June 2, 2025 • 29 mins
In this episode of No Sanity Required, Brody Holloway looks back at the first week of SWO25 and shares what really goes on behind the scenes at Snowbird Wilderness Outfitters. From a single army tent to a camp that now hosts hundreds of students and serves 14,000 meals a week, Brody reflects on how far God has brought this ministry.
He gives a quick overview of Romans 1–7 to help set up this summer’s theme, “His Glory, Our Good,” focused on Romans 8. Brody also explains what a typical day looks like at camp and how every part of the team—from bus drivers to kitchen crews—is working hard to point students to Jesus.
You’ll hear stories of salvations, challenges like flooding and power outages, and how God is still moving in big ways. Brody reminds us that ministry is messy, hard work—but it’s worth it. Be encouraged and pray with us as we dive into another summer of gospel ministry at SWO!
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
In this week's episode of no Sanity Required,
we're going to look back at thefirst week of SWO 25.
It was a good week.
It was a crazy week, a lot ofthings to share.
But I want to give everybody anupdate.
I want to talk a little bitabout what goes on behind the
scenes at SWO.
This is going to be an episodewhere we kind of dip into a few
(00:22):
different areas of what we dohere in a normal week and then
also I want to give you a littlebit of tailgate theology where
we go into sort of an overviewof the first few chapters of
Romans, because the teachingcontent this summer at SWO 25 is
Romans 8, with the theme ofthat teaching His glory, our
(00:48):
good, and so I want to kind ofmash it up.
Talk about SWO 25 kicking offand.
I hope it'll be something thatgives you a little bit of
insight, a look behind thecurtain of how we do things
around here, and then we'll talka little bit of theology.
Thanks for tuning in andlistening to this week's episode
of no Sanity Required.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
Welcome to no Sanity Required from the Ministry of
Snowbird Wilderness Outfitters.
A podcast about the Bible,culture and stories from around
the globe.
Speaker 1 (01:22):
Well, I'm not going to lie.
Every year at this time of yearI get a little bit overwhelmed
with what all God has done here.
We've sent the book off, as youknow, we've talked about this
and finished the book, but I'mnot an author, so I've
second-guessed 100 times overman, am I really conveying what
(01:43):
all God's done here?
And then I realized no, there'sno way you can.
You can't take a hundred pagebook and tell a 30 year story,
you know.
And so just for me, it's veryreflective, and this time of
year is especially reflective.
You know, if you're a listenerof NSR, you know we're a whole
lot more than a podcast.
It's not just that we producethis podcast weekly, though.
(02:05):
That is something we do and alot of work goes into it.
We're a camp and conferencecenter.
We do Bible conferences,apologetics, discipleship,
theology, we take the Word ofGod and we teach students and
instruct them from the Scripture, all things that pertain to
life and godliness and thatinterfaces or intersects with
(02:27):
cultural issues how to live as alight in a dark world, how to
interact within culture andsociety.
So we do a lot here, andthroughout the year we do a lot
of events, not just our summercamps, and so our summer camps
are, even so, much more thancamp.
There's a lot of stereotypethat goes with the word camp or
(02:47):
summer camp, that phrase.
For us, what we want studentsto experience in a week here, we
want them to experience anequipping, challenging, growing,
conference sort of feel, and sowe go into the scriptures three
times a day corporately.
Corporately simply meaningeverybody in camp comes together
(03:09):
and we open God's word threetimes a day and we and we teach
and instruct the scripture fromthe scriptures and then, once a
day, to end the day, studentsare divided into into small
groups with staff who lead thosesmall groups.
To just make sure there'sclarity, discussion, a lot of
thought and conversation aroundthe content.
(03:31):
This year we're going throughRomans, chapter eight, and I
wanted to kind of unpack alittle bit of how we how do you
take something that's such animportant work of scripture but
it's in the middle of animportant work of scripture?
How do we go to Romans eightwithout having taught through
the first seven chapters?
I want to share how we'reapproaching that and so that
(03:51):
we're going to do that in thisepisode.
But before we get into that, Iwanted to just give you a look
behind the scenes.
I wanted to talk about all thedifferent moving parts.
We're going to be puttingtogether a little sort of I
don't want to call itdocumentary, but a little video
series where we go behind thescenes and show people what it
takes to operate at thetransportation department, what
(04:12):
does it take to operate at thefood service department, what
does it take to operate in thefront office and through
production and marketing andmedia and so many different
departments and department heads.
There's a lot going on.
You know, in the early days Iwas thinking about what all it
took to run a week of camp and Iremember the first couple
summers.
The only people left here fromthose summers that are still
(04:35):
here at SWO are Little and I andher parents have moved on.
Her dad passed away, going onthree years ago now but had been
out of anything really,snowbird involved for gosh for
years, and then there are somepeople here that are serving
(04:56):
here that have come in uh, 2000and 2001, so we've got some
quarter century people but fromthe very beginning, little and I
are the last ones left and um,and I really think that snowbird
took off about 2000 is where itreally started to take off and
we have a lot of the people thathelped build this ministry.
(05:16):
They are here now.
But I was just having some somefunny thoughts about, you know,
those early days, especiallythose first couple summers,
which would have been 98, 99little, and I would work to get
food ready, we would, uh, wewould work rec, we would lead
share groups, we would do skits,we would play music you know I
(05:37):
wouldn't play music, she wouldplay music.
Um, you did everything.
We would drive buses.
So essentially every departmentwas managed by a small, teeny,
tiny team of people and now wehave a big team in each
department and it's just crazyto even think about that aspect
of growth.
On a normal day at SWO, we haveeight buses moving students
(06:01):
around.
We have about as many transitvans moving students around.
We have about as many transitvans moving students around.
We have a fleet of a dozen worktrucks in maintenance and
construction.
We have multiple food servicevehicles, including a food truck
moving food around.
We have a staff of almost 200people and we have staff divided
(06:23):
into departments, our marketingand media team right now, the
people that put out the contentthat y'all hear and see that
team alone is larger than theentirety of our first full
summer staff.
Um, so it's just amazing to seewhat God has done and to see
what it takes to pull off a weekof SWO.
(06:43):
The front office that organizesand coordinates where groups
stay, when they come in,registration, sign up, booking,
housing, all of that I meanthat's a big team of people and
it takes several people thatwork in a full-time capacity in
that office just to geteverybody onto the property.
Snowbird started with 50 acres.
We office just to get everybodyonto the property.
(07:03):
Snowbird started with 50 acres.
We now manage well over ahundred acres of property.
We've more than doubledsize-wise.
