Summer Camp for the Kids!

If you grew up in church and in a youth group, then you probably remember going to summer camp of some sort or another as a teenager.  There are a lot of jokes and stereotypes associated with youth camps, but the truth is that these camps see a huge number of youth age kids come to know Christ for the first time or make a decision to follow Him on a deeper level.  I remember going to camp as a youth and then leading summer camps as a youth pastor for years and years.  in fact, if you include the first time I went to summer camp as an 8th grader all the way until I left youth ministry to move to Haiti, I estimate that I went to summer camp for 23 years in a row.

I say all of that to say, that our 13 teenagers at All Things New will be attending youth camp with Christianville Church this summer from August 15 to August 19.  This is going to be a great opportunity for them to get out into a different part of Haiti, spend focused time in worship and prayer, and get to know other followers of Christ from different places.  I am really looking forward to this opportunity for our kids and hope that it is a wonderful experience for all of them.

As excited as I am for this opportunity, I am also a little nervous about it as well.  The camp is in Port Au Prince and if you have been keeping up with some of our blogs from the past few months then you know things are still a little dangerous in the country.  It is a great opportunity but I still have some reservations and some fears for them going into Port during this time just in case something spontaneous takes place.

I also have no idea what Haitian youth camp is like.  I do know to send 13 kids to camp in Haiti costs a little bit less (about $210) than sending 1 kid to youth camp  in America.  I don’t know if they hire 1 main guest speaker, if they do a lot of worship, if they spend any time in recreation, or really anything else.  I do know that Gina, our manager in Haiti, said it would be a good experience and we trust her opinion.  

If you are reading this and want to partner with our kids at camp, here are 2 great ways to get involved:

1. Pray!  Ask GOD to speak into our kids’ lives and to keep them safe while they are there.
2. Send us a sleeping bag!  Click here to contact us and let us know if you have an extra sleeping bag lying around.  I know it is summer time in Haiti, but apparently they all need sleeping bags and we would prefer to not have to purchase all 13 of them.  We have had a few donated so far, but we still need at least 8 more.

I cannot wait to talk to our kids after they get back from camp this year and to learn more about it.  Please be in prayer with us for this week.

Also, there are 2 things to be on the lookout for in the coming days:

1. We will soon be giving the results of the 100 for $100 campaign.  While I cannot give any official numbers now, I can say that you will be happy with the results, we were.  Thank you to everyone who gave.
2. Gina and some of our other staff put on a VBS for our kids and the kids’ of our employees.  We usually have at least 1 team come down to do a VBS and since we had to cancel teams this year, our staff came together (unbeknownst to us) and put on a wonderful program.  We have some video we will be sharing soon.