“Do Hard Things” by Garrett Prewett

Do Hard Things.

Atychiphobia: The fear of failure. More specifically, a fear of failure that we allow to stop us from doing things to move us forward towards our goals.

We love to portray ourselves as successful, we enjoy doing what we are good at, we often avoid what we are bad at. That’s human nature in many of us, its easy and fulfilling to simply do what is easy and can make us feel good or look good. For some, myself included, that was sports. I needed identity, everyone does, so I simply made it what I was successful in. I became sports. On the outside, I worked hard to get better at soccer, to get stronger in wrestling. It appeared like I was “doing hard things” and where yes, I was working hard I was not doing hard things. I was staying in my comfort zone because I was too scared of people finding out that I could fail. If I did not succeed in sports then what did I have left? If I stepped out of my comfort zone and things didn’t go well then I thought I would lose my successful. I saw failure as final. However, my identity was never designed to be created by me. I was never destined to be defined by my success or failures.

“For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared
beforehand, that we should walk in them.” Ephesians 2:10, ESV

I was created for more. More than a life of wondering if my success would outweigh my failure, more than an identity of just myself. I was created for the glory of God. The chains slowly start to fall the more you press into the Lord for your identity, the more you look to him for direction the more free you are to be who he created. You are not limited to your comfort zone of small successes and more importantly how can there be fear of failure? If you are scared of letting God down you need to stop thinking that you are holding him up.

Camp Ridgecrest has helped me learn that lesson more than anywhere else on earth. I truly felt like every year God has answered my prayer of giving me hills to climb and the strength to climb them. Failure has become part of the journey to being who I was designed to be. When I step outside my comfort zone, it doesn’t always go well, but that doesn’t matter. What does matter is that I had the courage to do it, with the knowledge that I have an all powerful God at my back.

“It is hard to fail, but it is worse to have never tried to succeed”
-Teddy Roosevelt

Do Hard Things.

Garrett Prewett
Chief Igniting Pitch

Posted in Echoes From Final Fire | Tagged Camp Ridgecrest, Christian, Ephesians 2:10, Fear of Failure, Garrett Prewett, ridgecrest, summer camp | Leave a reply

“Community” by Coulter Pierce

Most of my closest friends come from Camp Ridgecrest.  Some of these guys I met way back in Apache and others I’ve met this last summer while I was Mohican Tribal Leader.  Needless to say, since I was 8 years old, camp would bring a flood of people into my life that I will always look up to and want to be.  The problem with this was when each summer would come to an end, I would head back to Asheville and my friends would go back to Florida, to Georgia, Virginia, Tennessee, etc.  

As a camper this was very difficult for me. I would spend 2 weeks with these brothers of mine going on adventures, hanging out, and experiencing this beautiful world God has created for us, and suddenly that time would come to a close and I would sink into that “post-camp slump”.  Now, this slump would be different for me each year; sometimes it would last a couple days others a few weeks and in some cases a month or two.  I would always replay the camp video and try to relive my time there but it would just never be the same.  For a while I could never put a finger on what I missed most: was it the blob? Chicken tender Tuesday? Four square with Ron? I could never figure it out.  It took me until after my second year in Sioux for me to realize what I would really miss the most: the dudes.  

As a young kid I never had a cell phone. I didn’t have email or anything to keep up with the friends I would make that summer and months after camp had ended I found myself growing further apart from them again.  For me, the main problem with this was that back home I didn’t have friends like these. I could never find guys I looked up to, who would want to go on great adventures with me and who would want to talk about our relationship with Jesus together.  Don’t get me wrong, I had friends for sure, but there was one thing holding us back from having a deep friendship like the ones I found at camp and that was our faith was different.  Many times those friends back home did not share the same faith with me, they didn’t want to maintain a relationship with Jesus so they would never want to talk about real life things.  

Each summer my relationship with the Lord would grow so much deeper and I would leave camp a changed man but would sadly have to return to those same friends back home that I couldn’t grow with.  A mentor of mine showed me a verse in Hebrews that says, “And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.”  For the longest time, I never really had this type of community, one which pushes each other and encourages each other to be real men of God.  I knew I wanted it so badly but sometimes felt trapped where I was and who I was with, until my sophomore year of high school when my youth pastor took me and three other guys from my church out to eat for the first time.  

What started as an occasional meeting turned into a weekly thing, every Wednesday night, no matter what, we would meet up and hang out.  These Wednesday meetings were times for us to live out the verse in Hebrews where we could “spur one another on toward love and good deeds” and grow together in our relationship with the Lord.  Suddenly, after we started meeting on a regular bases I found the same bond in these new friends that I had with my camp friends.  I had these friends back home with me now and one of them (Tate Wynne) even came back to camp with me.  I cannot explain how great of an impact these guys have had on me and my walk with the Lord ever since we started meeting back sophomore year of high school and will forever be thankful for them.  

Here’s my question to you though: do you have this type of community back home? Do you have other guys in your life that who you can talk to and “spur on towards love and good deeds” and who can do the same to you?  God created us to live in community, and not just live together and hang out together, but to really push each other like the verse in Hebrews talks about.  I would encourage you as you continue to grow in your walk with the Lord, and as your time at camp comes and goes, to go back home and search hard for this type of friendship.  The ones that don’t make bad decisions, the ones that are usually doing the right thing, the ones who are looking to grow in their relationship with God.  

