One week completed!
CSFer Cari Gregg and I completed a week of camp at Howell’s Mill Christian Assembly in Ona, WV. For me, this week of camp felt like a homecoming, as I once lived on the premises of this camp during my childhood. More importantly, this week of camp was attended by about 90 of the best young Christians the area had to offer. The Spirit of God was moving among everyone at camp. There were so many good conversations in our small groups. (I was also amused that many members of my family group, were with Matt Law, one of the camp team members from CSF last year!)
The idea of Christian service was emphasized. The camp teamed up with Help Build Hope and Crossroads Missions to help construct a house for a family in Kentucky. The camp took a bit of a risk on this, not knowing what the response from the campers might be in essentially framing a house in a only a week. The camp provided the lumber and a team of volunteers from Crossroads instructed the campers in what needed to be done. (Included in this volunteer group was Chuck, who some CSF members might remember from a couple of mission trips in New Orleans!) Not only were the housing pieces completed almost a day ahead of schedule, but also, after the walls had been dry fit together, all the campers helped write scriptures on the walls of the house before helping to separate the pieces and load it on the truck. Campers and staff got to witness the work of Christ in a very tangible way.
The most overwhelming thing for me at this camp was the response that I personally got from campers and other staff members about CSF’s presence at camp. Cari and I were serving alongside Kentucky Christian University and Cincinnati Christian University. I was worried that our presence might be viewed as some sort of competition between secular school and Christian schools, but all of the teams were happy to be serving alongside us. They were excited to see a Christian presence from a secular school, to show these young people that no matter what their vocational calling in life might be, there are colleges you can attend where you can earn a degree in just about anything while never forgetting to serve God. Tracey Tooley, dean for this week of camp, summed up the feelings of the other teams well when he said that “We need Christian engineers, too.”
It was such a good week at HMCA! It was a good way for me to ease back into the idea of camp before heading off to two new camps for me. More posts about camps are coming, so keep checking back.
J.D.
CSF Summer After 18 Intern