Highmore, Harrold and Blunt United Methodist Churches in South Dakota started dreaming big about what God might want to be doing in and among the churches back in January after attending the Breakthrough Prayer workshop in Mitchell, South Dakota with Sue Nilson Kibbey.

“As we planned for lent we decided that we would do parish-wide combined Lenten services on Wednesday evenings -- we were studying Adam Hamilton's Revival series,” said Rev. Kori Lehrkamp.  “The week we talked about grace we made quilt blocks. Each person drew on his or her quilt block their definition of grace; what grace meant to them.

The Kids Worshipping on Wednesdays (KWOW) an afterschool program, made a tree out of handprints for the middle of the quilt. 

“The quilt turned out amazing,”  said Lehrkamp, “And of course I teared-up when I saw it.”

Through lent, church members prayed for a revival.  That is exactly what happened. New people came to worship and disciples were baptized on Easter.  There were three baptisms in Blunt, one in Highmore and quite a few new people in worship.

The Sunday after Easter, Lehrkamp started a sermon series geared towards children answering the questions they had been asking in KWOW. They asked, "How was God created?  What will Heaven be like?  How was the Church created?  What is hell like?"

Over these last six weeks since Easter, people began to dream a God-sized dream of sending 20 kids from this tiny little parish to camp - fully funded.

“We asked each child to pay the deposit of $30 so that there was some investment on their part, but we said that we the church would pay the rest, and to do that we would need around $6,000,” described Pastor Lehrkamp.

So the church planned a fundraiser and took noisy offerings.  Dana, one of the ladies who attended the Breakthrough Prayer workshop knew that she was going to be out of town the week of the fundraiser, so she decided to hold her own. She had a yard sale and raised $400.

The second week of noisy offerings the bucket was getting heavy.  The money was counted at the bank, along with Dana’s earnings.  The total was $3,635.34! 

The churches held the initial sign up for camp, hoping that 20 kids would sign up for camp.

“Of course God knew better than I did. When we hit the 30 mark, I just kept praying.-- OK God we are up to 30,” said Lehrkamp,  “I was dreaming big at 20 now you have to provide!”

Lehrkamp and church members turned to the words from Mark Batterson's book The Circle Maker. "Work like it depends on you. Pray like it depends on God"

“I knew that God was going to make it happen, “ said Pastor Kori.

The church got to work and held a huge fundraiser that encompassed 10 extremely large pans of lasagna, 5 gallons of corn, 40 boxes of bread sticks, endless root beer floats, 2 bouncy houses, 200 silent auction items and Christy’s 210 s'mores. There was even the cotton candy.

At the fundraiser Rev. Lehrkamp signed up four more kids for camp.  “When we counted the proceeds from the event all I could do is smile.  We raised nearly $9000.00 and all I can say is -- all the time GOD is SOOOO Very Good!”

A mom of a 5th grade child who isn’t part of KWOW but came to the event shared this on Facebook after the event, “Sounds like you had a good turnout for your fundraiser! Just wanted to tell you thanks! Savannah had so much fun! In her words ‘it was awesome there were bouncy houses and s'mores, cotton candy and upbeat music I had a blast’. I hope you raised a lot of money to send the kids to church camp. Can't think of a better thing to donate to. Thanks for all you do!”

Over 30 kids are headed to camp.  The churches raised nearly $9,000 raised in a few weeks to help pay the fees for the campers. God is working in mighty and significant ways at Highmore, Harrold and Blunt United Methodist Churches.

There is still time to sign up for a 2015 camping experience at one of the Dakotas Conference camps.

 “Through our kids and youth in our parish and about the Dakotas conference,  the Spirit is moving! Hang on, its about to be one heck of a ride," exclaimed Pastor Kori.