ZIP LINE—Dave Greider GIRLS DORM 3G
TRAVELER’S REST, South Carolina—A pastor of one of our congregations once asked me why his youths should attend one of our SEP camps when they could choose from hundreds of others.
I had to ask myself that same question. Why spend time and money putting on a summer camp when we could ship our kids off to plenty of other camps? I found that the simple answer is that the Worldwide Church of God does camp ministry very, very well.
Not only are our camps evangelistic for the unchurched, they are effective at equipping youths to go home and make disciples themselves. God has clearly gifted our denomination in camp ministry and the fruits are becoming evident not only to the WCG but to other denominations.
ZIP LINE—Dave
Greider
GIRLS DORM 3G
Higher Ground Summer Camp, the SEP camp in South Carolina, was host to 171 campers from 13 states and seven denominations. God blessed us with a 100 percent increase over the previous summer.
Nearly 60 staff and participants in the Ministerial Development Program (see article page 18) served the campers, who were 10 to 18 years of age. Extra counselors had to be called up to handle the increase, and we still had campers on the waiting list when camp began. We are making plans to accept up to 250 campers next summer to try to meet the demand.
SOCCER—D.J.
Bell Kelsey McNeil
and Jenna Smith.
Rain fell on the camp the first day and a half. A tropical storm was predicted to hover over the camp the entire week, but prayers were answered, and it was God who reigned over the camp.
In the post-camp surveys, it was clear that the youths enjoyed the Christ-centeredness of the camp. Although the waterfront activities such as the super slide, zip line, giant chair swing and the canoes got high marks, the daily chapel and praise and worship services were also on the top of the camper evaluations. Many campers said they wanted even more time for praise and worship next year.
CLIMBING WALL—Evelyn
Clark and Damario Pope.
Additional activities the youths enjoyed were tennis, sand volleyball, soccer, miniature golf, paintball, T-shirt painting, basketball, climbing wall and the low ropes challenge course. All-camp activities included a block party, novelty games, a dance, talent night and the great banana relay.
BAPTISM—Jaimie
Stewart getting
baptized by pastors Tim Brassell (left)
and P.D. Kurts.
At the conclusion of camp 19 youths were baptized in Lake Chinquapin, and many more waited to go home to their local churches to be baptized in the presence of family.
Applications are now being accepted for Higher Ground 2004. Applications received by Oct. 15 will receive reduced rates. Go to www.carolinacamp.com for applications and details.
Shane Bazer serves as the operations director of Higher Ground Summer Camp. P.D. Kurts also contributed to this story.
GIANT CHAIR SWING—Anna
Torrance,
Halee Zimmerman and Erin Shamus.
TEAM BUILDING—Dorm
3B [Photos by Katie Steele]
SUPER SLIDE—Matthew
Boarts
Summer camp grows congregations: scholarshiped youths attend church
By Shane Bazer
At least three WCG congregations used Higher Ground Summer Camp as an outreach tool for their community. The Cary and Fayetteville, North Carolina, and the Greenville, South Carolina, congregations provided scholarships to local unchurched youths to attend summer camp. In many instances, they had no previous connection with the church. The youths found out about the scholarships from the camp’s website (www.carolinacamp.com), from a local newspaper or from a friend or neighbor.
The Cary church was given a free ad in a sales and classifieds publication mailed to all the homes in the area. We received about a dozen scholarship applications as a result. We also sent a press release to the local newspaper and to a community agency that works with disadvantaged families. In the end we gave partial scholarships to 10 youths outside of our fellowship. Some were affiliated with other churches, but most were unchurched.
Two of the unchurched youths have been attending with us since camp. One of the girls who attended a Catholic church before camp wanted to come visit our church. Now, we pick up five of her brothers and sisters each week as well.
Both the Fayetteville and Greenville congregations have had scholarshiped campers begin attending church. Upon seeing the results of the outreach efforts, other congregations are making plans to raise scholarship funds to send local unchurched youths to camp in 2004.
Copyright © Worldwide Church of God, 2003