We started with a $300 armysurplus tent and under that tent
we had some electric cablespools turned on their ends as
tables and people ate bystanding at those tables and we
(07:25):
cooked beef stew on Colemanstoves.
We first built one cabin calledFreedom Cabin, but all we did
was dry it in and get it underroof and then we put up two
outfitter's tents and that's howwe ran our first few camps.
Now we have housing for over800 people on site.
(07:45):
Meals alone we prepare about14,000 meals a week.
Say that again 14,000 meals aweek is what our food service
department produces In the earlydays.
We used to.
This is crazy and some of ourlisteners will remember this.
But in the early slow days wewould go, uh, we, we would pick
(08:06):
up food from local businesseslike Subway and Andrews would
would, would box up cold cutcombos, six inch sandwiches, and
we would go pick them up, andthat was lunch one day.
And for breakfast some days wewould do cereal and milk and
we'd set it out on those spool,those cable spool tables under
(08:27):
that old army tent.
And then some days we would gopick up, uh, hardee's biscuits.
We would, we'd go buy a coupleof bags of Hardee's biscuits,
you know we'd only have about uh30, 40 people here, and then we
grew to where we would havearound a hundred people here and
it was still the same.
We'd go get that food and bringit in.
And now we have a food servicedepartment that produces, turns
(08:50):
out, 14,000 meals a week.
Pretty crazy.
It's just amazing to see whatGod's done.
And so a week of camp like thisweek we're we've grown this
year by 50 students a week andwe put in six new cabins.
Going in for next year, lordwilling, will be more bathrooms,
bath houses, shower houses toalleviate some of the pressure
(09:11):
that those extra 50 peoplecreate in terms of
infrastructure.
But I'm sitting in the.
I'm in the worship building atthe super coop at snowbirds
north campus.
If you're familiar with ourlayout, if not, we've got a
20,000 square foot open sort ofan open air big roll-up garage
(09:33):
doors on the walls facility.
It's an old concert venue andit's where we do our worship
services and I'm sitting inthere and you've got 620
attendees, a couple hundredstaff, probably 250 staff and
families.
We've got our element teamthere, which is 40 students ish
and six, uh six staff membersthat run that.
(09:53):
That's our high school, uh, ourhigh school staff.
Um, it's like a discipleshipprogram we're going to be
highlighting in an episode thissummer.
Jb actually is one of the folksthat runs that and I'm just
looking around and there's somany people under under the roof
.
You know, in one week of campwe have more people here than we
(10:13):
had in our.
For sure, our first two summerscombined, like, if you take all
the weeks of the first twosummers, uh, it doesn't equal
what we had or all, I'm sorry,the entire first two years.
So, from the time we startedSWO through two years of
ministry and you could almost doit through three.
(10:34):
So about three, four years ofministry, we have more people
here under roof in house in asingle week than we did in three
years of ministry back then.
So the Lord has blessed us andwe're so thankful and I just
want to.
I want to make this an episodewhere I mentioned that you know
(10:56):
a lot of people really enjoyedJoseph Wainwright and that
episode where Joseph came on thepodcast.
But there's, joseph is one ofan army of people.
We have a young man named SamHaybecker who works in
maintenance and last night, asI'm recording this, on Friday of
week one last night, I got acall from.
This was at midnight.
(11:16):
I got a call.
I'm in a conversation with ayouth pastor.
I get a call from anotherchurch, a lady at another church
and they had a maintenanceissue in their dorm.
I call Sam Haybecker and 10minutes later he says it's taken
care of and we have a team ofselfless people who understand
(11:36):
that ministry is not justpreaching or leading worship or
leading a share group.
It's turning wrenches, fixingdoorknobs, plunging toilets,
serving phenomenal this is funnyServing phenomenal food.
I said that right after I saidplunging toilets, I should
probably flip that.
Serving amazing meals, plungingtoilets, because one turns into
(11:56):
the other.
Uh, that was funny, I crackedmyself up with that.
But we've got behind the scenespeople doing behind the scenes
things that make Snowbird whatit is, and we're on track.
We're literally on track tocontinue growing and we just
want to grow right and do thisthe right way.
And, um, you know, jeff Garneris the guy that's over all of
(12:19):
our transportation.
We came into this week with all.
He had worked so hard thisspring to get bus drivers
trained up, cdl licenses passedto get all the buses up and
running.
The problem, you know theproblem, is we drive all of our
buses.
They average about they'reabout 30 years old and uh,
they're just old machines.
And jeff had worked so hardthis spring with his team, with
(12:41):
uh and as far as getting ourvehicles ready to go, and we had
four of our eight buses go downweek one, on top that it's been
raining.
All week it has poured rain.
We've got flooding in places.
It's a crazy way but watchingeverybody come together to make
it happen and then, as a result,I want to read you just a
couple texts that I've gotten inthe last 24 hours.
(13:03):
Okay, let me read you.
Let me read you three texts.
This is from a staff membernamed Catherine.
She's a phenomenal young ladywho served here faithfully for
several years now.
She texted me early thismorning.
I had a camper who got savedlast night.
She's from my home church andthe Lord has clearly been
working in her life.
He has sought her out.
Our youth leaders have beenpraying for her continually.
(13:25):
It is a great praise.
Also, I'll be able to continuethat relationship with her back
home after the summer.
So there's a cool testimony ofGod saving someone.
Let me give you another one.
This is from a staff member.
This is a veteran staff membernamed Kendall.
Kendall's a phenomenal,beautiful young lady who has
faithfully served Jesus here.
(13:46):
I'm so thankful for her and herand her faithfulness.
She texted me this at 1215 thismorning, so literally right
after I got that text about theum, the, the, the maintenance
issue.
Hey, brody, it's Kendall Justwanted to let you know that one
of my girls gave her life to theLord tonight and I figured
you'd want to know.
I responded in all caps withexclamation points Thank you,
(14:10):
thank you.
This makes my night.
She said it definitely mademine.
I texted back this is the bestkind of text.
I was literally just sittinghere thinking how cool it would
be to get to get a text about akid trusting Jesus.
Then you texted.
She said that's amazing.
After working here for threesummers, it's the first time
I've had this experience.
I'm feeling so thankful for theLord's goodness, so awesome to
(14:30):
hear that from Kendall lastnight.
All right, let me read you onemore Brody, this is Leo.
Leo's a young man that serveson staff this summer.
This is Leo.
Just had a kid come to Christand be saved.
I said heck, yeah, thank you,this makes my night Hail.
The king Jesus saves.
He said, yes, sir, jesus trulydoes save.
I asked him if the kid was fromRipley First Baptist Church.
(14:52):
He said yes, sir, and he gaveme his name young man named
Braden.
