Here’s the letter I’m about to send out to parents – thought you could use/adapt/make it better for when you come home from summer camp, too!

Hi parents!

I’m soooo tired this morning – I’m sure your kids are exhausted, too! What an amazing and packed week up here at HSM Summer Camp. It was filled with friendships, spiritual challenges, hilarious games, epic music and way above average camp food. Last night was the big finish with a great message on love and forgiveness — the finale of a truly great week!

I wanted to share some highlights with you before we make it back into town later today. We’ve been up at Murrieta Hot Springs all week centering on the theme When Heaven and Earth Collide. Our speakers were incredible: Mark Moore and Jeff Walling. The music was HSM’s own Cluster of Students band. They did an amazing job helping us respond to the message with heart and voice.

I’ve encouraged your student to spend time with you on Thursday night before they jump back into their Instagram world. I asked them to escape with you for the evening to talk about their experience at camp — or the Angels are in town tomorrow night so maybe some cheap seats at a slow-moving game of baseball would give you a chance to catch up. At least grab dinner and just talk about camp together — either way, I can’t wait for you to hear their stories and share their decisions with you.

Here are a few things you could talk about, a few questions to get you started:

• What struck you about the messages?
• On the forgiveness night, who or what did you need to forgive?
• Who was your counselor? What did you learn from him/her?
• Did you make any new friends?
• Did you make any spiritual decisions this week?
• What song was the most meaningful to you? Why?
• What made you laugh? What made you cry?
• Was it hard leaving your phone/technology behind?
• On a scale of 1 to 10, how good was the food at camp?
• What next steps do you want to take from here?
• How are you going to follow-through on the decisions you made?
• Did you miss me?

Well, the buses will pull out soon and we’re just about on our way home – see you around 4:30pm today back at Saddleback. Camp is silent for now… but we’re trusting God the decisions made here will last for a lifetime. Thanks for your prayers and for sending your student to HSM Summer Camp — it is such a worthy investment and sacrifice — you’ll see it in their exhausted eyes when they get off the bus. See you soon!

Josh Griffin & the HSM Team | High School Ministry | Saddleback Church

PS: If you missed the daily highlight videos, be sure to check them out here: http://www.youtube.com/highschoolministry 

PSS: We’ll be posting a JILLION pictures (including the baptisms) on the Saddleback HSM Facebook page tomorrow!

PSSS: Jordyn, Megan, Labontyshopper, Taylor, Courtney, Shayna and Brittney approve this message. <33333 #yolo