A mom walked up to me briskly and thanked me for her children receiving a camper scholarship.  It was just that time in life and they had seen the positive contribution camp made in their kids' lives and in their family's life.

When I reflect on the requests for camperships and why parents are making them:

·        "I am not working right now."

·        "Without the campership we will not be able to attend...we were blessed with [many children]."

·        "Dad is unemployed..."

...I try to imagine how much it would mean for families who value camp but are unable to afford it this year to know that they are not forgotten.

Today I received a note in the mail saying, "Enclosed is our annual donation to sponsor a camper for Mt. Cross. Our daughter...has loved every moment she has spent over the past years at Mt. Cross and we admire everything you and your staff continue to do to keep it such a special place.  God bless you all this summer and always..."

Camp does not simply entertain children. Camp is a place where lives are changed because children and youth gain one important ingredient in their lives.  That ingredient is hope.  Hope that they will not be forgotten in the shuffle of life.  In the distress of economic downturns.

When the world shouts, "There is no caring God," kids who have experienced camp, more often than not, can internally refute the claim.

Kenda Creasy Dean, in her book Practicing Passion, writes, "Faith practices also are important to temporary Christian communities like camps...tend to rely on relational methodologies, and view youth as primary...partners in ministry. ...Predictably, these young people commonly return from such events with significant faith decisions in hand." (p. 149)  And, "Nine out of ten youth leaders identify [camping] as one of their two most effective strategies for involving hard-to-reach adolescents." (p. 192) Outdoors ministry is mission.

Better yet, when a family camps together children feel especially blessed by those parents (The Blessing by Smalley & Trent).  The blessed child has a feeling of meaningful existence and knows God through the parent(s).

Craig S. Oldenburg

Executive Director