Outreach Camps 1 & 2

Camps have gone really well so far. Tons of kids have come. Nine months ago there was this crazy challenge to bring 540 kids and  leaders to camp this year when last year we brought 297. We knew our field ministry could do it by taking the easy way out, but doing it right would be a huge challenge. Young Life believes that leaders should already have a relationship with the students before arriving at camp. The leaders should share in the camp experience with the kids, then continue to strengthen these relationships after camp in the neighborhoods they come from. The cheap way to bring 540 kids and leaders to camp would be to simply round up a bunch of kids who wanted to come to camp. That's relatively easy. The challenge is forming lasting relationships.

It appears that our leaders have built those relationships with those they are leading. And now in camp 3, we are only 85 people short of 540. We think that next week we should reach the goal. Yet numbers are only a small part of all of this. The great thing is hearing snippets of stories about how kids have been touched by their time here. Then I get to touch base with friends on field staff and hear more about these kids later down the road. Many of them return to camp for follow-up camps, then training camp to learn how to be a leader themselves. And in what seems like a blink of an eye, two or three years have passed and these same kids who appeared to have no future are now in college and have people who love them who have continued to walk with them and share their joys and hardships. God-filled relationships are a beautiful thing. I look forward to sharing updates in the future.