Meet the ESBS class of 2015!

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(from left to right: Jordan, Amber Josiah and Eric, Melinda, Nikki, Abby, Hamp, Bre, Aubrey Claire, Isaac)

We're back from a great summer and we're rolling through our first week of ESBS 2014-15.  We have 9 students, and so far we're really enjoying digging into the book of Philemon, learning how to plumb the depths of the book using the Inductive Bible Study Method.

This year most of our students are from right here in North Carolina.  In fact, 5 are former Camp Lurecrest summer staff members (Jordan, Abby, Aubrey Claire, Bre, Hamp).  One students this year came to us after hearing about the program through YWAM, and deciding to do this program instead of a YWAM DTS (Nikki).  One student met us at UNC Asheville last year when we spoke at a Campus Crusade meeting (Eric, his wife Amber and their newborn Josiah).  Another student heard about us while she was on staff with YWAM Australia, staffing a 3 month Bible Core Course (Melinda).  And last but not least...Isaac heard about us when we visited a ministry in Western NC this summer (The Inn…Franklin NC).

Stay tuned for updates as we begin this amazing Bible journey together!

Tom

ESBS 2013-14 graduates

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ESBS 2013-14 staff and students

ESBS 2013-14 is done, and it was a great year.  We had 9 wonderful students study with us this year, and I once again am so thankful to have had this amazing opportunity to journey through the Bible with such a fantastic group of people.  As we debriefed the year as a community, I was blessed again to hear so many people say that they loved the gospel focus of our community, and that they understand the gospel (the radical and lavish love of Jesus) in a deep way that they didn't anticipate coming into the program.  As we discussed the year, several students said that when they think about the gospel now they think about entire chunks of Old Testament Narrative (yes you read that right…Old Testament!), as they see the love of God not just in a verse or two here and there in the New Testament, but in the way God dealt with Israel all through their history.

Thats pretty cool I think, and it makes me even more sure that THE BEST way to transform someone's life forever is to take them through the journey of the entire Bible in a community setting.  God's character becomes so clear, and the community living demands an immediate response to what we're seeing in the Scripture. 

As we head into summer (all of us but Greg…who headed back home to winter...wa wa wa…in New Zealand) we have students and staff scattered all over the country: Florida, Seattle, Colorado, Mississippi, Michigan, and 4 who chose to stay right at Lurecrest and work the summer camp program (very cool, and something I always love to see).  

Additionally, Caleb Ives (ESBS staff) and Tom will be speaking for the Lurecrest's summer camps this summer.  Caleb will also head to Nigeria with Heart Cry, and Tom is heading to Montana for a week to speak for a DTS.

Excitingly, we've also filed articles of incorporation and our IRS 501c3 application to carve out the ESBS as it's own non-profit entity (Emmaus Ministries).  With that process now complete, we're beginning our search for a new location to host the 2015-16 ESBS, and we're excited to see where God takes the program next.

We're also excited about another great ESBS starting this August right at Camp Lurecrest!

Tom

Todd & Anna Lauren are engaged!

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Todd begging Anna Lauren to have mercy

We're happy to announce that two members of our ESBS family got engaged over the weekend!

Todd Livingston (current ESBS staff) and Anna Lauren Schumpert (ESBS student 2012-13) met during last year's ESBS, and began dating last summer.  This fall Anna Lauren will be finishing up her degree at Auburn while Todd begins a student ministry internship at a church in Mississippi.  We're sad to be losing them both, but so excited for their plans and life together!  Todd and Anna Lauren both love youth ministry, and they'll have a big impact in that area in the upcoming season of their new life together.

I think anyone who was a student with Anna Lauren last year would vouch for the fact that she and Todd make a pretty perfect match.  She's in a select group of people on planet earth who can go head to head with Todd in two key categories... #1) pop culture relevant to the average 13 year old girl (I love making fun of Todd for this one)….and #2) college sports statistics.

There is no doubt in my mind that these two will enjoy many years of Monday night football together and that they will one day become the loudest parents at their little league baseball games.

Their story, and their future life together, is also a great reminder of the power and scope of the Kingdom of God. They both came to ESBS to learn the Bible, but God's agenda for their time here was bigger than a program, a location, a school or curriculum.  Seeing Todd and Anna Lauren get together, and knowing the abundant life thats in store for them encourages me to not measure the impact of the ESBS in spreadsheets, quantify it in a budget, or qualify it in a by-law.  Those things are all necessary, but God is always up to something else, something truly "Holy"…in the sense that it can come only from Him…and no human mind could have ever planned it or made it come to pass.  He's unpredictable, and that's simultaneously the most fun AND the scariest thing about being caught up in His story.

God's foreknowledge and plan

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As I look back over the past 8 years of the ESBS, it's obvious to me that God has been behind the scenes accomplishing His purposes and plans for the ESBS the whole time.  I wanted to share some mileposts along my journey with the ESBS that remind me that God knows what He's doing.

In 1999, when I was 19, Sarah Helser (a fellow Lurecrest summer staff member) gave me the following painting.  She said it represented a word from the Lord.  She said:

 "God will reveal His nature and character to you and teach you who He is.  The primary way He will do this is through His word.  He will pour Himself out to you through His word, and as you drink it in it will overflow to others around you." 

 This picture was given to me 2 years before I ever learned of the SBS program, and 7 years before I became a part of the ESBS.  Pretty cool.

When I was 20, Ken Helser, Lurecrest camp pastor at the time, came up to me and said "I saw a mental picture of you and your wife and two children coming out of the walled-off (a building at lurecrest)."  In 2000 no one could have known what that would mean.  In 2011, when my second child was born, the ESBS was using the walled off as our dining area.  God knew that would happen.  The day we brought Luke to camp for the first time, Julia and I asked the students to gather around the door of the walled off and take a picture with us, as we celebrated a plan that God had on His mind for 11 years.

As I look forward to a future that is unknown, and as the ESBS enters its last year at Lurecrest I am reminded that God knew exactly what he was doing when he created this program.  He knew who would be involved with it (right down to my 2 year old son), and he knew exactly where it would be (right down to the building) and He knows where the ESBS is going.  

Tom

ESBS director

A new season for the ESBS

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After a long process of careful planning and prayer, we're excited to announce that beginning June 2015, the ESBS will exist as its own non-profit entity, and will no longer be a division of Camp Lurecrest Ministries.  We will be hosting the upcoming 2014-15 ESBS at Camp Lurecrest, but will no longer host schools there after the completion of the 2014-15 academic year. 

            We are incredibly thankful for the many wonderful years the ESBS has enjoyed at Camp Lurecrest, and we will forever remember these years as formative years for the school.  With thankful hearts we look forward to a new season for the ESBS, and we’re excited to follow God towards a new location to host the school in 2015-16.

            Please pray with us as we begin this season of discerning God's leading for the program, and as we prepare for another great ESBS year right here at Lurecrest this fall!

Tom Phillips
ESBS Director
tphillips@camplurecrest.org