So God is moving, doing awesomethings.
He's been doing that from thebeginning, and so you look at a
situation and maybe there's alittle lesson.
This is not what this episode'sabout, but an awesome little
lesson that y'all can be prayingfor.
There's conflict and there'spushback.
The enemy doesn't want us to dowhat we're doing and we got
(15:15):
four out of eight buses go down,and then you got, we had a
power outage, and then you knowyou've got.
You've got conflict on everyside, at every turn, and I'm
just reminded that the devil'snot going to sit idly by and
things are not going to gosmooth.
As a Christian, when you'retrying to do what God's called
you to do that's true for everyone of us, that's true for you,
(15:35):
that's true for me If you committo put your hand to the plow
and be faithful, to advance thegospel and to try to live for
Jesus, there's going to beconflict.
Just expect it.
And then, in the middle of allthat, to get these text messages
where these, by the way, thesethree, this young man and these
two young ladies that I justread those texts from, for
(15:56):
people that don't have hope forthis generation.
You should have hope for thisgeneration because Catherine and
Kendall and Leo are examples ofyoung adults.
Our staff is predictable I meanpredominantly, rather, 18 to 24
.
Most of them are, I'd say themedian age is 19 to 20.
(16:16):
And they love the Lord, theywork hard.
These young men and women havegiven up their summer, some of
them.
You heard one young lady,kendall say this is her third
summer.
Catherine it's her secondsummer.
She did the Institute.
Leo's a first year guy.
So wherever they are, on the on,on, on the scale of how long
(16:37):
they've been here, whatever, thebottom line is young men and
young women being raised up.
God's calling them to SWO.
We're investing in them,training them up.
They're boldly proclaiming thegospel and they're passionate
about seeing these young peoplecome to faith.
They're discipling them,serving so well.
I'm just so blessed to be apart of it.
And I think back to thatoutfitter tent uh, that first
(17:00):
one.
We put up that old army tentthat there's old electric spools
and serving beef stew off of aColeman stove.
And you know what?
King Jesus has not changed.
Snowbird has changeddrastically in 27 years, going
on 28 years, but the Lord hasnot changed.
He never changes and hismission is the same and that's
to build the kingdom, to advancethe church, for the gospel to
(17:21):
impact the world.
And it's happening.
It's happening right here atSWO and I'm so thankful to be a
part of it.
And it takes men like JeffGarner and women like Michaela
Howe and food service and peoplethat are in that front office,
cassie and Ellie, and Josh andhis team in the front office,
people like Riley Shannon, whoworks in HR, who nobody ever
(17:42):
knows what's going on in HR.
In fact, you're scared of HR.
Spencer Davis, who people knowas a as one of our teaching
staff, who also plays bass inour band he's one of the bass
players in one of the band sets,but Spencer runs our risk
management department, whichinvolves everything from making
sure we've got medical staff onstandby each week, a staff, a
(18:05):
camp nurse in-house each week,standby each week, a staff, a
camp nurse in-house each week.
How we handle conflict with iftwo students get in a fight or
if a boy puts his hands on agirl or like the things that you
might not think about, but whenyou put 800 people on one
property, we're going to makesure we run a tight ship while
also, at the same time, makingsure everybody's having a good
time.
And it's a big operation.
(18:26):
And these men and women thathave given their lives to this
thing.
Jb edits this podcast, sometimeshosts this podcast, but she
also runs the girls elementprogram and that's not all.
She teaches on Wednesdaymornings to every girl in camp
when we split up the girls andthe guys.
That's a lot of hats to wear.
(18:46):
You know that's a lot going on.
That's a lot to do with verylittle time.
The people that are herecommitted to this summer all 200
of them average start time oftheir day is 6 am.
Average go to bedtime isbetween midnight and one and we
go all day nonstop.
And it's nonstop all day.
(19:06):
And I'm telling you, the Lord isblessing the faithfulness of
these people.
And so when I think back tothose early days, it's just me
and little and a few others.
And then I think about theearly growth and the first few
staffs.
Some things have changeddrastically, but some things
have not changed.
But one of the things thatalways stands out to me is that
God is always bringing peopleinto this work, calling people
(19:27):
here to pick up the mantle thatothers have laid down when
they've moved on to other thingsand to be faithful with the
calling God's given us.
And, as a result, I just readyou three texts from the from,
from from the last couple ofworship services where kids are
giving their life to Jesus.
One more thing on that Uh, ifyou've been to swell you, you
know we don't do big invitationswhere we draw kids forward, and
(19:49):
the reason I don't do that isbecause we don't do that we
learned early on is a lot oftimes kids get caught up in an
emotional moment and they'll goforward not really understanding
why am I here?
What decision do I need to make?
And I've had a lot ofconviction about not just
getting kids to quote unquotemake a decision.
(20:12):
Listen every time you hear theword of God, you make a decision
what you're going to do with it.
You get up this morning, youopen your Bible.
You made a decision how you'regoing to respond to that.
Same tomorrow morning, sameSunday, when you go to church.
Every time we hear the word ofGod, we make a decision.
This morning I was preaching outof Romans eight I was in verses
31 through 34, and there wasabout 10 kids sleeping.
(20:33):
Their heads are back, theirjaws are gaped open, they're
sleeping hard.
While I'm preaching I'm like,well, that guy's already made
his decision what he's going todo with this.
But that's not my deal to to.
Uh, you know that's that'sbetween that young man and the
Lord.
But then and it's Friday andlike, give him some grace.
It's a, you know, 13, 15, 16year old dude who's played hard
all week it's rained.
(20:54):
All week it's pouring rainduring the worship service.
It's beaten down on that onthat metal roof.
It probably put me to sleep too, I don't.
You know, I'm not mad, I can'tblame him.
But then I look around and thenthere's kids that have their
notebooks open, their Biblesopen.
They're aggressively takingnotes.
Everybody's responding to theword and I believe that if the
(21:15):
word of God is preached, if theHoly Spirit is going to move in
a kid's heart, they're going tocome to faith in Jesus.
And so we facilitate thoseconversations through share
groups and and discussions and,um, yeah, it's just awesome.
So in a normal day, let me runyou through a normal schedule
real quick Get up in the morning, breakfast staff will be
meeting students for breakfastand coffee and having devotions
(21:37):
and just just getting the daymoving, opening God's word
together.
That's real organic.
It's not organized.
So our staff might connect withone or two students or they
might have a small group meeting.
Then breakfast, then morningworship, which is we got some
games it's kind of crazy highenergy to kick it off and then
we'll go into some worshipthrough song.
(21:59):
Then we'll hear the word andwe'll take a break.
