Many of us are suffering from job losses, health challenges, and other difficulties. Thanks to the generosity of the FOL family and God’s provision, we have a COVID-19 Compassion Fund to meet financial needs up to $2,000. We are inviting applications for this fund.
Please note: This application is confidential and only the review team will see your application. We are eager to help you, but we can’t guarantee financial assistance because funds are limited. We will pray for you and your family’s needs whether or not you receive funds.
DEADLINE: December 21, 2020 at 12:00 p.m. (Noon)
If you have a need (or if you would like to share this information), please complete the application online using the following links:
You are receiving this email because you registered for this weekend’s FOL Digital camp. Please read the information below to ensure you get connected with all the resources you’ll need to conference well.
We are excited that you will be joining us this weekend as we seek God to be refreshed. We have a lot of wonderful things in store for us. We believe God wants to meet each of you individually and us collectively as His people.
We will be having 3 plenaries together during the weekend. It will be a time of worship, hearing the word, building community and small group sharing. We are excited to have you be a part of it. Please checkout the schedule here Schedule.
Connecting
There will be different ways of connecting throughout the weekend outside of the plenary sessions. Please consider participating in these.
Small group
During our plenary sessions we will have the opportunity to respond to the word through small groups. If you are able please consider joining on multiple devices so that we can have you in different small groups from your partner/families. Thank you!
Fun Team
Come and join us Friday evening (9:15 pm) and Saturday afternoon (5:15 pm) for games, chit chat and hanging out. We will be meeting on Zoom Meeting ID 908 109 0018 (bit.ly/FOLFunTeam)
Optional Social Distance Park hangout
If you are healthy and would like to join other FOL friends for a safe, social distance meet up here are the four parks we will be having social distance gatherings.
Please eat BEFORE you arrive to socially hangout. Please only bring drinks for yourself to stay hydrated. It will be a HOT day.
Please wear a mask
Please only come if you are feeling healthy and haven’t been in contact with any Covid-19 patients otherwise please join us on zoom!
Please feel free to bring your children. They must wear a mask as well. Wewill have social distance appropriate activities for the kids.
Please bring your own chairs and mats
Please know you might be instructed to break up into smaller groups of 5-7 people depending on attendance.
Please come and have a good time.
Workshops 3:30-5:00 pm
Individual Prayer Appointments: If you signed up during registration you will receive an email from Nayelli Casarrubias to set up your time.
Prayer and Families: Come and join us as we discuss how to pray for our kids, how to create a spiritual atmosphere and protection in our homes, and how to help our kids cultivate a prayer life of their own. Zoom: meeting ID 989 284 5052 Passcode: pray2020 (Click here to download the resource.)
Spiritual Resilience : We are all under a lot of stress. There is a world pandemic, election, kids at home and systemic oppression in our country. How do we build resilience in this time? Come and join us as we learn about stress and how to build resilience. Zoom: Meeting ID: 849 6517 0648 Passcode: familycamp
Lament and Art There has been a lot to lament in this past year. Artistic expression is a gift God has given us to engage Him, especially in our pain. We want to invite you to join us as we lament, paint and worship together. No experience is needed but please have something to paint/color with. zoom: Meeting ID: 883 6338 2064 Passcode: FOLart
Personal Space for God: Take some time to unplug. Find a quiet space to be with Jesus. There is a handout in your box that you can use to guide your time.
Families
FOL Kids (Toddler & Elementary)
Each child will receive a box full of goodies and crafts. Please pick up your box at the Family Center.
Alan and team have created 3 lessons on prayer for the kids. You are welcome to have your child watch it during your convenience. Read the welcome from Alan Gan. View the three lessons.
FOL Youth (Jr High, High School)
We want to invite your junior high and high schoolers to join the plenary sessions and engage with the word that will be given. They will also receive their own conference box as well.
Small groups:
High schoolers will join the adults.
Junior High will meet all together.
Conference Box Pick-Up @ Family Center
Please come and pick-up your conference box on one of these days and times. If you are not able to come please feel free to ask a friend to pick it up for you.
Thursday (10/15) 10 am – 12:00 pm @ Family Center
Thursday (10/15) 5:00 – 8:00 pm @ Family Center
Friday (10/16) 9:00 am – 12:00 pm @ Family Center
5000 Pies Pre-Ordered Lunch
If you pre-ordered a lunch box from 5000 Pies, please arrive between 11:15 am -12:30 pm on Saturday to pick it up. If you have not paid already, please pay online (www.folcov.org/giving and put “Family Camp Lunch” in the other category) or send a check.
PREPARING YOUR HEART
Create a space in your home or where you’ll be logging in from that will be conducive to engaging with minimal distractions.
Stock up on your favorite snacks and beverages.
Come ready to connect to Jesus, His Spirit and to each other.
ZOOM ETIQUETTE
Some tips and expectations to help the tech run as smoothly as possible for using Zoom.
DO
DON’T
Attention
Be as focused as you can
Intentionally multi-task
Dress
Be comfortable.
Leave yourself vulnerable to a zoom wardrobe malfunction
Zoom Chat
Affirm, react, and repeat highlights Fully participate with speaker’s active engagement activities (polls, asks to share, chat box)
Start larger conversations- that’s what the small groups and other times will be for. Have private chats- one wrong click and it goes to the whole group! Again, use a different platform for private and small group conversations.
Art and Lament: Zoom Meeting ID: 883 6338 2064 Passcode: FOLart
RESPONSE
There will be multiple opportunities for response in different ways throughout the weekend. We want to hear it all! How is God moving? What are you hearing, feeling, experiencing? Do you have a word to share with the group? Share with your group!
