No Sanity Required
SWO24 | Updates From Camp & Interviews with Students
In today’s episode, Brody walks around the Super Coop and interviews students about how their week at camp has been. Listen as students share funny stories from their week and how God is growing them! A few students even share that they came to know the Lord this week. Praise God!
Please be patient with the audio during the interviews as the background noise is pretty loud.
This is our last week of camp. Please pray for the students, our staff, and that the Lord would save souls this week.
Resources:
- Be Strong Men's Conference
- Marriage Conference
- Avery Primm's NSR Episode- No Sanity Stories | Staff Edition
Please leave a review on Apple or Spotify to help improve No Sanity Required and help others grow in their faith.
Click here to get our Colossians Bible study.
In today’s episode, Brody walks around the Super Coop and interviews students about how their week at camp has been. Listen as students share funny stories from their week and how God is growing them! A few students even share that they came to know the Lord this week. Praise God!
Please be patient with the audio during the interviews as the background noise is pretty loud.
This is our last week of camp. Please pray for the students, our staff, and that the Lord would save souls this week.
Resources:
- Be Strong Men's Conference
- Marriage Conference
- Avery Primm's NSR Episode- No Sanity Stories | Staff Edition
Please leave a review on Apple or Spotify to help improve No Sanity Required and help others grow in their faith.
Click here to get our Colossians Bible study.
All right. In this week's episode of no Sanity Required, I took the microphone and I went into our Friday night kickoff to the worship service. It's pretty rowdy around here right before service kicks off every night, but Friday nights especially, and then the music ramps up and there's about a 20-minute dance party just kids having fun going crazy, acting I mean acting crazy and you can hear it and it's hard to hear. I just walked around with a microphone but if you listen close you can hear the energy and excitement and God's doing awesome things in students' lives this summer. We're in our last week of camp now and can't wait to report to you different things from the summer. We'll bring you a few episodes once summer is completely wrapped up, but for this week I just wanted to share some testimonies and let some students share with you in their words what this week meant to them.
Speaker 2: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:Well, I was going to kick this off. I had sat down with a couple Malachi and Amelia Hartzell. Malachi served here. Amelia served here. Amelia did our old school semester, which was a program we used to run prior to the institute. It actually overlapped a little bit, but the institute, we ramped the institute up and we did away with old school because the institute is just so effective at what we need it to be. Old school was a wilderness semester, so it was pretty cool. Awesome, run over a decade. A lot of classes, a lot of graduating classes in old school was a wilderness semester, so it was pretty cool. Uh, awesome, run over a decade. A lot of classes, a lot of graduating classes in old school. I think it started in 06. I think it ran through the fall semester of 2019, maybe so 14 semesters and it was awesome, loved that program. But amelia went through that.
Speaker 1:Uh, amelia and malachi both met while they were serving at SWO and I wanted to just share, um, something that the, the, the Lord, I mean, he just encouraged me, uh, I. So Wednesday nights, as you know, we do a, we do a, uh, we split the guys and the girls up and we do a man night and a woman night, and we just challenged them with biblical sexuality, gender identity, masculinity, femininity what God designed for men and women to be, and it's uh, I think it's, it's more important right now than it's ever been. It's always been important, but right now, as as their biblical understanding of sexuality is under a constant barrage and attack from society, from the world around them. Um, we just want to, we want to tackle issues that um need to be tackled with students, and so we take those dudes in and we we really really give them practical um teaching on what it is to be a godly man. Same with the ladies. Something, too, I think is very effective about separating them for the day. Just having them apart for a couple of sessions is very focused. There's less distraction, it's a smaller setting, fewer people, and we've just, through the years, had so much positive feedback from this.
Speaker 1:Malachi Hartzell was a student who came in 2018 and then came back. He just graduated high school, came back in 2019 and served here, and then was when he met his now wife. Was a year or two after that. I think they both served here, and Malachi came up to me last Wednesday night was a year or two after that I think they both served here. And Malachi came up to me last Wednesday night it was right after the man night, the guy talk and he just said, man, it's just so refreshing and encouraging. He said it was six years ago on a Wednesday night that I sat and I heard these things for the first time in my life.
Speaker 1:Malachi was raised with older sisters and a mom but no father in the picture. And, um, and he said, you know it, it, it really resonated and took root in my heart. And he said I wrote things down and and really tried to grab hold of some stuff that I felt like would redirect the course of my life and and help me to become a godly man. And he said I strived for those things and I'll tell y'all as NSR listeners um, this is a young man that I've watched it, I've watched it happen in his life.