Psalm 133:1 says, “Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity!”.  God created community like this so that we might grow and glorify him. It is such an awesome thing when we find these type of friends.  Like I said earlier, it took me a long time to finally find those guys who could “spur me on…” but when I did, I held on tight to them, and will forever be grateful I did.

Coulter Pierce
LC Comical Colt

Posted in Echoes From Final Fire | Tagged Accountability, Camp Ridgecrest, Community, Coulter, Going Home, Missing Camp, Post-Camp Slump, ridgecrest, Slump, summer camp | Leave a reply

Shout Out from Dr. Rainer, President of LifeWay

Check out this video of Dr. Rainer, the President of LifeWay Christian Resources giving Camp Ridgecrest and Camp Crestridge a shout out.  It’s cool to hear other people who are as excited about what is happening at the Camps. Watch this short clip…

Posted in News | Tagged Camp, Camp Cretridge, Camp Ridgecrest, camping, Dr. Rainer, LifeWay, ridgecrest, Ridgecrest Summer Camp | Leave a reply

Happy Thanksgiving

What a great time of year we are getting into!  Great food, extra time spent with friends and family, fun music, time away from school and work, and most importantly, the reminder of what God has done for us.  As we were thinking of how we could best say “Happy Thanksgiving” to you, we kept coming back to our video from last year.  It was just too hard to top!  So here’s another look…

Posted in Boys, News | Tagged Camp Ridgecrest, Camp Ridgecrest for Boys, Camp Ridgecrest Thanksgiving, ridgecrest, Ridgecrest Summer Camps, Ridgecrest Thanksgiving, Ridgecrest Thanksgiving Blog, Thanksgiving, Thanksgiving Blog, Thanksgiving Vlog | Leave a reply

Want to know if your favorite staffer is coming back? Look Here!

Hey guys!

We are extremely excited about our staff for this summer.  We are almost completely done with hiring them.  We have searched all over the country to get the very best staff to hang out with you guys and teach you about Jesus this summer!  So here they are, your 2010 Camp Ridgecrest Staff!

Returning Staff:

Seth Ladd, Andrew Shirley, Sam Pineda, Wayne McLemore, Hunter Barnhardt, Micah Andrews, Tory Singer, Kyle Andrews, Wayne Hines, Eli White, Patrick Streeter, Juan Bowen, Steven Fuller, Brian Hartsfield, Graham Rigby, Jamey Klempin, Stephen Turner, Bryan Galloway, Quinton Stevenson, David Howerin, Jeremy Churchill, Nathan Harvey, Tyler Barrett, Jason Patskoski, Daniel Waldroup, Seth Showalter,  Jeremy Craddock, Matt Stapp, Ben Fritz, Will Blanton, Britton Van Sickle, Justin Westbrooks, Daniel Waldroup, Bryan Melton, Richard Hutchins, Ginny Allgood, Christine Redd, Hillary Hunt, Rebecca Davis, Linzee Long, Kayla Dulhagen

Some Amazing New Staff:

Randall Ausdran, Culby Hinson, Mark Vining, Will Shepard, CJ Milam, Mike Payne, Jordan Keeney, Cade Sherman, Jesse Gysin, Derek Jankowski, Jared Morgan, Will Correll, Adam Nichols, Andrew Willhite, Jimi Bell, Matthew Ennis, Bobby Dalton, Brian Butcher, Nathaniel Burkett, Joshua Ward, Vince Sapp, Matthew McMillan, Logan Wells, Stephen Sloan, Will Thornton, Keatton Van Sickle, Chace Corbett, Seth Ennis, Drew Boggess, Daniel Field, Lydia Marsh, Allyson Basden, Caroline Arledge

Like we said we are very excited about our staffers so far! There will be a few more added here soon.  I hope everyone is getting ready for the summer; there are 68 days until Opening Day IA!! See you soon!

By the way, of course, our fearless leaders, Ron and Phil will definitely be back!

Leave us a comment about these great staffers!

Posted in Boys, News, Uncategorized | Tagged ridgecrest, Ridgecrest Blog, Ridgecrest Boys, Ridgecrest Staff, Ridgecrest Summer Camps, Summer Camp Staff | Leave a reply

March Free Canteen Winner!!

Congratulations to David Henry!  He is the free Canteen winner for the month of March.  He won a free canteen by commenting on our blog!  So if you want a free canteen delivered to your door, start reading our blog and commenting!  David, your canteen will be at your door soon.   Hope you all are ready for Canteen and everything else this summer; it is just around the corner!

Posted in Boys, News, Uncategorized | Tagged Camp Ridgecrest for Boys, ridgecrest, Ridgecrest Boys, Ridgecrest Canteen, Ridgecrest Canteen Contest, Ridgecrest Contest | Leave a reply

February Free Canteen Winner!

Congratulations to this month’s free Canteen winner, Thatcher Broyles!  Thatcher will be having his Canteen choice, Cheerwine and a Fun dip, delivered straight to his door this week.  Thatcher was a Shawnee last summer, and he will be moving up to the mighty Choctaw this year.  He said his favorite thing about camp was Sock War, and his favorite staff member was his counselor Adam “Rambo” Smith!  Thatcher is excited about coming back to camp this year to go on the Blob and for Horseback Skill!

So guys, remember to keep commenting on the blog.  Every time you leave a comment your name goes into the drawing for a FREE CANTEEN!  You could be the winner next month!

Posted in Boys, News | Tagged Camp Ridgecrest, Camp Ridgecrest for Boys, Free Canteen, ridgecrest, Ridgecrest Boys, Ridgecrest Canteen | Leave a reply