For two weeks in June the Oklahoma District Youth Department spelled accelerate a little differently than Mr. Webster. This year's Junior, Senior and 20Somethings camp theme was Xcelr8. The goal of the camp was to accelerate the students and their desire to have a personal devotion to God. Day classes were focused on prayer, fasting, and daily Bible reading. The campers were taught to stop and pray, yield to God thru fasting, and go into God's Word. They were encouraged to tune up their life with prayer, shape up their fleshly desires with fasting, and fuel up on the truths in the Bible.

During the two weeks of camps, we were blessed to have a combined total of a little over 400 students. They traveled from all corners of Oklahoma to be impacted by the Spirit of God. At least 18 students confirmed that they received the Holy Ghost for the very first time! All our volunteer staff would agree that it is worth all the hard work, late nights, and lack of sleep to see a students filled with the Holy Ghost.

Our evening evangelists were great communicators of God's message to this generation. Rev. Tim Zuniga from Goodletsville, TN ministered in four evening services at Junior Camp. Rev. Luke Levine from Imperial, MO ministered in our five evening services, to the young ministers' class, and to the 20Somethings group during Senior and 20Somethings Camp.

Our definition of accelerate is to increase in speed. If you were driving a car, you would push the gas pedal further to the floor. If you were riding a bicycle, you would pedal at a faster pace. We understood that our teenagers of Oklahoma are neither of these, but they should increase their desire to serve God daily. We trust the impact of camp will cause them to increase their speed and frequency of prayer, fasting, and daily Bible reading. As they drive down the highway of life we pray they will Xcelr8! Soon one day we will all reach the finish line in Heaven.