The November Youth Focus started with dinner, which included ham and cheese sliders, curly fires, and salad. For dessert there were fresh apple cider donuts—what a treat! Following the meal, there was a brief time of singing, and the energy in the room was high as the young people sang the youth camp favorites “V Is for Victory” and “I Will Make You Fishers of Men.”

The session had a “harvest party” theme, and so the evening activity featured ten different mini-challenges, with the potential to win highly coveted prizes at the end. Games were set up at stations inside and outside the Fellowship Lodge and Activity Center, and the youth spent about a half hour trying to complete all ten. One station was named “Pumpkin Bop,” where competitors tried to keep an orange balloon in the air for a minute using only a pencil—held in their mouths! (Fortunately, the pencils were unsharpened and never shared among participants.) At the “Pumpkin Stack” station, players had one minute to stack five mini pumpkins in a stable tower, and at “Harvest Chop Chop” they had to transfer a bowl of candy corn to another bowl using chopsticks. At the end of the game time, anyone who had completed all the challenges was entered into a drawing for grand prizes that included candy, candy, and candy. However, no one went home without candy since all participants were given a piece of candy as a participation prize at each station. Sugar was flowing freely all evening long!

Following the prize ceremony, prayer requests were taken and then Erik Calhoun gave a short talk on the topic of “harvest.” He explained that in Bible times, the Jews’ agricultural calendar had an early rain, a latter rain, and then the harvest, and he made a parallel to the first time the Holy Spirit was given at Pentecost, the start of the “Latter Rain” dispensation at the Azusa Revival, and importance of laboring for a harvest of souls. Brother Erik reminded the young people that these are the last days, and soon the harvest time will be over. He said there will be a huge harvest celebration in Heaven after Jesus returns, and it is so important for each person to be ready for that day. The evening closed with the song “Sanctuary” and a time of prayer.