STS Charlotte!

Hey Everybody,

I just wanted to send out a quick message to share with you guys about our baseball camp this past weekend in Charlotte.

As we shared last week, this month is a pretty crazy one as we host 3 camps within a 30 day span, so needless to say the days leading up to our Charlotte camp were jam-packed.

On Friday afternoon the STS staff headed down to Reid’s house in Charlotte to prepare for the camp on Saturday. After a delicious meal by the wonderful Mrs. Fronk, we met together as a staff and read the verse from “My Utmost For His Highest” devotional for that day in Isaiah chapter 60:1-3

"Arise, shine, for your light has come,
and the glory of the LORD rises upon you.

See, darkness covers the earth
and thick darkness is over the peoples,
but the LORD rises upon you
and his glory appears over you.

Nations will come to your light,
and kings to the brightness of your dawn."

These verses encapsulated exactly what we wanted to do through our camp. We wanted the Nations to be drawn to the light that was present on Saturday, and it was really cool to be reminded that it would be God’s light that would appear over us and attract people to the Gospel, not our own. All we had to do was reflect His glory to the campers that He brought there.

With this perspective, Saturday was such an amazing answer to prayer in so many ways. First off, the weather was awesome…60 degrees and sunny all day. For a town that had just had 4 inches of snow the weekend before, this was a small miracle in and of itself. Secondly, we had double the kids show up than were registered online, which was so encouraging.

But the highlight of the day definitely came at lunch time, when the whole camp got to hear a testimony from our good friend Michael Mckee, former UNC baseball player and current seminary student. Michael used his platform as a former athlete on one of the best baseball teams in the country to share with the kids that the most important thing in his life wasn’t his baseball career, but his relationship with Jesus. To hear this from a player who had been to the College World Series 4 straight times was really powerful. Michael presented the gospel message to the kids, and offered an invitation at the end. Even if we had not raised a single dollar on Saturday, this would have made it all worth it!

With Reid running the show, the camp ran so smoothly. Reid had done such a good job recruiting the best players around to come help out that the rest of the STS staff was free to just focus on the logistical side of things.

All in all, the Lord answered so many prayers this weekend, and we all left knowing that His glory had shone brightly on Saturday.

Thanks to everyone for your prayers and support. They were so clearly answered. We look forward to sharing more with you in the coming days (including some amazing pictures), but for now, join us in thanking the Lord for everything He did in making this camp a tremendous success!