NONPROFIT ORG.U.S. POSTAGE

PAIDGRASS VALLEY, CA

PERMIT NO. 60

Christian Encounter MinistriesPO Box 1022Grass Valley, CA 95945CHANGE SERVICE REQUESTED

Tending Lives…Training Leaders

Christian Encounter MinistriesOctober 2013

Since 1970

Contact us at:www.ChristianEncounter.orgcem@ChristianEncounter.org

530-268-0877

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Christian Encounter Ministries is a non-profit, non-denominational, residential program helping 16- to 25-year-olds by providing love, spiritual guidance, high school education, counseling, and 24-hour supervision. Internships are offered to qualifying upper level college students and graduates.

Join the crew!

Autumn Work Day and LunchSaturday, October 129:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.

17183 Retrac Way(Take Hwy 49 to W. Lime Kiln, go right on Retrac Way one mile

to one of the lovliest, most peaceful locations in California)

Phone 530-268-0877

Every part fits together perfectly to accomplish God’s purposesby Marion Parker

Is CEM a camp? A boarding school? A counseling center? A work training program? A church? An intern training center? The answer to all those questions is a qualified “yes!” No one label really describes Christian Encounter Ministries. Each of those functions describes a part of what goes on here, but the goal of every department is the same—to set each young person here on the path to maturity and wholeness.

Encounter High School provides a Godly education, teaching students to reason and think critically, to examine what they’re taught so they can function daily and be prepared for the future. Their counseling focuses on emotional and spiritual health, the renewing of their minds, developing self control, and managing emotions. The daily work program embodies the ethic encouraged in Colossians 3:23, “Whatever your task is, put your whole heart and soul into it as unto work done for the Lord and not merely for men.” Discipleship meetings and the Sunday church service round out the residents’ week.

Recently, the students and interns completed a two-week wilderness camping trip. Again, the aim was for spiritual growth—specifically, to understand God’s love and to develop confidence, communication skills, leadership qualities, and demonstrate the fruits of the Spirit. The trip was a tremendous success! Here are just a few of their memories of the “camping” trip.

“I used to believe there were gray areas in life. I thought God was okay with sin sometimes, in some circumstances. I was scared that when I went back home I wouldn’t know the right thing to do. God took away that fear on this trip and showed me how wrong and manipulative my thinking was…”

“Before wilderness, I could not believe that God would love someone as messed up as I am and who did the things I did. Even if God did forgive me I could never forgive myself. God used my team to teach me a lesson: when I messed up… my team kept on loving me and never wrote me off. (Like when we caught our camp stove on fire and I jumped up and lost the stove cleaning tool—half my team spent the rest of the daylight hours looking for it! They still loved me and just laughed at my mistakes and forgave me.) Because God has made me clean and to Him I am a new creation, it is time for me to let go of the old me. That means more than just my old habits; it includes the shame and guilt for the things I did…”

“I came back from the trip with a stronger, more authentic faith. I can put my full trust in God even when things don’t make sense… If there’s one thing I took away from this year’s wilderness trip it’s that I don’t have to be a slave to fear…”

“As a result of the trip I got physically stronger, especially running the six and a half miles at the end…Mentally, I learned patience.

Spiritually, I learned that the Lord cares. God also changed my heart: I forgave my mom.”

“I believe this expedition was all about abandonment and trust: trusting myself, trusting those around me, and most importantly, trusting God. We were asked to abandon our normal habits, our daily routines, our comfort, and set out on a journey that would challenge us physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually with the goal to lead us into a deeper relationship with God. In a way we lost our life for fifteen days in hopes of finding it.”

Mission accomplished!

“I don’t have to be a slave to fear”

“I can be loved the way I always want-ed to be!”

“They just laughed at my mistakes and forgave me.”