Houseboats 2016 was a huge success. This was the second Houseboat trip for Canyon Springs church and boy did word spread about this trip. We went from 75 high schoolers this year to 115. When planning this trip I set the goal for 100 kids. To see this many kids want to come to this camp was quite amazing. It is awesome to see how word is spreading about this trip.

I will share with you one story that I shared at Youth Sunday. If you have not heard the message from Youth Sunday, I encourage you to do so by clicking HERE. At Youth Sunday we talked a lot about camp and we shared the Oasis mission statement to give our parents a better idea of why we do what we do.

On with the story… There was one kid I had been praying for. A friend invited him to a broom ball night and he started attending Oasis regularly for a couple of months. He had never really sought the Lord and had tons of great questions. This kid was bright and really wanted the cold hard facts of the Christian faith. One night specifically he had some awesome questions. Keep in mind this was months before houseboats. After chatting and hanging out over some Cold Stone I gave him a Bible and encouraged him to start reading it. In addition, I asked him one thing, “I remember when I was your age and I was seeking answers to the big God question. The first time I felt his presence in my life was the most incredible feeling. I don’t care where you are but when you feel God for the first time I want to hear about it. Text me. Call me. Come up to me. Whatever. I just want to pray with you when you do.”

Fast forward to Wednesday night on houseboats. The speaker offered the kids the opportunity to accept Christ for the first time and proclaim Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. I was praying that the hearts of the students would be open and when I looked up I saw him standing there along with 14 other students that all wanted to accept Jesus for the very first time. I went up to him and gave him a big hug. We cried together out of a great joy that had been found that night. During that moment he looked at me and said, “I felt God’s presence for the first time tonight.”

This is why we do Houseboats. The next night we baptized 12 kids that wanted to commit to following Christ for the rest of their life. While we did jump off a 30 foot cliff, pulled the students on a tube while the boat was going 25+ MPH, and did flips off the back of a houseboat. God did other things. Here is a list of what He did through the leaders and staff…..

  • Created a safe environment for kids to share what is really going on in their lives
  • Showed kids that church can be fun and that God can be fun
  • 15 students gave their life to the Lord
  • 12 Students got baptized
  • Connections were made that will change lives
  • No students were injured
  • Life long memories were made

Houseboats 2016 Recap Video

VBS 2016 Pictures