Speaker 1:He came in here just kind of um, disheveled, not not having real purpose and identity and no real confidence, kind of overcompensated for that lack of confidence by just kind of being crazy and outrageous and, and you know, just being kind of the life of the party, the class, the class clown kind of guy. And the Lord has has calmed him down and matured him, and Malachi um has been working and saving money for a couple of years. A good job, awesome, awesome work performance. I know his uh, I know someone that works in his company really well. Have a good inside track and just just to hear how great he's done has been awesome. He's embraced manhood, being a husband.
Speaker 1:Amelia is a strong young woman. That, um, I can tell you. It wouldn't work if Malachi wasn't pursuing the Lord. She's such a strong woman of faith and of calling and so the Lord has now called them to the mission field and I sat down with them the other night. But Malachi had lost his voice and you can hear my voice is pretty scratchy in these interviews. You'll hear that, you'll pick up on that. And when the audio? When we pulled the audio, you just can't hear Malachi. We're going to play around with that, but we just couldn't get the audio to where it was intelligible, where you could hear it and you could, you could turn you. You could turn the volume up real loud and hear it, but it was pretty distracting because the noise in the background and malachi's voice was just shot. So we'll get them back on the show on the podcast um and and hear uh about what god's doing in their lives as they prepare to go with the International Mission Board to serve in an undisclosed location, take the gospel to the nations, excited for them and celebrating and rejoicing with them.
Speaker 1:He grew up at a church called Venture, and there's two Ventures that come to camp here. One's from Harrisburg, north Carolina, and one's from Dallas, north Carolina. He grew up in one from Dallas, and then Amelia is from a church called Pitts Baptist, which is in Concord, kannapolis area of North Carolina, just north of Charlotte, and just grateful for the testimony of the gospel in both of their lives. And so we will bring you their story further down the road. We'll hear from them later. And then after that, I just walked around the Super Coupe Friday night a few minutes before everything kicked off, and you'll hear the last testimony. You'll hear the last interview you'll hear is a young man whose life was radically changed here. He comes from a crazy background. If I understand right, he witnessed a murder within his family at a young age. And just a broken and wild kid, a young man that the Lord got a hold of and brought him from death to life. And I'll give this last testimony before we go to the interviews.
Speaker 1:We have seen so many students come to faith in Jesus this summer. I don't remember a summer where it's been like this and I'm grateful and we're rejoicing and celebrating and thankful to the Lord, thankful to God for it and just so blessed by it, and uh, so we will continue to report some, you know, give you, give you stories and testimonies of God's grace in in that, in that regard. And uh, man, it was, I think it was two Thursday nights ago I'm sitting Thursday night has been a message that we've done on the story of Zacchaeus, but it's not a cutesy little kid story, it's a story of a dark and evil man whose heart was radically changed by the gospel and the evidence and the fruit of that is overwhelming. And it just resonated with students and it was a Thursday night a couple weeks ago I think I got 11 texts that night of students that had come to faith in Jesus through their various share groups around camp. And uh, so praise the Lord for that.
Speaker 1:I would say, uh, we've had, um, dozens of students come to faith this summer, I believe probably over a hundred. Where y'all know that we don't do a big net casting invitation. These are conversations that are had in a share group setting, oftentimes with a youth pastor involved or our staff having a conversation and handing it off to a pastor, a student pastor. Feel solid when a student is making a decision. Feel as solid as you can, feel that there's immediate follow-up and handoff for discipleship and I'm just praising the Lord that I think I really believe. Well over 100 students have come to faith in Jesus this summer. Maybe closer to 200. I don't know that. We'll be able to track that down. We're careful about just throwing that kind of information around because we want to make sure and we want to know that the students understand. And but anyway, uh, which reminds me we're going to be bringing up.
