For more than two decades it’s been the highlight of my year to spend a week at church camp.
I first went as a non-Christian high schooler, about to enter my junior year. I knew only a couple of kids there and they were girls so my interaction-time with them was limited. Being someone who did (does) not fit in easily with new people, it was a struggle that first year. Nevertheless, by the end of the week, I was a baptized believer and on my way to the life I am now living as a faithful Christian, as a husband and father, and as a preacher of the Gospel.
Camp did that for me.
In the almost quarter-century since, I have only missed two sessions: One that fell during my Honeymoon (and I would’ve gone had we not been out of state!) and the other was 2020, when all camps shut down due to COVID-19. I’ve gone from being a camper, to being a counsellor, to being someone invited to preach there, to being co-director of the week. It’s no longer just the highlight of my year; it’s now a critical part of my ministry, working with young people and helping them in the early days of their Christian walk.
It’s a blessing for us in Arkansas to live in a region of such natural beauty. We have more parks than we could ever grow tired of in our state, and a tremendous number of areas of serene spectacle that have been turned into campsites for use by various church groups. When I was younger the Christians around me went to Camp Caudle, in Hector, but almost a decade ago several Christian individuals and churches of Christ opened a camp exclusively run by the Lord’s church. Camp Areopagus, in Conway, is a place where Christian young people can escape the world, where they can sing, pray, study, and grow not only closer to the Lord but closer to each other, strengthening the bonds that unite us in Jesus.
There are youth groups that plan their whole year around “camp week,” knowing that it’s the one time where they can be guaranteed to get their kids involved in church-related activities with the largest possible group of other Christian young people. I’ve also watched it happen firsthand where the friendships and connections made for that one week of camp spill over into trips to each other’s VBS events, Gospel Meetings, Area Wide Youth Rallies, etc. In many ways that one week is the heart that feeds lifeblood to the whole summer’s worth of events.
Your kids need church camp.
They need the bonds that will tighten with each other when they go somewhere together. They need the bonds that will form when they spend a week with Christians from other youth groups (where friendships will be made that will last well beyond their years as a “young person”). They need the time away from “normal” and “routine” and from the busy chaos of the world around them. They need an opportunity to marinate in Christianity.
Starting this year, our week of camp is open to kids from 7th-12th grade, and we’ve got a few spots still open. We leave this Sunday afternoon. I hope you can be there, too.
CLICK HERE TO REGISTER: https://www.campareopagus.org/camp/
~ Matthew