How we measure success...

• By the privileged we have of worshiping together daily in our camps and weekly within the counties we serve.
• By the stories of restoration we hear during sharing and around the dinner tables.
• By realizing that different doesn't mean wrong, but shows the beautiful, all encompassing bounty of God's creation.
  
• By a child asking if she can live at camp.
• By the way churches, who have never met, take care of each other in extravagant ways.
• By the examples of servants who daily struggle through heat, exhaustion, conflict, and unsettling circumstances.
  
• By the way children now know that prayer is something you do every morning before you start your day's work and every evening after you've finished, no matter how good or bad you feel.
  
• By the fact that tie-dying or catching fire flies in the field never gets old.
• By dreaming what a "life changing experience" and "it's been a great week" can do in the valley below.
  
• By our ability to accept feedback gracefully, and do something about it.
• By offering a space for people to experience God, and then being able to step back and let it happen.
• By grieving over death and tragedy with the people we serve, and then being able to answer them with hope.
• By not having to say anything and still knowing we've said alot by our actions.
  

What the churches have to say ...

Check out footage of a YSM Week captured by Christ Church Cathedral in Cincinnati!

Jesse's Day Camp Experience

Jesse Lee Hargrave is from Winchester, IN and attended Day Camp during Week 3 at Camp Cumberland Pines.  Here's her story...

Today I was thinking about all the good memories of Mountain TOP while looking through my friends pictures, and I couldn't help but miss all of them terribly.  Especially all of the 6-11 year olds who stole my heart the first day.  So i kept tagging myself andsaving picture to my computer and there were some that I wanted to put on my profile, but not enough to put together in a whole album.  So for some reason I added a picture of me and Jalie on our last day together at day camp under my album inspiring picutures.  But what is more inspiring than all of the youth I met at day camp and at Mountain TOP.  We all had this light to us that glowed so bright that God HAD to of seen our hearts shining.  During that week at mountain TOP, these kids gave me the idea of God's love.  They eachloved me the second we made eye contact and ran up to me asking if we could play before knowing my name.  Does God really need an introduction from us?  Does he want us to walk up to Him and say," Hey God I'm Jesse and I wanted to know if you could come hang out with me and talk to me sometimes."  He wants us to stop whatever we were doing, see Him, and run with open arms ready to build a strong relationship with Him.  Another thing I learned was how much he loved us.  A couple weeks before Mountain TOP I went to my own church camp where I sort of got the idea of how God loved me even though I am not perfect.  But I could not view myself as a perfect creation. With each time I saw myself, I could not help but walk from the mirror thinking I was a mistake.  But the truth is.  God doesn't even have a glimpse of mistake in His mind.  He sees a future in me.  And He wants me to walk along side me the whole way.  I thank Mountain TOP for all they are doing, but most of all, I want to thank Sarah, Jessie, Bryson, Jaden, Braden, Jalie, Whitney, Evan, Josh, Lucus, Kaitlynn, Elizabeth, and everyone else that was involved with Day Camp.  You have truely changed my way of thinking.  And you are always in my prayers.

Lots Love,

Jesse Lee Hargrave

Because I love to feel my spirit SOAR!

Thanks to a partnership with The Adventure Guild of Chattanooga, the new High Ropes Course at Cumberland Pines is now fully operational!!! A retreat group from New Hope Baptist Church of Illinois had the honor of being the inaugural group to take on the new challenge elements up in the treetops, and did they ever soar! They conquered everything from the Giant's Ladder and the Trapeze Leap to the 300 foot zip line--see them in action!

Cookie Face

On Sunday nights at YSM, the community plays Minute to Win it games!  This challenge includes getting a cookie from your forehead to your mouth without using your hands!  Check it out  ...

Breaking News....

The filming project for new promotional materials is underway!!!!!!!!!!  Believe it ... the MTOP DVD is being updated!

We're ecstatic about this new project.  The goal of these videos is to shed light on the needs of the families in the Cumberland Mountains ... to do right by them ... to spread the word of God and all He's doing on this mountain through volunteers, staff, families and community partners ... to illustrate all we CAN do (even in the midst of financial crisis, natural disaster and accessible, affordable, exotic mission trips to Jamaica) to alleviate poverty RIGHT HERE AT HOME IN OUR OWN BACKYARD!

Some of you may remember Nathan Schweinberg from 2007.  He served as a Ministry Coordinator at Camp Cumberland Pines.  Since then, Nathan finished undergrad at Florida State University and has been living in Nashville as a filmmaker/photographer for Hope Unlimited.  When I contacted him a few months ago about helping with this project, he was thrilled.  We've had several phone conversations and brainstorming meetings and now it's all really happening!

A little story as to how we encountered the funds ...

Back in March I attended a Global Missions Fair at Heritage UMC in Clearwater, FL.  While I was there the missions committee had us fill out an application for donations.  On that form, we could tell them about fundraising projects and immediate organization needs.  Since we had just kicked off our Capital Campaign, I decided to aim big and throw out a request for money to fund one of the new camp cabins.

About two weeks after my visit, some of the youth from Heritage came for Spring Breakout.  And then a few weeks after that I received two checks in the mail... One that matched the EXACT amount I was seeking for the film project!  I spoke with Marsha, Heritage's missions coordinator, and she told me about a couple that had given $50,000 to be used in whatever way needed.  She wasn't sure what to do with the money... but when she got back from MTOP, she sat down and started writing checks.  God had given her a vision of how all the missionaries that attended the conference could have some of their financial needs met through that $50,000 donation.

So, call it happenstance or what you will, but I call it divine.  God has provided and we're ready to see what happens!  AMEN!

Nathan filming at Fish Camp on Sunday!

Baker Staff is on the MOVE

Ronnie explaining the fluids to the new staff members
Everyone getting a closer look!!!
You never know what you'll find under the hood of a MTOP truck.
And they're on their way!