Registration is now closed.
15th Annual South Texas Believer's Bootcamp
June 9th - June 13th, 2008
Registration is now closed.
The South Texas Believer's Boot Camp is for teenagers 13 - 19 yrs of age. It was established in 1993, and has been held annually ever since. Its goal is to see the youth of our nation develop important moral and life skills, and challenge them for leadership roles in and outside of the church. They are the future of our nation and training them to take on the challenges of life is imperative.
The Purpose
"To challenge our young people to excellence (versus just coming to church). Our concern is to provide an arena for young people to have a firsthand experience with Christ. We seek to penetrate their lives with the Word and Spirit of God. We focus all that we do on moving them to this priority in life. Ecclesiastes 12:1 says, "Remember now your creator in the days of your youth." -- Pastor Harold S. Warner
The South Texas Believer's Boot Camp is a physically, mentally, and spiritually challenging week-long camp. The idea for these boot camps is to help teens--both church kids and non-church kids--strip away old attitudes and change to new attitudes. Boot camps are very confrontational and take teens out of their comfort zone by tearing down fronts. These camps help teens gain some appreciation, motivation, and respect; all the while centered upon Jesus Christ being (or becoming) their personal Lord and Savior.
Testimony
Boot Camp Boot Camp All The Way! -- Miranda Jones
This boot camp did not focus on the military side of boot camp. It was a spiritual boot camp. What I mean by that is, yes it’s a combination of them both, but the Christian side of it is emphasized. I guess we all have a desire to be noticed, so I half thought of this as a way to get recognized. I knew it wasn’t going to be easy, but I thought, "Hey I’m in shape; it shouldn’t be too hard."
The things I laugh at the most are my pre-Boot Camp visions of flying through it and being the best there. I got thrown in the mud pit, then the sandpit, then the mud pit again. I kind of forgot any idea of trying to look pretty. By the end of the first six hours every kid there looked the same; exhausted, dirty, stinky, you name it.
When I sat down for the night's preaching I didn’t plan on staying awake. Then a funny thing started to happen, since all fronts had been stripped away. For the first time in my life I was myself and not who I wanted to be. Then the preacher started and I began to think, "That’s me. I’m that sinner he’s talking about." In a few moments I felt that the only people in that tent were God and me. When I sat there in that instant, when I saw myself compared to God and understood how perfect Jesus is, it was impossible to understand how God could love someone like me.
It changed me, there is no other way to explain it. I discovered that my inheritance lies in God not in this world. At boot camp we sang a cadence. One of the lines in it was, "Boot Camp Boot Camp All the Way." Boot Camp made me go all the way all right, all the way for Christ.