By Tim Anderson, Youth Pastor, Cascade Covenant Church
Mud 2020 was an incredible and inspiring weekend. Over 300 students from the PacNWC from their churches came together to worship God, to have fun, and to be together. Students descended on camp where they heard engaging, real-life messages from Tara Hollingsworth. Students were encouraged to see God at work in their lives, to experience God’s healing and restoration, and to see their lives through Jesus’ perspective.
The weekend was full of the engaging activities: paintball, horseback riding, zip lining, ultimate frisbee, a college seminar, and so much more – all offered by the camp staff and other leaders at our world class Cascades Camp in Yelm. A huge part of the weekend’s success, kids were invited to just “be kids” and have fun. Huge games of tug-o-war, slimy steal the bacon, and mud balloon football filled out our large group games, and in free time I had a blast playing over an hour of volleyball in nothing but pure mud with students from North Bend, Mount Vernon, Yakima, and Seattle.
The worship band from Seattle Pacific University led us in worship, and it wasn’t just in English! We sang songs in a variety of languages. The team was energetic and vibrant, and helped us connect with God in ways both new and familiar. What a joy it was to see students stand up and sing songs in the languages of their families and people for all of camp!
Many people made this weekend special, but I certainly have to stop and say thank you to Phil Lewis from Quest Church, Erik Cave from the conference, and Jessica Palmer from Cascades Camp. With their help our team worked to make MUD 2020 flow; working with them was a joy as we planned the weekend’s activities. Matt Knapp made our video, Helen Salley lead upfront games, and all of our Pacific Northwest youth pastors, leaders, and volunteers made the weekend fun and engaging for all of the students.
I’m always encouraged at these retreats to see people come together and worship God as one body. We were joined by Covenant Churches and churches and groups from outside of our denomination as well. But when we came together we found ourselves gathered in the presence of one Spirit, one God, and one Lord and Savior. This was truly a special weekend.
Some students at this retreat acknowledged Jesus as their Savior for the first time. Some re-committed their lives to Jesus. Others helped their friends process the real things happening in their lives. Kids discussed wanting to see their community reshaped and drawing closer to God. They shared their hearts for their schools, families and for one another.
I just want to say that I am so thankful that I’ve been given the opportunity to witness all of this from a front row seat! Being a youth pastor is one of the great joys of my life, and I’m so thankful for all of the students and leaders I’ve gotten to know over the past five years in the Pacific Northwest Conference.
We are not in this alone, but we are in this together. We trust in Christ to set our direction and set our steps, but we also trust we are with him, not in isolation, but unified together as one body. MUD demonstrates that we have each other‘s back, that we’re following Christ together, and that the Spirit is still moving amongst our churches. What a gift to serve together – thank you for this opportunity! I truly look forward to MUD 2021.
