments what Scripture has been encouraging you lately! It might encourage us too!

BEFORE YOU GO:
1. If you’d like weekly encouragement as you read along, let Shaun know! There’s a whole crowd of people pursuing this same goal! (you can email him at shaun@whispermountain.org )
2. If you’d like a printable to keep you on track with your goal, get that here.
3. Get a few friends in on this to help keep each other going! We are better together, right?!