Then they'll go into breakoutsessions where we'll talk about
cultural topics, and then lunchand then all afternoon they're
doing recreation high adventurerecreation.
Come back together for oh, inthe morning, during breakouts,
one of the things we do is wehave a breakout session for
parents and youth pastors andyouth workers where we're
(22:22):
talking to them, just trying topartner with and equip folks for
student ministry.
So there's student breakouts,there's leader breakouts.
Back to end of the afternoon wego to supper.
After supper we have anotherworship service that starts.
In between There'll be a bunchof games and different
activities kids can get into,and then we come together, sing
(22:42):
songs of praise and worship withour band playing.
Um put together an incredible.
By the way, our production teamis phenomenal.
The skits, the dramas, thevideos, the sound, the music
it's all phenomenal.
It's literally first rate.
And then uh, and then we have,we hear, we hear the preaching
of the word, and then we singsome more and then we take a
(23:04):
break and everybody heads off toshare groups and then we cap
the day off with just free time.
Food trucks open, snack shacksopen that's typical day at SWO.
Might, uh, might, get up hereand visit sometime.
If you've never been, I thinkyou'd love it because we do
adult conferences as well.
Saying all that to say, god ismoving in every department and
men and women here.
(23:24):
This morning I saw Jeff Garner,who I mentioned earlier is over
at Transportation.
I saw his wife, keturah,walking across the parking lot.
She's coming to the worshipservice.
She wants to come in on Fridaymorning.
She works a few shifts a weekin the dining hall in worship
service.
She wants to come in on Fridaymorning.
Um, she works in the.
Uh, she works a few shifts aweek in the dining hall and food
service and she's.
She's not working this morning,but she's coming to be a part
(23:47):
of the worship service.
Just amazing to me, the familybuy-in and investment.
Um, this morning I came throughthe front gate.
John Reagan was working thefront gate.
Well, john Reagan manages andruns and oversees the entire web
operation of SWO and he's overhere, man, in the front gate.
Everybody pitches in and doestheir part and it just takes so
many people cooperatingselflessly to make this thing
(24:09):
happen.
And so, um, I just wanted you toknow how you could be praying
for energy and strength as we gointo this summer.
We are, I'm going to, I'm goingto be unpacking more of the
Roman stuff, but I did want tojust close by giving you an
overview.
We're unpacking and workingthrough Romans chapter eight.
So we begin on Monday night inRomans eight one and we'll
(24:32):
finish on Friday night in Romanseight 39.
And we, and the teaching focusis his glory, our good.
And you know if you, if you knowmuch about the book of Romans,
the first few chapters walkthrough how people cannot earn
the righteousness of God intheir own strength.
Everyone falls short of God'sglory.
(24:52):
In Romans one we see that God'swrath is being revealed from
heaven because people havesuppressed his truth and
rejected what he's revealed.
In chapter 2, we see the Jewishlisteners being warned against
religious condescension, wherethey look at the people in
chapter 1 and they go well,we're not like that, we're not
(25:13):
practicing homosexuality or idolworship, we're not murderous or
rebellious, we're very phomosexuality or idol worship,
we're not.
We're not, you know, murderousor rebellious, we're very pious
and religious.
And he says, hey, y'all goingto be judged very strictly
because you're judgmental andit's God's kindness and mercy
that should have brought you tosalvation.
And so by the second chapter werealize everyone has sinned and
no one is righteous before God,whether you're Jew, baptist,
(25:36):
catholic Gentile whatever.
And we get to chapter three andwe realize, oh, jesus has to
provide what we cannot earn, andthat is salvation.
And so chapter three goes in,that most wonderful passage in
the end of Romans, chapter three, where the Lord provides
righteousness for us through thework of Jesus.
(25:59):
And so we, you know, we're just, we're so thankful to be able
to walk through the, the, theeighth chapter of Romans,
because it culminates byrecognizing and realizing that
condemnation has been removedbecause of what Jesus has done,
as is explained in Romans 3.
(26:19):
And from there you get intochapter 5, and it's like man,
we're sinful from birth becauseAdam was a sinner, we inherited
sin, and then we're sinfulbecause we act on it.
In chapter 6, I love, becausehe says that sinful man or woman
has been buried with Christ Inbaptism.
We're buried with Christ inbaptism, we're buried with
Christ, and when we're broughtout of the baptismal waters
(26:41):
there's this symbolic raisedwith Christ.
And we now walk in newness oflife.
And so we've got this new life,this new creation.
Righteousness is given to us,and we just want students to
know what that all comes down tois identity.
Their identity is in Christ andit is through what Jesus has
done that they can celebrate andrejoice and grow, and they've
(27:03):
been made new.
Our newness comes through whoChrist is and what he's done.
I'm so grateful for it.
And so pray for these studentsas we go through this summer,
unpacking, week by week, romans,chapter 8, and just that we
would be able to convey to themthe importance of this text, and
it really is so critical, soimportant.
(27:24):
Pray for the staff as they lead.
We're asking you to pray forthem, pray for the teaching
staff, the band, but pray forthose folks I mentioned earlier
food service, transportationmaintenance.
Can you imagine the maintenancethat goes into keeping an
800-person facility operatingday to day?
It's a huge operation.
(27:45):
And so pray for them and prayfor I would ask you to pray for
safety, for students to be safe,for no one to be injured or
harmed, or for their you know,moving eight buses around and
eight, 12 vans around every daygetting kids to the whitewater.
(28:09):
We actually move 11 buses a daybecause we have three buses come
in from an outside company.
So 11 buses a day on the road,60 passenger buses, you know,
and some of them are full.
Some of them may only have 20kids in them, but we're moving
them all over runningwakeboarding, uh, or I mean, I'm
sorry, um, yeah, we got ourwakeboarding boat up there on
the lake and we're pulling kidson tubes and just there's a lot
going on.
And so would you pray that nota kid gets hurt, pray for safety
(28:32):
, that God protects andpreserves these kids as we take
them out and do recreation inthe afternoons, and then just
pray that hearts and minds willbe open and that students would
respond to the gospel.
This first week was great, wasawesome, the Lord used it, but
we got nine weeks to go andwe're asking you to pray with us
through those nine weeks.
We'll be showing up here day inand day out or, I'm sorry, week
(28:54):
in and week out and keeping youup to speed on what's going on,
and we've got a few guests linedup that you're going to hear
from some of our staff and gotsome episodes lined up that
you'll get to hear from ourstaff, and then also we will be
highlighting the element program, things like that, and I look
forward to sharing that with you.
Pray for us, come see us.
So a lot of our listeners, Iknow you're on your way.
(29:15):
You're going to be here overthe next few weeks and we can't
wait to see you.
