In-Tents
Join us for In-Tents Camp 2024!
Camp Director Reflection
This year we had another couple great camps that we can be proud of in our Mission District. This year we had Tanner Olson as our Youth Camp Speaker. Our Camp season this year started with our Youth Camp. For our Youth Camp, we had 31 youth attend camp all week with a few more that came when their work schedules allowed. This year our theme was based on darkness and light and was suggested by one of the youth who attended camp last year. They wanted to know how we can continue to see the hope in Jesus through the darkness of this world. We thought the perfect verse for the week was from Isaiah 9:2, The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light. Throughout the week Tanner had conversations with the youth about how our hope is in Jesus Christ our Lord. During Elementary Camp, I asked the campers, “What is Darkness?” One of the campers said, the absence of hope. I was taken back by how perfect that answer was, because it is so true. At times in the world, it feels like we have no hope in this world. In the Youth Camp Tanner asked everyone the question, “What is hope?” Hope is simply Jesus. It is the full assurance that God is with us as we are going through life, that he is with us throughout the good times and the bad times in life. Hope is knowing that God is not just present with us, but up to something. Since we know this, we can have confidence that when the darkness comes the light will be coming as well. Hope is the certainty that God is in control. It is not always easy to know that Jesus is that hope, because of our own sinfulness. Regardless of what our sinful selves tell us Jesus is the hope and the light that shines brightly in the midst of the darkness. In John 1 we hear, In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” Jesus also says in John 8, I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.
The Youth Camp also had fun playing a game called The Mole, which was based off of the reality TV show. The whole camp competed in various challenges trying to earn points, but there was one secret saboteur, who is called “the mole.” Their job was to prevent the team from getting points, while trying to stay undetected. This fit into the theme perfectly as we see how Satan throws dark sabotages into our lives, but the light never lets the darkness overcome us. We also had a North American Lutheran Seminary representative come out and talk to the youth about what seminary is like and discerning a call to ministry. Tuesday and Thursday afternoons we went to the Quemahoning Dam for everyone to swim. On Wednesday we had Mary Bates come out and the youth helped build almost 230 flood buckets, and then washed out another 100 buckets to be filled with items. In years past we know we have helped with building the different kits, but this year we know we were a huge help as many of the warehouses in the NALC are out of flood buckets. In the afternoon we went to the Flight 93 memorial, and we heard Dean Nila Cogan talk to the youth about the events that happened that day. We had a really good group of youth this year at Youth Camp and we are looking forward to seeing them all back next year!
The following week we had our Elementary Camp, which is three days and is meant to be a taste of what a week of camp is like in the Youth Camp. Elementary Camp is set up similar to a Vacation Bible School, we have three rotations of Games, Crafts, and Story Time. We had Pastor Mathew Magera from Zion Lutheran Church head up our games, where the campers played capture the flag, water games, and relay races. The water games are always fun as we had hundreds of water balloons to have fun with this year. Julie Smith from St. John’s Lutheran Church led Crafts. Pastor Neal was our storyteller, and he told the campers all about Jacob, Joseph, and the Parable of the Prodigal Son. The campers had a great time listening to Pastor Neal bring the stories of the Bible to life and focused on overcoming the darkness in the world and focusing on the light in Jesus. We had 17 campers come out for Elementary Camp. This was our largest Elementary Camp so far, and we all had a blast!