2020 Fountain of Life Family Camp Children’s Sessions
We are excited to be able to provide sessions for our FOL children during Family Camp. In conjunction with the main sessions, the children will be learning about prayer during their sessions. We pray that the children will be blessed by their time and will experience God in a new and fresh way.
Here’s some information regarding the children’s sessions.
There are three pre-recorded sessions available (10-20 minutes in length). There is no set time for the children to watch; the lessons and activities can be accessed at your convenience.
Each session consists of a welcome, a worship song, a main lesson, and a craft activity.
The main supplies for each craft are provided; your child/children may need additional supplies, such as crayons, scissors, and glue. Parental supervision is highly suggested.
The theme for this year’s Family Camp was “Refresh.” Please scroll down to view videos of the plenary sessions and access camp materials.
Speaker: Pastor Rici Skei
Our speaker is Pastor Rici Skei of On Ramps Covenant Church in Fresno, California.
Pastor Rici is co-pastor of On Ramps Covenant Church in Fresno, California. A Fresno native, she and her family planted a church in a neighborhood, Lowell, which was once known as “The Devil’s Triangle” because of its violence and poverty. She is a dynamic speaker and worship leader. (Read more about their church planting and about her ministry.)
Workshop: Spiritual Resilience We are all under a lot of stress. There is a world pandemic, election, kids at home and systemic oppression in our country. How do we build resilience in this time?
Experiencing the Kingdom of God at Springdale by Samantha Carroll
And calling a child, he put him in the midst of them and said, “Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” Matthew 18:2-3
I have to apologize to Bubba. This inconvenient truth rattles around my head as I try to ignore it, focusing instead on driving down the street, avoiding potholes, and finding parking. “Why, God? Wasn’t he in the wrong?”
Last week at Girls Club at Springdale, things got a little out of hand. During our meeting, Jazir appeared and started distracting the girls. (I know teachers aren’t supposed to have favorites, but Jazir is one of mine. He has always been a quiet, watchful, and intense boy. Now he’s growing up into a quiet, watchful, and intense teenager. He’s getting taller and filling out; he loves football and is on a team every year. Jazir almost always has his much younger brother with him, and Jazir accepts this without question, as if his brother is part of his own body.
I worked to create a Boys Club specifically for Jazir, so I have to wonder why he’s not at Boys Club tonight. (Boys Club runs concurrently with Girls Club in different rooms.) My girls seem hyper, so I kick Jazir out without much thought. The thing is, he won’t leave. He stands outside the glass doors making faces and laughing. He brings Bubba and other kids over to join in. I have to leave my girls several times to try to get them to leave, but they won’t. Things slowly degrade from there with me asking, then imploring, then ordering the kids away from the door. Bubba loses it, and starts screaming at me to go home. In some mockery of a battle, I raise my voice and tell Bubba he’s out of line. It’s the worst night I have ever had at Girls and Boys Club, and I leave feeling sad and defeated. Later, I found out Jazir had made some poor choices earlier in the day, was mocked by his friends, then was kicked out of Boys Club for threatening another kid. I’m reminded that in the absence of parental care and love, some kids are getting their own education, but it’s a distorted one.
Looking back, I am embarrassed by how I played into Jazir’s perfect storm of humiliation. I should have known something was up and I could have tried to deal with it instead of dismissing him. I never discipline kids outside of my programs, so why was I yelling at them? I realize I should apologize to both Bubba and Jazir, but this is the last thing I want to do.
I return to Springdale the next week with dread. Parking my car, I say a quick prayer to God to give me a little time with the girls before I have to apologize. God has other plans.
As I walk into the gate, Bubba is the first person I see. Really, God?
Bubba sees me, pockets his candy from the vending machine, and affably says, “Miss, Sam? I’m sorry about yesterday. I was WAY out of line.”
“What, Bubba?” I ask.
“Yesterday. Or maybe last week…I should never talk to an adult like that. I was wrong.”
With these words, everything breaks inside of me. All my worry, all my hurt leaves. I bend down to talk to him. “Bubba, that’s crazy! I was coming to apologize to YOU. I am sorry for the things I said. I have no right to come to your house and tell you how to act. I was wrong.”
Bubba looks at me, and we spend the next couple minutes going back and forth apologizing, but we part as friends.
This is what is special about Springdale. I feel like it’s a heightened experience of the Kingdom of God. I can see such dark forces at work, but also experience incredible moments of grace. Buoyed by Bubba’s easy forgiveness, I meet with my girls for Girls’ Club. When Jazir warily walks thru to go to Boys’ Club, I approach him and apologize for the previous week. I say I am sorry I told him to leave. I tell him I care about him, so I wish I had taken some time to check in with him. He just nods and walks on, and then I join my girls.
And then later, in Boys Club, something crazy happens. The boys were playing a game (as usual), when Jazir suddenly interrupted. “Can I ask a question?” Bryan, Jason, and Arnold (the adult mentors) said yes. “I’m sorry for last week. I acted wrong because I was mad.” The other boy, the one Jazir had threatened nods, and everyone goes back to their game.
Do you see the importance of the moment? All of the volunteers were so upset the previous week at the kids’ bad behavior, but we were also pleased that there was never a physical fight. For a lot of kids, violence is so easy. They record fights on phones and endlessly gossip about it. We encourage the kids to walk away from charged situations, so when Jazir walked out of Boys’ Club, we considered this a success. But then, the next week, he came back and apologized for his actions! Forgiveness is something that we struggle with as adults, yet here are these children doing it perfectly. FOL volunteers have created a safe place for these children to be, and God’s Kingdom is starting to take root. This was such a beautiful moment. Even though I wasn’t in the room that day, I like to think I had a part in Jazir’s apology. However, all this really started with the easy, sweet sincerity of a kid named Bubba.