And it's going to be.
The summer's going to come andgo so fast.
Heads are going to spin andit's going to be over, so let's
make the most of it.
Pray for us.
We pray for you.
It means the world to us thatyou listen to NSR each week, so
we'll see you soon.
Speaker 2 (29:34):
Thanks for listening to no Sanity Required.
Please take a moment tosubscribe and leave a rating.
It really helps.
Visit us at SWOutfitterscom tosee all of our programming and
resources, and we'll see younext week on no Sanity Required.
In this week's episode of no Sanity Required,
we're going to look back at thefirst week of SWO 25.
It was a good week.
It was a crazy week, a lot ofthings to share.
But I want to give everybody anupdate.
I want to talk a little bitabout what goes on behind the
scenes at SWO.
This is going to be an episodewhere we kind of dip into a few
(00:22):
different areas of what we dohere in a normal week and then
also I want to give you a littlebit of tailgate theology where
we go into sort of an overviewof the first few chapters of
Romans, because the teachingcontent this summer at SWO 25 is
Romans 8, with the theme ofthat teaching His glory, our
(00:48):
good, and so I want to kind ofmash it up.
Talk about SWO 25 kicking offand.
I hope it'll be something thatgives you a little bit of
insight, a look behind thecurtain of how we do things
around here, and then we'll talka little bit of theology.
Thanks for tuning in andlistening to this week's episode
of no Sanity Required.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
Welcome to no Sanity Required from the Ministry of
Snowbird Wilderness Outfitters.
A podcast about the Bible,culture and stories from around
the globe.
Speaker 1 (01:22):
Well, I'm not going to lie.
Every year at this time of yearI get a little bit overwhelmed
with what all God has done here.
We've sent the book off, as youknow, we've talked about this
and finished the book, but I'mnot an author, so I've
second-guessed 100 times overman, am I really conveying what
(01:43):
all God's done here?
And then I realized no, there'sno way you can.
You can't take a hundred pagebook and tell a 30 year story,
you know.
And so just for me, it's veryreflective, and this time of
year is especially reflective.
You know, if you're a listenerof NSR, you know we're a whole
lot more than a podcast.
It's not just that we producethis podcast weekly, though.
(02:05):
That is something we do and alot of work goes into it.
We're a camp and conferencecenter.
We do Bible conferences,apologetics, discipleship,
theology, we take the Word ofGod and we teach students and
instruct them from the Scripture, all things that pertain to
life and godliness and thatinterfaces or intersects with
(02:27):
cultural issues how to live as alight in a dark world, how to
interact within culture andsociety.
So we do a lot here, andthroughout the year we do a lot
of events, not just our summercamps, and so our summer camps
are, even so, much more thancamp.
There's a lot of stereotypethat goes with the word camp or
(02:47):
summer camp, that phrase.
For us, what we want studentsto experience in a week here, we
want them to experience anequipping, challenging, growing,
conference sort of feel, and sowe go into the scriptures three
times a day corporately.
Corporately simply meaningeverybody in camp comes together
(03:09):
and we open God's word threetimes a day and we and we teach
and instruct the scripture fromthe scriptures and then, once a
day, to end the day, studentsare divided into into small
groups with staff who lead thosesmall groups.
To just make sure there'sclarity, discussion, a lot of
thought and conversation aroundthe content.
(03:31):
This year we're going throughRomans, chapter eight, and I
wanted to kind of unpack alittle bit of how we how do you
take something that's such animportant work of scripture but
it's in the middle of animportant work of scripture?
How do we go to Romans eightwithout having taught through
the first seven chapters?
I want to share how we'reapproaching that and so that
(03:51):
we're going to do that in thisepisode.
But before we get into that, Iwanted to just give you a look
behind the scenes.
I wanted to talk about all thedifferent moving parts.
We're going to be puttingtogether a little sort of I
don't want to call itdocumentary, but a little video
series where we go behind thescenes and show people what it
takes to operate at thetransportation department, what
(04:12):
does it take to operate at thefood service department, what
does it take to operate in thefront office and through
production and marketing andmedia and so many different
departments and department heads.
There's a lot going on.
You know, in the early days Iwas thinking about what all it
took to run a week of camp and Iremember the first couple
summers.
The only people left here fromthose summers that are still
(04:35):
here at SWO are Little and I andher parents have moved on.
Her dad passed away, going onthree years ago now but had been
out of anything really,snowbird involved for gosh for
years, and then there are somepeople here that are serving
(04:56):
here that have come in uh, 2000and 2001, so we've got some
quarter century people but fromthe very beginning, little and I
are the last ones left and um,and I really think that snowbird
took off about 2000 is where itreally started to take off and
we have a lot of the people thathelped build this ministry.
(05:16):
They are here now.
But I was just having some somefunny thoughts about, you know,
those early days, especiallythose first couple summers,
which would have been 98, 99little, and I would work to get
food ready, we would, uh, wewould work rec, we would lead
share groups, we would do skits,we would play music you know I
(05:37):
wouldn't play music, she wouldplay music.
Um, you did everything.
We would drive buses.
So essentially every departmentwas managed by a small, teeny,
tiny team of people and now wehave a big team in each
department and it's just crazyto even think about that aspect
of growth.
On a normal day at SWO, we haveeight buses moving students
(06:01):
around.
We have about as many transitvans moving students around.
We have about as many transitvans moving students around.
We have a fleet of a dozen worktrucks in maintenance and
construction.
We have multiple food servicevehicles, including a food truck
moving food around.
We have a staff of almost 200people and we have staff divided
(06:23):
into departments, our marketingand media team right now, the
people that put out the contentthat y'all hear and see that
team alone is larger than theentirety of our first full
summer staff.
Um, so it's just amazing to seewhat God has done and to see
what it takes to pull off a weekof SWO.
(06:43):
The front office that organizesand coordinates where groups
stay, when they come in,registration, sign up, booking,
housing, all of that I meanthat's a big team of people and
it takes several people thatwork in a full-time capacity in
that office just to geteverybody onto the property.
Snowbird started with 50 acres.
We office just to get everybodyonto the property.
(07:03):
Snowbird started with 50 acres.
We now manage well over ahundred acres of property.
We've more than doubledsize-wise.
We started with a $300 armysurplus tent and under that tent
we had some electric cablespools turned on their ends as
tables and people ate bystanding at those tables and we
(07:25):
cooked beef stew on Colemanstoves.
We first built one cabin calledFreedom Cabin, but all we did
was dry it in and get it underroof and then we put up two
outfitter's tents and that's howwe ran our first few camps.
Now we have housing for over800 people on site.