Speaker 1:I want to bring an episode um is coming up where we're going to talk about why we don't do those invitations in the traditional, historic way that most of us grew up with it, and and how we, how we walk through the process of drawing students into conversation, having those conversations with students where they have an opportunity to really ask questions and we ask questions of them and to drill into their understanding of the gospel so that if and when they do surrender their life to Jesus. I feel like it's the real deal and there's no questions asked. Anyway, not that there aren't false conversions, I'm not saying we've mastered anything, just making sure that we do our part so that students know that Jesus Christ is the author of their faith. He's the one that alone can save. It's not a magical prayer alone can save. It's not a magical prayer. It's not a magical um experience at camp that makes camp more, uh, spiritual or special, or it's just that Jesus meets you where you're at and when you meet him at at. At camp it it tends to happen in a a more focused way because all of what's left behind is behind you know, and and uh we see students just really zero in for for these five days. But anyway, I'm I'm kind of getting into that content. We'll we'll be bringing that to you soon. I want to drop uh a couple episodes one on uh that we challenged the staff with early in the summer about just being courageous in in your calling, and we looked at Joshua just before he led God's people into uh across the Jordan river and into Jericho, uh, and then an episode that would be the final Monday that we challenged our staff. Some will be staying in the Institute after summer 30 something of them, so over a hundred will be leaving and going just dispersion to the different places that they're going to go to college, some to work, some back home and just challenging them with what the transition will look like. And so we're going to be sharing that message with you here as an episode coming up. And then the last thing is I was on Amy Davis' podcast and we're going to bring that to y'all as a bonus episode. So got some good content. We're going to flood you with content over the next couple of weeks to catch up for some of the gaps from the summer, and then we'll pick right up after that with content that we've laid out for the fall and looking forward to bringing that to you.
Speaker 1:Let's get into these interviews. Hope you enjoy listening to these and get very much encouraged by them, as I have been. These are teenagers that we talked to last Friday night actually Friday night of week eight. So here we go. So I got. I got some brothers here, some young brothers. What's your name?
Speaker 3:Hudson Godfrey.
Speaker 1:Hudson Godfrey.
Speaker 4:Brayson on Brayrey. Brayson Otten, brayson Otten.
Speaker 2:Brayson, otten Baptist. Otten Baptist. That's your name, your name's.
Speaker 1:Baptist. That's legit, all right. So where y'all from Atlanta, georgia, they're from Atlanta, all right. I'm going to ask you what was your favorite thing of the week?
Speaker 3:Rafting because we had a great guide who um?
Speaker 1:who loved to kid around. Who was the guy? Alex conti? I should have known, alex, because you are from his his uncle's home church. Cool, what was your favorite part of the?
Speaker 3:week I liked rafting a lot yeah yeah, I liked uh rafting lake tubing and I enjoyed the services there we go, go, there we go the services.
Speaker 1:Was there a favorite sermon or breakout session or something you learned? Any?
Speaker 3:of you. I really liked the breakout session today. Oh, the one about love and transgenderism and progressive like progressivism cool because it really um kind of spoke to the world's views and how. That's not how we're supposed to be. We're supposed to be in in god's eyes and, um, what his definition of love is not not the world's. That's good that's solid.
Speaker 1:y'all gonna come back next year, all right.
Speaker 3:Y'all have a good last night.
Speaker 1:Thank you All right, all right, hold on. This is very important. This is very important. I need to know your name.
Speaker 5:My name's Susan Susan where are you from? I'm from Dallas, North Carolina.
Speaker 1:Y'all are very out of breath, and what's your name?
Speaker 4:Madeline.
Speaker 1:Madeline is a swole girl. She's one of ours and I got a text from Madeline. Is this who I got a text about? I want you to tell the NSR audience about a very significant thing that happened in your life today. Was it today?
Speaker 5:Yeah, oh well. I finally decided to give my life to Jesus Christ fully and I got baptized.
Speaker 1:I mean, we didn't waste no time. You got baptized. Who baptized you?
Speaker 5:My very best friend Majene.
Speaker 1:And so are you with Venture.
Speaker 4:Yes.
Speaker 1:That is amazing. Yes, so it's been an awesome week for you.
Speaker 5:Oh, it's been amazing. I think this week has definitely opened my eyes to Christ more than anything ever.
Speaker 1:So we're going to be praying for you and you're going to do awesome. You stay plugged in at your church. We're going to be praying for you and you're going to do awesome. You stay plugged in at your church. Make sure you're at youth. Be there, be discipled, stay in the Word, stay in touch. You know what I call her what.
Speaker 5:Eminem man, I learned so much from laughing. All right, thank you.
Speaker 1:Thank you. All right, this one is good. These two I want you all to hear from these two. Say your name Solomon, ryan. Say your name, fisher.
Speaker 2:Shank, say it again Fisher Shank.
Speaker 1:Them boys talk fast. So these two dudes. So how long has your dad been coming here? I don't remember, but since you was a little boy, yeah, at least five. How long has your dad been coming Before? I was born like 03.
Speaker 1:That's right coming before I was going like oh three, that's right, oh three, an og from oh three, solomon's dad, started. Okay, you probably don't know this, but your dad basically started the be strong conference. He called me up. He said I want to bring them. He had started a men's group at y'all's church at the time adventure and he said I want to bring our men's group up. And so then I was like let's do it. And another church said hey, we want to do a men's retreat. So the first two Be Strongs was just Venture Dudes and another church.
