Another camp season is in the books!

Camp is one of the best parts of youth ministry. Our team spends around 2-4 hours with the students on a normal week. During camp, it’s about 80-90 hours.

For those of you attempting to do the math, that’s about 20 weeks of youth group smashed into five days. Big things happen! It’s a chance to recap a year in youth ministry and look ahead to what’s to come.

As I mentioned, a lot happens in those five days, but let me talk about it a bit because big moments are worth sharing.

CIY MOVE

Our high schoolers attend CIY Move, a conference with about 1500 teenagers at Hope College in Holland, Michigan. It’s a fun campus, and the town of Holland lends itself to many cool moments. Our students frequently got to walk in town for ice cream, coffee, or a shirt from a touristy gift shop. Ministry happens in those in-between moments, and I loved getting to know all of our students a little better by walking, talking, and sipping a coffee. It is also amazing to be a 15-minute drive from Lake Michigan, and I will never forget the polar-bear plunge we made off the pier. Call it “trauma bonding.”

The main sessions at CIY Move are the highlight of the week. Worshipping with teenagers from around the country and responding to powerful teachings is a staple of the week. Two nights, in particular, made a big impact.

The first was a night in which students left the auditorium, and we walked outside to the stations. Students were asked what they connected to from the night and given steps to walk through independently. When they were done, they each came individually to one of the youth coaches. Then we prayed over each one. This was on Tuesday, and it was a powerful moment because many students familiar with the week were anticipating a powerful activity later in the week, but not the second night. It set the tone, and talking about what that meant for everyone at group time afterward was a big bonding moment.

Another night, students were told to build one another up. Then, the band played in the background, and students were given 15-20 minutes to move around in their section, find their friends, and tell them what they see in them or what they meant to them. A lot of the time, we keep those things to ourselves, but we all need to be encouraged and lifted up. Every single student in our youth group had multiple people speak into them, and not just youth coaches but their own peers.

I had prayed for months before CIY Move that our group would come together and feel united. It was a week when God answered that prayer.

ROUND LAKE

“Why does Luke do middle school camp? I thought he worked with high school and young adults!” That’s right! Here’s why I do middle school camp: I get to train high schoolers, young adults, parents, teachers, and more to be Godly mentors and role models at camp. It is easily one of the most rewarding things in my life.

With that in mind, that’s what I want to highlight about camp!

The stats are amazing: 10 baptisms at Round Lake on Friday, three students getting baptized at home, and over $3,600 raised for a church camp in Chile. 

Those are just numbers, though, and each number has a story.

I got to baptize two of the counselors for the week. One was a youth coach, Jordan, who has followed God his whole life, but after students came forward to be baptized, he took me aside and said it was time for him to make the same declaration. Another was one of my high school students, Zach, who has been thinking about this for at least two years. In a similar moment, he took me aside and said it was time to make that statement in the water finally. It was so cool for me to watch them be obedient to God’s call and in this way, continue to be an example for the middle schoolers.

Another moment I was proud of was when one of our college students walked up to me in the lobby smiling from ear to ear and with tear-glazed eyes. “Luke, that was so cool; I just got to talk to this girl in my dorm for like an hour about why I follow Jesus.” There were times I was incredibly proud because they did the difficult things, too, like when I watched a 19-year-old student hug and counsel a girl who was crying, anxious, and just needed someone to listen to her. I saw our college students baptize kids and share what a blessing it was to meet them, even if they were 13.

And I love watching people catch “the bug.” I see it every year I dean a week of camp, and it’s cool. Someone volunteering that week has eyes the size of dinner plates watching camp begin. They look at their watch and think, “This is a whole week!?” Then, they start connecting with the kids, with the leaders, and with God. There is a moment in the week where the hairs stand up on the back of your neck, and you can honestly say, “God used me because I showed up.” And then the bug is latched on, and the addiction to loving students in the name of Jesus takes hold. All of a sudden, swimming in a lake is amazing, playing dodgeball is a holy act, and worship was always meant to involve jumping and shouting.

I love these weeks because we see God move with front-row seats.

How many weeks until next time?