Miracle Camp “Ice Camp” (week 1)

It is a brand new year and it feels good to be back at it-leading students into an awareness of the presence of God through musical worship. 

I love it. 

Polen Band was at Miracle Camp (Lawton, MI) this past weekend to lead worship for “Ice Camp”. We had the privilege of leading worship for a couple of “Ice Camp” events last year, and it feels great to be back again to start off 2023. 

I will say that I personally felt a little rusty at the beginning of the weekend (I may or may not have started a song in the wrong key on Friday night… if I did, thanks, guys, for covering for me…) but by the end of the weekend I felt like we were firing on all cylinders again. 

The guys at Miracle Camp do such a great job. Eric Rupp and Jordan Rauh do an especially great job of engaging the students with hilarious games, but also make sure to bring it all back to Jesus and the gospel. A highlight for me is definitely the Saturday night “Mad Lib Theater” where they act out a scene using words that the students selected mad lib style. 

The speaker for the weekend was Nathanael Miles, a youth pastor from northwest Ohio. He did a great job delivering biblical content in a way that was easily accessible for the students. I also noticed him doing a rather wonderfully peculiar dance at the back of the room during My Lighthouse, so I asked him to come up on stage and model his amazing dance moves for the students to emulate. He (reluctantly, but) willingly obliged.

Ryan Yoder traveled with us this weekend and put his video skills to use. Check out the video that he put together for us:

We are looking forward to being back at Miracle Camp in February and March for more “Ice Camp” goodness.