Location: Pine Summit Camp, 700 Wren Dr, Big Bear Lake, CA 92315, USA

Theme: “Far From Home”.
Speaker: Joey Wang (from Mercy Hill Church)
Theme Verse: 1 Peter 2:9-10 – “9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. 10 Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.”

In coming down and living on earth, Jesus recognized that he was far from his rightful home. He was rejected by the crowds around him, but Jesus, in perfect holiness, still loved and cared for everyone he came in contact with. He knew he didn’t belong but also completed the task that the Father had for him. As followers of Christ, we also are far from our eternal home. We currently live in a sense of exile, just as the early Christians did in Peter’s time. The things of this world and of our culture cannot satisfy us the way that Jesus can. In many ways, they even draw us away from Jesus. But praise God that he has called us out of darkness into his marvelous light! Our exile is simply a stark reminder of the mercy we receive now and in the future as God’s people.