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REGISTRATION NOW OPEN!
CALIFORNIA
CONFERENCE
AUGUST
25-29
“God is good, all
 the time…God is
good!” We kneel in awe before the throne of God for His
goodness and blessings of our Oregon ARME BIBLE CAMP
this past Memorial day weekend, May 27-31, 2010. It is truly
amazing what
happens when we come together on our knees, and when we cling
to God fo r strength!
For those that aren’t use to hosting
an event for 400+ people, we can tell you, it is no small
undertaking. (Now we have even more respect for those that are
hosting events for 4,000…like ASI or Generation of Youth for
Christ or the like.) Our first ARME camp last year was a huge
success and blessing, but to be honest, very stressful for
those of us behind the scenes. However, this y ear was
different and much smoother…and I think that difference had to
do with the Prayer team of volunteers that have been meeting
every Sunday morning and praying together for the past several
months. Once the camp started, we met as a whole team with the
attendee’s to pray in the early am – and poured forth our
praises and request together to God. (Ma ny mornings we had
100+ in prayer session!) On top of that, we had a prayer room where some of our leaders prayed with
people all throughout the day, continually covering the
attendees, staff, and meetings in prayer. We were amazed and
praising God for the healing and spiritual rejuvenation that
this brought to so many lives. So ARME BIBLE CAMP’s motto
“Forward on our Knee’s” has been even more a reality this
year. Prayer truly makes a difference!
 This year, we made a point to
emphasize certain attitudes among our attendees. We’ll share
them here, directly from our program booklet, for we think
these attitudes are what we should all seek to embrace…not
just those that come to ARME.
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An absolute confidence in
Scripture as the foundation and authoritative test of all
doctrines and teachings. “If they speak not according to this
Word, it is because there is no light in them.” Isa 8:20
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A respect for the Spirit of
Prophecy as a divinely inspired source of instruction,
comfort, and warning for our lives today. “Believe his
prophets, so shall ye prosper.” II Chron 20:20
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A dependence upon God thru Prayer
as it is only thru earnest prayer that we will realize the
outpouring of the Holy Spirit in our lives. “The effectual
fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.” James 5:16
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A quest to be completely surrendered
and ARMed through commitment to spend daily time in prayer and
God’s Word. “Put on the whole armor of God that ye may be
able to stand.” Eph 6:11
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A striving for holiness of the inner
life and purity of heart as it’s only in the heart where
no one but God knows that the real victories in our lives are
won. “Man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord
looketh on the heart.” I Sam 16:7
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An attitude of humility and
unselfishness as Christ has left us His example in working
with others. He came not to be served, but to serve. So as we
spend this weekend together, let us put “status” and other
“rankings” aside, and let us learn to serve each other...even
in the smallest tasks.
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An attitude of joy & patience in
all circumstances: For as we see the magnitude of God’s
sacrifice for us, we realize that the discomforts, cramped
quarters, irritations and other trials that we face here on
this earth (or at camp) are actually a privilege to endure for
Him. “Count it all joy when you fall into divers
temptations...For I have learned, in whatsoever state I am,
therewith to be content.” James 1:2 & Phil 4:11
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And finally, an attitude of
striving for God’s glory & personal excellence in every aspect
of our lives: “Whether ye eat or drink, or whatsoever ye
do, do ALL to the glory of God.” I Cor 10:31
For those that have never attended an
ARME and wonder what it’s like…Well, some things you just
can’t describe in words. You have to attend to really
understand the spiritual impact. But in brief overview, our
days went like something like this: Prayer at 6:15 am with our
prayer warrior Melissa Maranda
leading. (Again, most of our attendees came to be a part of
 this and later reported that this was one of the most
important aspects of the camp for them!) Following prayer we
had inspiring devotions by Martin Kim
on prayer, faith, and greater surrender. (Powerful spiritual
manna to start the day!) Then we had physical manna -
breakfast. (The vegan c ooking was delicious, and many people
complimented our cooks on the great food!) At 9am we had
rousing singing with our musicians
Taylor Fa'aiu and Craig
King. Then started the training that everyone came
to ARME for… “How can we learn to study our Bible’s more
deeply?” We had a long lunch break and time for
parents to spend time with their kids, then more sessions in
the afternoon. In the evening after a long dinner break, we
had our final meeting, sharing ministry spotlights, music, and
an inspirational message by one of our speakers. We tried to
end earlier so everyone could get a good night sleep and be up
for the early morning prayer time!
Over the course of this camp our
speakers and trainers included:
Pastor Ivor Myers, Pastor
Stephen Bohr, Evangelist
Taj Pacleb, Evangelist
Emanuel Baek, and scripture memorization trainer
Dan Vis. Between practical
pointers, inspiration, and personal testimonies, it was
powerful! But that wasn’t all! Simultaneously, we had a
children’s program go ing on led out by
Lisa Quade with
Feeding His Lamb’s
Ministries. What a blessing it was to benefit
from Lisa’s many years of experience in child evangelism. And
what a blessing this was for the 40-60 children we had
registered as well, as God’s Word was skillfully planted in
the garden of th eir hearts.
Throughout the conference, our
speakers shared on a variety of Bible Study topics…from the
basic “How To’s” of Bible Study, to “Learning to study
Prophecy,” and to learning to give “Bible Studies” to those of
other denominations and faiths. Some of our speakers also
shared their inspiring testimonies! Finally Sunday evening, we
had our Testimony Banquet – a simple, but elegant meal
complete with candles and flowers and more scrumpt ious food.