(07:45):
Meals alone we prepare about14,000 meals a week.
Say that again 14,000 meals aweek is what our food service
department produces In the earlydays.
We used to.
This is crazy and some of ourlisteners will remember this.
But in the early slow days wewould go, uh, we, we would pick
(08:06):
up food from local businesseslike Subway and Andrews would
would, would box up cold cutcombos, six inch sandwiches, and
we would go pick them up, andthat was lunch one day.
And for breakfast some days wewould do cereal and milk and
we'd set it out on those spool,those cable spool tables under
(08:27):
that old army tent.
And then some days we would gopick up, uh, hardee's biscuits.
We would, we'd go buy a coupleof bags of Hardee's biscuits,
you know we'd only have about uh30, 40 people here, and then we
grew to where we would havearound a hundred people here and
it was still the same.
We'd go get that food and bringit in.
And now we have a food servicedepartment that produces, turns
(08:50):
out, 14,000 meals a week.
Pretty crazy.
It's just amazing to see whatGod's done.
And so a week of camp like thisweek we're we've grown this
year by 50 students a week andwe put in six new cabins.
Going in for next year, lordwilling, will be more bathrooms,
bath houses, shower houses toalleviate some of the pressure
(09:11):
that those extra 50 peoplecreate in terms of
infrastructure.
But I'm sitting in the.
I'm in the worship building atthe super coop at snowbirds
north campus.
If you're familiar with ourlayout, if not, we've got a
20,000 square foot open sort ofan open air big roll-up garage
(09:33):
doors on the walls facility.
It's an old concert venue andit's where we do our worship
services and I'm sitting inthere and you've got 620
attendees, a couple hundredstaff, probably 250 staff and
families.
We've got our element teamthere, which is 40 students ish
and six, uh six staff membersthat run that.
(09:53):
That's our high school, uh, ourhigh school staff.
Um, it's like a discipleshipprogram we're going to be
highlighting in an episode thissummer.
Jb actually is one of the folksthat runs that and I'm just
looking around and there's somany people under under the roof
.
You know, in one week of campwe have more people here than we
(10:13):
had in our.
For sure, our first two summerscombined, like, if you take all
the weeks of the first twosummers, uh, it doesn't equal
what we had or all, I'm sorry,the entire first two years.
So, from the time we startedSWO through two years of
ministry and you could almost doit through three.
(10:34):
So about three, four years ofministry, we have more people
here under roof in house in asingle week than we did in three
years of ministry back then.
So the Lord has blessed us andwe're so thankful and I just
want to.
I want to make this an episodewhere I mentioned that you know
(10:56):
a lot of people really enjoyedJoseph Wainwright and that
episode where Joseph came on thepodcast.
But there's, joseph is one ofan army of people.
We have a young man named SamHaybecker who works in
maintenance and last night, asI'm recording this, on Friday of
week one last night, I got acall from.
This was at midnight.
(11:16):
I got a call.
I'm in a conversation with ayouth pastor.
I get a call from anotherchurch, a lady at another church
and they had a maintenanceissue in their dorm.
I call Sam Haybecker and 10minutes later he says it's taken
care of and we have a team ofselfless people who understand
(11:36):
that ministry is not justpreaching or leading worship or
leading a share group.
It's turning wrenches, fixingdoorknobs, plunging toilets,
serving phenomenal this is funnyServing phenomenal food.
I said that right after I saidplunging toilets, I should
probably flip that.
Serving amazing meals, plungingtoilets, because one turns into
(11:56):
the other.
Uh, that was funny, I crackedmyself up with that.
But we've got behind the scenespeople doing behind the scenes
things that make Snowbird whatit is, and we're on track.
We're literally on track tocontinue growing and we just
want to grow right and do thisthe right way.
And, um, you know, jeff Garneris the guy that's over all of
(12:19):
our transportation.
We came into this week with all.
He had worked so hard thisspring to get bus drivers
trained up, cdl licenses passedto get all the buses up and
running.
The problem, you know theproblem, is we drive all of our
buses.
They average about they'reabout 30 years old and uh,
they're just old machines.
And jeff had worked so hardthis spring with his team, with
(12:41):
uh and as far as getting ourvehicles ready to go, and we had
four of our eight buses go downweek one, on top that it's been
raining.
All week it has poured rain.
We've got flooding in places.
It's a crazy way but watchingeverybody come together to make
it happen and then, as a result,I want to read you just a
couple texts that I've gotten inthe last 24 hours.
(13:03):
Okay, let me read you.
Let me read you three texts.
This is from a staff membernamed Catherine.
She's a phenomenal young ladywho served here faithfully for
several years now.
She texted me early thismorning.
I had a camper who got savedlast night.
She's from my home church andthe Lord has clearly been
working in her life.
He has sought her out.
Our youth leaders have beenpraying for her continually.
(13:25):
It is a great praise.
Also, I'll be able to continuethat relationship with her back
home after the summer.
So there's a cool testimony ofGod saving someone.
Let me give you another one.
This is from a staff member.
This is a veteran staff membernamed Kendall.
Kendall's a phenomenal,beautiful young lady who has
faithfully served Jesus here.
(13:46):
I'm so thankful for her and herand her faithfulness.
She texted me this at 1215 thismorning, so literally right
after I got that text about theum, the, the, the maintenance
issue.
Hey, brody, it's Kendall Justwanted to let you know that one
of my girls gave her life to theLord tonight and I figured
you'd want to know.
I responded in all caps withexclamation points Thank you,
(14:10):
thank you.
This makes my night.
She said it definitely mademine.
I texted back this is the bestkind of text.
I was literally just sittinghere thinking how cool it would
be to get to get a text about akid trusting Jesus.
Then you texted.
She said that's amazing.
After working here for threesummers, it's the first time
I've had this experience.
I'm feeling so thankful for theLord's goodness, so awesome to
(14:30):
hear that from Kendall lastnight.
All right, let me read you onemore Brody, this is Leo.
Leo's a young man that serveson staff this summer.
This is Leo.
Just had a kid come to Christand be saved.
I said heck, yeah, thank you,this makes my night Hail.
The king Jesus saves.
He said, yes, sir, jesus trulydoes save.
I asked him if the kid was fromRipley First Baptist Church.
(14:52):
He said yes, sir, and he gaveme his name young man named
Braden.
So God is moving, doing awesomethings.
He's been doing that from thebeginning, and so you look at a
situation and maybe there's alittle lesson.
This is not what this episode'sabout, but an awesome little
lesson that y'all can be prayingfor.
There's conflict and there'spushback.