Speaker 6:That's when my grandpa and my dad helped with the cabins.
Speaker 5:And they would come and work.
Speaker 1:Yeah. He said he would come so we would do the Be Strong thing and then they would come up and work. That's what I said. That's so cool. And then your dad started coming. Probably did you say when you were like five, I think so. Yeah, I mean, he started coming not long after that. That's how he started coming was because of the Be Strong stuff. Yeah, he came to Be Strong Conference, so you had a good week.
Speaker 2:I did yep.
Speaker 1:What was the thing?
Speaker 2:that you learned the most this week. Don't complain, that was a man knock.
Speaker 1:Come on, what stands out from a sermon or a share group or a breakout?
Speaker 6:I think definitely the insecurity breakout was really big because I feel like a lot of people were insecure and we tried to hide that. We can find insecurity in the Lord and I feel like also a men's night all together by how to be a godly man. Really stick out for sure.
Speaker 1:I love it. I love it, love both of y'all, love your families. Thanks for talking to me. Of course, there is enough content on social media for you to see what's going on right now, but it is insane. All right, hey, wait, avery Prim's walking by. Avery Prim was on. We'll link her episode. How you doing?
Speaker 5:I'm doing great. You're back on NSR. I know I think the fans have been waiting for it. I'm going to be honest Did it change your life? Oh, absolutely. They talk about it all the time. I'm like guys, guys, just chill out. Are you ready to go home and sleep in your bed? I definitely am. I definitely am. Pam. I used to be used to the whole schedule of it. Now I'm definitely not.
Speaker 1:That's what everybody says they say if they work leave, come back. They're like oh my goodness, I forgot what this was like.
Speaker 5:I forget how much of the Lord, like truly sustaining me through the summer, actually happened, because I come back and I'm like it's 10 o'clock and I'm tired. How did I do this for like 12 weeks?
Speaker 1:Lailie said today she was like she said. I woke up this morning and said Lord, please give me some supernatural strength, otherwise I ain't going to make it today. Yes, that's exactly how I used to feel All right, go be crazy, tell me, tell me your name.
Speaker 4:Danique LaHorne.
Speaker 1:And so I want our folks to know that you came here just to interpret sign language, right? Yes, sir, I did. And your church is Venture Venture. Yes, we were bragging on Venture earlier, like what a big deal it is that a church would send someone just to serve that family. And what's your student's name? Asen Liu, and he's completely deaf, he doesn't hear, he's completely deaf.
Speaker 5:He can't hear at all. Well, you've done an amazing job this week.
Speaker 1:Thank you, check, check, mike. Tell me your name, gage, and where you from first first. Baptist Church. Walk to the floor right now. Tell us you're talking to me, a Rob Rob Conti's here. And what were you telling us?
Speaker 6:So I came from like a really bad past and I came here two years ago and I came back here this year looking grand. So I'm trying to get some kind of like what is it called? Closure? Like peace? Yes, because my heart and head was full of rage. I came here looking for closure and listening to y'all two talk and speak the word and these stories y'all are telling it encouraged me to give my life to Christ this morning and I got saved and it feels great. It feels amazing. It was like right after I said that prayer with my pastor, I felt like a brick just fell off my shoulders, like so much weight. It feels amazing. You felt like a new dude, a new person, a new person completely.
Speaker 1:Remember last night when I was talking about you're literally a new creation. Yes, sir, I remember that.
Speaker 6:Yes, sir, and listening to y'all two talk. I've been taking notes and everything like that it encouraged me a lot, Like y'all pushed, Y'all pushed and y'all talked and y'all doing God's work down here and I really appreciate y'all for that. Y'all saved my life 20, and I appreciate y'all for that.
Speaker 1:That's awesome and thanks for sharing that, and our people that listen to this are going to be very encouraged by that. Now you go live for Jesus, you hear me. You go put your hand on the plow and you plow on and you don't look back and we'll see you next trip, 100%. I got people pointing saying so. Okay, so apparently you need to say something, because everybody's pointing at you. Say your name Emily Allen. Emily Allen, norm Manhart, norm Manhart. Do I know y'all's families, or?
Speaker 4:anything? Do you know, david and Renee?
Speaker 1:Crane.
Speaker 4:Yeah, yeah, my mom's best friends with them and they go on mission trips together.