The testimony time itself was the most inspiring though, from
the children’s scripture songs and sharing time, to the
tear-jerking testimonies as person after person lined up to
share about how God had impacted their hearts and lives and
had inspired them to dig deeper in the word because of ARME
BIBLE CAMP! About 100 people had made decisions for baptism or
re-baptism. Even men got up on stage and cried as they shared
how they had been impacted– it was powerful, and humbling to
those of us who had been working and praying behind the
scenes. Truly…our God is an awesome God.
So…once again, we praise the Lord for
an amazing successful ARME BIBLE CAMP and for using this small
ministry to make a difference for Him. Our motto continues,
“Forward on our Knee’s” and may God receive all the glory, for
it was not us, but truly Him!
From start to finish, our first
Arme Bible Camp in Soquel, CA was a complete miracle.
First of all, we were able to secure not only the dates we
wanted but also all five of the speakers
we were hoping for (they were Stephen Bohr,
Emanuel Baek,
Taj
Pacleb, Ivor Myers, &
Doug Batchelor). Later, we were directed
to facilities that were exactly what we needed. Right from the
beginning, it was apparent that God was working.
During the planning stages of the
conference, we decided it would be best to take a maximum
attendance of 300, so we could keep it small enough to be
personable. Well, about a month before the event, only 45
people were registered despite our
extensive advertising across the
 US (and world-wide on the
web). Some of us began to doubt. Are we fooling ourselves? Is
this actually what God wants? Are we pushing
ourselves too much? Some even questioned if we could even get
a group together so quickly that was passionate about studying
the word of God... but, in spite of this, we continued to pray
and plan, reminding each other to press "forward on our
knees." About two weeks before the event, only two weeks
later, we had almost 200 people registered. Miraculous
progress was being made, but we still lacked the finances to
cover expenses and meet our goal. We needed more...
As we prayed the Lord's will to be
done, questions still raced through our minds- questions we
did not have the answers to. What does the future hold? Will
this work? Are we about to let down 200 people? Will we be
forced to cancel the event? While we were tempted to prepare
for less, we sought the Lord more earnestly than ever, and
decided to "pray for rain and prepare for rain!" We would plan
for 300.
By the time the conference
started, there were over 300 registered! 260 were in
attendance at the first meeting, and sure enough...the rest
came. In fact, by the weekend, numbers swelled to more than
350! In fact, as people continued to come in and take their
seat, we began to wonder if we had enough room. But God, of
course, provided. Attendees came from all over the West coast,
and from as far away as South Carolina, Minnesota, New Jersey,
Ontario Canada, and even Fiji and Indonesia. (That's right,
several people flew all the way from Fiji and Indonesia to be
part of this event!!)
 In answer to our prayers, the
lectures were powerful, and many people responded (50 at one
call) to surrender their lives to God. The speakers shared
some of their own secrets of how they dive into the WORD of
GOD, and then hosted small break-out sessions for people to
practice what they'd been taught. It was powerful to watch
lives being changed, and made me humbled to realize how
hesitant at times our team had been to trust the provisions of
God to fill the great need.
The most impacting parts of the
conference were the times of prayer and deep Bible study. This
is, after all, why Arme Bible Camp was put into motion; to get
people deep into the WORD OF GOD. But you can't go deep
without the Holy Spirit, so each morning at 6:15, we started
with group prayer time. Some people wept, others cried out
their praises, and we all opened our hearts to God in prayer.
It was such a powerful, unifying experience, and you could
literally feel the Holy Spirit's presence throughout. Oh, for
more time of such powerful group prayer! It was indeed a
tremendous blessing for everyone.
Sabbath evening, we held an "Agape
Banquet" - and we told
 everyone that whether they had
purchased meal tickets or not, they were invited to come. After all, God wants ALL to be a part of His great feast. So,
as the Sabbath began to draw to a close, everyone lined up to
enter the banquet hall. We scrambled and had packed 370 seats
packed tightly in the dining hall, but as the line grew longer
and longer, some wondered, "Can we all really fit?? Oh
God, help us all to fit!!!" As the room filled up, the banquet
team prayed and prayed...and amazingly, we all fit. We had
only 5 seats left over, and no one was turned away. God is so
good!
As our last morning together drew
to a close, Taj shared his amazing testimony, and practically
everyone came forward in the closing prayer and appeal. It was
so incredible to see the way God worked, and the hunger and thirst people had for what was being shared. Afterwards, there
were many people talking about the idea of having Arme Bible
Camps all around the country... It was obvious that our work
had only just begun.
Thank the Lord, despite our slow
faith and our many weaknesses...His strength was made perfect.
Again, I am reminded... "The eyes of the Lord run to and fro
throughout the whole earth to shew himself strong in behalf of
them whose hearts are perfect toward him." II Chronicles 16:9
As an end note, I must not leave
out another incredible movement of God's hand. In an effort to
give all who desired an equal opportunity to attend Arme Bible
Camp, we had collectively decided as a team not to turn anyone
away no matter what. Because of this, we had given away many
scholarships for the conference. Although our calculators told
us otherwise, we knew the Lord would ultimately provide, and
that it was His desire for His children to deeply study the
Word of God. To make up for the extra costs and expenses, we
decided to take up an offering. Initially, our director said
to pray for $10,000. Then he felt convicted of the Holy Spirit
and said, "No...let's pray for the offering that God would
have us to receive to move forward. Whatever
 He wills is
best..."
Well, the offering was taken, and
donations were received totally over $34,000! What a miracle!
It is obvious to all of us on the team that Arme Bible Camp
is to now move forward...forward, as we like to say, ON OUR
KNEES!
We praise the Lord for His working
in our lives, for his generosity in giving us strength, and
for opening doors to make Arme Bible Camp a blessing for all
who attended. We will see you at the next one!
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