First Week of Camp!

By Kelsey June 24, 2014

Last week was our first week of summer camp! Often, we have multiple sessions running at camp simultaneously. First Presbyterian Church of Evanston’s church camp, High School Mission Team and our Jr. High Boundary Waters canoe trip were all last week. Everybody who was at camp had a blast. All of the staff were excited to start camp so they could put into use all of the training they had received in the previous weeks.

For nearly thirty years First Pres. of Evanston, along with several other churches from Evanston, have been coming to camp for their youth’s church camp. This year Phantom Ranch provided a few extra counselors, but mostly they bring all their own leadership and counseling staff. We are very grateful for the relationship that we have with these churches and praise God that through this relationship we have been able to minister to thousands of children.

The second camp last week was High School Mission Team (HSMT). This is a two week program that we run for high schoolers. The first week they receive discipleship and ministry training. In a few weeks they will come back for their second week of Mission Team. This second week they concentrate on learning the different roles and positions at camp. Each day they will work or shadow in a different department. While not all of our staff participate in High School Mission Team, we find that those who have done it are better summer staff and are more likely to be hired while still in high school.

Last week was the ministry training section of HSMT. They started the week by trekking up to Devil’s Lake State Park, where they spent two days hiking, rock climbing, and starting their discipleship training. When they came back to camp the training was focused on sharing their testimonies. When they weren’t in sessions they were able to relax and enjoy camp together. Overall it was a great week and we can't wait for them to come back for their second week!

The Jr. High Canoe trip was enjoyed by all, in-spite of a big setback. The setback was that the main food pack and a tent pack was stolen from the portage parking lot while the canoes were being hauled to the lake. It is an extremely rare thing for this type of theft to occur, but what could have been bad, was turned to good. It took a day to resupply, but in the end it was a good adventure and lesson of dealing with problems.