The enemy doesn't want us to dowhat we're doing and we got
(15:15):
four out of eight buses go down,and then you got, we had a
power outage, and then you knowyou've got.
You've got conflict on everyside, at every turn, and I'm
just reminded that the devil'snot going to sit idly by and
things are not going to gosmooth.
As a Christian, when you'retrying to do what God's called
you to do that's true for everyone of us, that's true for you,
(15:35):
that's true for me If you committo put your hand to the plow
and be faithful, to advance thegospel and to try to live for
Jesus, there's going to beconflict.
Just expect it.
And then, in the middle of allthat, to get these text messages
where these, by the way, thesethree, this young man and these
two young ladies that I justread those texts from, for
(15:56):
people that don't have hope forthis generation.
You should have hope for thisgeneration because Catherine and
Kendall and Leo are examples ofyoung adults.
Our staff is predictable I meanpredominantly, rather, 18 to 24
.
Most of them are, I'd say themedian age is 19 to 20.
(16:16):
And they love the Lord, theywork hard.
These young men and women havegiven up their summer, some of
them.
You heard one young lady,kendall say this is her third
summer.
Catherine it's her secondsummer.
She did the Institute.
Leo's a first year guy.
So wherever they are, on the on,on, on the scale of how long
(16:37):
they've been here, whatever, thebottom line is young men and
young women being raised up.
God's calling them to SWO.
We're investing in them,training them up.
They're boldly proclaiming thegospel and they're passionate
about seeing these young peoplecome to faith.
They're discipling them,serving so well.
I'm just so blessed to be apart of it.
And I think back to thatoutfitter tent uh, that first
(17:00):
one.
We put up that old army tentthat there's old electric spools
and serving beef stew off of aColeman stove.
And you know what?
King Jesus has not changed.
Snowbird has changeddrastically in 27 years, going
on 28 years, but the Lord hasnot changed.
He never changes and hismission is the same and that's
to build the kingdom, to advancethe church, for the gospel to
(17:21):
impact the world.
And it's happening.
It's happening right here atSWO and I'm so thankful to be a
part of it.
And it takes men like JeffGarner and women like Michaela
Howe and food service and peoplethat are in that front office,
cassie and Ellie, and Josh andhis team in the front office,
people like Riley Shannon, whoworks in HR, who nobody ever
(17:42):
knows what's going on in HR.
In fact, you're scared of HR.
Spencer Davis, who people knowas a as one of our teaching
staff, who also plays bass inour band he's one of the bass
players in one of the band sets,but Spencer runs our risk
management department, whichinvolves everything from making
sure we've got medical staff onstandby each week, a staff, a
(18:05):
camp nurse in-house each week,standby each week, a staff, a
camp nurse in-house each week.
How we handle conflict with iftwo students get in a fight or
if a boy puts his hands on agirl or like the things that you
might not think about, but whenyou put 800 people on one
property, we're going to makesure we run a tight ship while
also, at the same time, makingsure everybody's having a good
time.
And it's a big operation.
(18:26):
And these men and women thathave given their lives to this
thing.
Jb edits this podcast, sometimeshosts this podcast, but she
also runs the girls elementprogram and that's not all.
She teaches on Wednesdaymornings to every girl in camp
when we split up the girls andthe guys.
That's a lot of hats to wear.
(18:46):
You know that's a lot going on.
That's a lot to do with verylittle time.
The people that are herecommitted to this summer all 200
of them average start time oftheir day is 6 am.
Average go to bedtime isbetween midnight and one and we
go all day nonstop.
And it's nonstop all day.
(19:06):
And I'm telling you, the Lord isblessing the faithfulness of
these people.
And so when I think back tothose early days, it's just me
and little and a few others.
And then I think about theearly growth and the first few
staffs.
Some things have changeddrastically, but some things
have not changed.
But one of the things thatalways stands out to me is that
God is always bringing peopleinto this work, calling people
(19:27):
here to pick up the mantle thatothers have laid down when
they've moved on to other thingsand to be faithful with the
calling God's given us.
And, as a result, I just readyou three texts from the from,
from from the last couple ofworship services where kids are
giving their life to Jesus.
One more thing on that Uh, ifyou've been to swell you, you
know we don't do big invitationswhere we draw kids forward, and
(19:49):
the reason I don't do that isbecause we don't do that we
learned early on is a lot oftimes kids get caught up in an
emotional moment and they'll goforward not really understanding
why am I here?
What decision do I need to make?
And I've had a lot ofconviction about not just
getting kids to quote unquotemake a decision.
(20:12):
Listen every time you hear theword of God, you make a decision
what you're going to do with it.
You get up this morning, youopen your Bible.
You made a decision how you'regoing to respond to that.
Same tomorrow morning, sameSunday, when you go to church.
Every time we hear the word ofGod, we make a decision.
This morning I was preaching outof Romans eight I was in verses
31 through 34, and there wasabout 10 kids sleeping.
(20:33):
Their heads are back, theirjaws are gaped open, they're
sleeping hard.
While I'm preaching I'm like,well, that guy's already made
his decision what he's going todo with this.
But that's not my deal to to.
Uh, you know that's that'sbetween that young man and the
Lord.
But then and it's Friday andlike, give him some grace.
It's a, you know, 13, 15, 16year old dude who's played hard
all week it's rained.
(20:54):
All week it's pouring rainduring the worship service.
It's beaten down on that onthat metal roof.
It probably put me to sleep too, I don't.
You know, I'm not mad, I can'tblame him.
But then I look around and thenthere's kids that have their
notebooks open, their Biblesopen.
They're aggressively takingnotes.
Everybody's responding to theword and I believe that if the
(21:15):
word of God is preached, if theHoly Spirit is going to move in
a kid's heart, they're going tocome to faith in Jesus.
And so we facilitate thoseconversations through share
groups and and discussions and,um, yeah, it's just awesome.
So in a normal day, let me runyou through a normal schedule
real quick Get up in the morning, breakfast staff will be
meeting students for breakfastand coffee and having devotions
(21:37):
and just just getting the daymoving, opening God's word
together.
That's real organic.
It's not organized.
So our staff might connect withone or two students or they
might have a small group meeting.
Then breakfast, then morningworship, which is we got some
games it's kind of crazy highenergy to kick it off and then
we'll go into some worshipthrough song.
(21:59):
Then we'll hear the word andwe'll take a break.
Then they'll go into breakoutsessions where we'll talk about
cultural topics, and then lunchand then all afternoon they're
doing recreation high adventurerecreation.
Come back together for oh, inthe morning, during breakouts,
one of the things we do is wehave a breakout session for
parents and youth pastors andyouth workers where we're
(22:22):
talking to them, just trying topartner with and equip folks for
student ministry.
