Appreciating Camp Ministry

         April 9, 2013

        After finishing the Camp & Youth Ministry class I have learned a lot about how much work it is to plan and run a retreat. In the class everyone was split into groups and had to plan a retreat. Each group had to think of a different theme, games, speaker topics, schedule etc... After doing that assignment I have a new appreciation for camp ministry. Before I took this class I had never realized how much work was put into planning a weekend retreat and I cannot even imagine how much work goes into the whole summer at camp or even just one week. Now that I have a better understanding of all the work that is put into camp ministry I realize how passionate one must be about children to put this much work into it. I also realized how much they would need God to equip them for this job. I am really excited to be able to help out with camp ministry this summer. In order to run a camp especially one as big as Qwanoes it requires a lot of people to fill a variety of different positions. I am very happy that I get to contribute by being a counsellor this summer. 

          This past weekend I had the opportunity to be a counsellor for my second time ever at the juniors retreat. I really enjoyed counselling at this retreat and I learned a lot. After counselling for the weekend I was really excited to counsel for the summer, but I realize how exhausted I am going to be at the end. However, I know that even though I will be exhausted it will be worth it in the end. Something that really stood out to me about this juniors retreat is how much I have learned since the last time I counselled. Through the kaleo program God has been equipping me for many things and one of those things is counselling. After taking more classes and finishing our camp and youth ministry class I have learned a lot more about God and how to answer the hard questions that children or even adults might ask. I think that this time counselling I was better equipped and able to help the children in their spiritual growth a lot more. I am really looking forward to the summer and experiencing even more growth.

           God was definitely present at the juniors retreat. In my cabin I had the youngest girls, I had the ages 7-8. This meant that there was a lot that they did not understand about the message the speaker was presenting. This gave me a great opportunity to have God speak through me in a way that was understandable to the girls in my cabin. However, there was one message that the speaker presented that God really used to help the girls and it was one that they understood a lot more. The message was about being invited into God's family and that we have to accept that invitation. After the speaker presented the message we had a cabin devotional and all of the girls were filled with excitement and questions about how to accept the invitation into God's family. God was really working in all the girls hearts that day, and I had the opportunity to pray with five of them about accepting this invitation. God did great things that weekend through me and through all of the girls in my cabin. At the end of the week the girls were all excited about learning more about God and I gave them Bible's so that they can continue to learn and grow more while they are at home. 

            Overall, I had a really great time learning more about camp and youth ministry and really enjoyed being able to use all that I have learned when I was counselling.