Speaker 1:David and Renee Crane were. So where my daughter serves? Yeah, in Uganda and South Sudan, they were the cluster leaders with the IMV. That's awesome. You come from Pedigree. What's your name? Carson Owens, carson Owens, carson Owens. All right, here's what I want to know. Give me one fun memory from the week that you're taking home, and one I want all y'all to answer this. Wait, we got one more. What's your name? Taylor Boone, taylor Boone. Wait, who's your sister? Caitlin? Come on, that's what I figured. Okay, so we're going to go. Whoever wants to go? First I want to hear one fun memory from the week, like just a cool, fun. Great, it could be on rec, it could be something happening in the cabin or the meal, and then one thing that stands out that you're taking away, that you learned All right, what you got.
Speaker 3:One fun thing I would say is the white water rafting and one thing I'm going to take away is Monday night and this day.
Speaker 6:I got baptized today and I feel way better than I have ever been.
Speaker 3:I feel happier. I feel more love, I feel more overwhelmed about everything. I feel free. I feel happier.
Speaker 1:Monday night gave us your life. Jesus, let's go. That's awesome. What about you? That's cool. Just surrender, surrender.
Speaker 7:Yeah, I probably have to go to Girls' Night too, just like getting up and being able to be in girls' presence and it be a positive environment and not bringing each other down, like down to the good environment, and then I don't have to say anything, I'm taking away, obviously.
Speaker 2:I know God has authority over everything, but I never really have thought about the intricate little details.
Speaker 7:And how much power he really, truly does have, and so like this week, like being able to fully understand and see that in multiple different ways has really stood out to me.
Speaker 2:I love that. I love that answer.
Speaker 4:I'd probably have to say when, jason, I had just come back into the raft on Whitewater Rafting.
Speaker 1:Oh, you're good, You're good, you're in good company right now you roll, you just let it rip.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I'm going to let it rip because it made me mad. Anyway, I just got back on the boat and I was pulling Taylor in because I was trying to be a nice friend and all of a sudden I get pushed. I didn't push you, Anyway. She put Jason Cones right behind me and pushed me in the back and didn't even help me back in the boat and I was sitting there and I was dragging my feet on rocks and I got bruised up.
Speaker 1:But you survived. Look, here you are.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I did, and I tried to pull him in with me, but it's too tall.
Speaker 1:How tall is Jason?
Speaker 4:Six nine.
Speaker 1:Six nine. He is very tall. All right, and one spiritual takeaway.
Speaker 4:I would say probably how to be secure in my faith and not be like an insecure person. I really struggle with that, but I feel like after this week I can hear the message about the insecurities and stuff that I feel more secure in my faith and in myself.
Speaker 1:That is awesome. All our listeners are going to want to go listen to that breakdown.
Speaker 4:It's good, really good.
Speaker 1:Because several of y'all mentioned that Recommend it.
Speaker 5:I thought I'd go dance. All right, y'all have fun. Thank y'all, go have fun.
Speaker 1:Well, pray for these young people that are striving man. I heard several kids say that that identity breakout is one of the most meaningful things to them. Spencer Davis taught that it's so good just challenging students to understand what it is to have your identity in Christ. And, uh, the Lord using that and so many students hearts and lives, and so we rejoice and uh, and we'll be praying for them as they go home, as they go back to school soon, and you pray for them and and trust the Lord's moving and doing great things in students hearts and lives here at Snowbird and I'm very encouraged to hear those stories. There's many more like them and just what a blessing. So pray that you're encouraged by this. You'll continue to pray for us and you'll come see us soon. We've got room left in our upcoming marriage conferences at the end of October and so encourage you to look at attending one of those. Those of you who are adults and who are considering the chance to look at an opportunity to come to something at SWO. That might be a great entrance or entry into an event.
Speaker 1:Here at SWO we have room for our men's be strong conference. We're creeping up on 300 spots, but I think we can actually do 500, which I mean we'll, we'll hit that, I'm sorry. I think we can do 400 on campus. I don't remember what the numbers are, but that thing always packs out, but as of right now there's just so you know, there's room where it too we're, we're, we're approaching 300. We're getting close to 300. So when that time uh draws close, we will hit, um, we'll hit the mark and we'll book to capacity. So go ahead. Now is a good time to jump in and and book for one of those adult conferences coming up. Thank y'all, appreciate you. See you next time.
Speaker 2:Thanks for listening to. No sanity required. Please take a moment to subscribe and leave a rating. It really helps. Visit us at sw outfitterscom to see all of our programming and resources, and we'll see you next week on. No sanity required.