So there's student breakouts,there's leader breakouts.
Back to end of the afternoon wego to supper.
After supper we have anotherworship service that starts.
In between There'll be a bunchof games and different
activities kids can get into,and then we come together, sing
(22:42):
songs of praise and worship withour band playing.
Um put together an incredible.
By the way, our production teamis phenomenal.
The skits, the dramas, thevideos, the sound, the music
it's all phenomenal.
It's literally first rate.
And then uh, and then we have,we hear, we hear the preaching
of the word, and then we singsome more and then we take a
(23:04):
break and everybody heads off toshare groups and then we cap
the day off with just free time.
Food trucks open, snack shacksopen that's typical day at SWO.
Might, uh, might, get up hereand visit sometime.
If you've never been, I thinkyou'd love it because we do
adult conferences as well.
Saying all that to say, god ismoving in every department and
men and women here.
(23:24):
This morning I saw Jeff Garner,who I mentioned earlier is over
at Transportation.
I saw his wife, keturah,walking across the parking lot.
She's coming to the worshipservice.
She wants to come in on Fridaymorning.
She works a few shifts a weekin the dining hall in worship
service.
She wants to come in on Fridaymorning.
Um, she works in the.
Uh, she works a few shifts aweek in the dining hall and food
service and she's.
She's not working this morning,but she's coming to be a part
(23:47):
of the worship service.
Just amazing to me, the familybuy-in and investment.
Um, this morning I came throughthe front gate.
John Reagan was working thefront gate.
Well, john Reagan manages andruns and oversees the entire web
operation of SWO and he's overhere, man, in the front gate.
Everybody pitches in and doestheir part and it just takes so
many people cooperatingselflessly to make this thing
(24:09):
happen.
And so, um, I just wanted you toknow how you could be praying
for energy and strength as we gointo this summer.
We are, I'm going to, I'm goingto be unpacking more of the
Roman stuff, but I did want tojust close by giving you an
overview.
We're unpacking and workingthrough Romans chapter eight.
So we begin on Monday night inRomans eight one and we'll
(24:32):
finish on Friday night in Romanseight 39.
And we, and the teaching focusis his glory, our good.
And you know if you, if you knowmuch about the book of Romans,
the first few chapters walkthrough how people cannot earn
the righteousness of God intheir own strength.
Everyone falls short of God'sglory.
(24:52):
In Romans one we see that God'swrath is being revealed from
heaven because people havesuppressed his truth and
rejected what he's revealed.
In chapter 2, we see the Jewishlisteners being warned against
religious condescension, wherethey look at the people in
chapter 1 and they go well,we're not like that, we're not
(25:13):
practicing homosexuality or idolworship, we're not murderous or
rebellious, we're very phomosexuality or idol worship,
we're not.
We're not, you know, murderousor rebellious, we're very pious
and religious.
And he says, hey, y'all goingto be judged very strictly
because you're judgmental andit's God's kindness and mercy
that should have brought you tosalvation.
And so by the second chapter werealize everyone has sinned and
no one is righteous before God,whether you're Jew, baptist,
(25:36):
catholic Gentile whatever.
And we get to chapter three andwe realize, oh, jesus has to
provide what we cannot earn, andthat is salvation.
And so chapter three goes in,that most wonderful passage in
the end of Romans, chapter three, where the Lord provides
righteousness for us through thework of Jesus.
(25:59):
And so we, you know, we're just, we're so thankful to be able
to walk through the, the, theeighth chapter of Romans,
because it culminates byrecognizing and realizing that
condemnation has been removedbecause of what Jesus has done,
as is explained in Romans 3.
(26:19):
And from there you get intochapter 5, and it's like man,
we're sinful from birth becauseAdam was a sinner, we inherited
sin, and then we're sinfulbecause we act on it.
In chapter 6, I love, becausehe says that sinful man or woman
has been buried with Christ Inbaptism.
We're buried with Christ inbaptism, we're buried with
Christ, and when we're broughtout of the baptismal waters
(26:41):
there's this symbolic raisedwith Christ.
And we now walk in newness oflife.
And so we've got this new life,this new creation.
Righteousness is given to us,and we just want students to
know what that all comes down tois identity.
Their identity is in Christ andit is through what Jesus has
done that they can celebrate andrejoice and grow, and they've
(27:03):
been made new.
Our newness comes through whoChrist is and what he's done.
I'm so grateful for it.
And so pray for these studentsas we go through this summer,
unpacking, week by week, romans,chapter 8, and just that we
would be able to convey to themthe importance of this text, and
it really is so critical, soimportant.
(27:24):
Pray for the staff as they lead.
We're asking you to pray forthem, pray for the teaching
staff, the band, but pray forthose folks I mentioned earlier
food service, transportationmaintenance.
Can you imagine the maintenancethat goes into keeping an
800-person facility operatingday to day?
It's a huge operation.
(27:45):
And so pray for them and prayfor I would ask you to pray for
safety, for students to be safe,for no one to be injured or
harmed, or for their you know,moving eight buses around and
eight, 12 vans around every daygetting kids to the whitewater.
(28:09):
We actually move 11 buses a daybecause we have three buses come
in from an outside company.
So 11 buses a day on the road,60 passenger buses, you know,
and some of them are full.
Some of them may only have 20kids in them, but we're moving
them all over runningwakeboarding, uh, or I mean, I'm
sorry, um, yeah, we got ourwakeboarding boat up there on
the lake and we're pulling kidson tubes and just there's a lot
going on.
And so would you pray that nota kid gets hurt, pray for safety
(28:32):
, that God protects andpreserves these kids as we take
them out and do recreation inthe afternoons, and then just
pray that hearts and minds willbe open and that students would
respond to the gospel.
This first week was great, wasawesome, the Lord used it, but
we got nine weeks to go andwe're asking you to pray with us
through those nine weeks.
We'll be showing up here day inand day out or, I'm sorry, week
(28:54):
in and week out and keeping youup to speed on what's going on,
and we've got a few guests linedup that you're going to hear
from some of our staff and gotsome episodes lined up that
you'll get to hear from ourstaff, and then also we will be
highlighting the element program, things like that, and I look
forward to sharing that with you.
Pray for us, come see us.
So a lot of our listeners, Iknow you're on your way.
(29:15):
You're going to be here overthe next few weeks and we can't
wait to see you.
And it's going to be.
The summer's going to come andgo so fast.
Heads are going to spin andit's going to be over, so let's
make the most of it.
Pray for us.
We pray for you.
It means the world to us thatyou listen to NSR each week, so
we'll see you soon.
Speaker 2 (29:34):
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