7 Reasons to send your kids to camp this summer

Summer is a time to make memories. It’s the perfect time to go camping with your family, hike, try new cultures, and go kayaking. Lots of people look at sites like Globo Surf to find out the best ways to do all these activities and more. But there’s one part of summer that kids and parents alike look forward to – and that’s camp!

I remember the first time we sent our kids to camp. They were 7 and 8 and I was nervous. I knew that there were adults overseeing things, but teenaged cabin leaders made me wonder how secure and safe my kids would feel. I was the kind of kid that was always unsure about new environments, and my first camp experience was at a much older age. This camp was only 2-3 days, but I still wondered if they would be homesick, and even wondered if I’d be homesick for them.

In the end, all of my concerns were unnecessary; they had an amazing time and couldn’t wait to go back. I also enjoyed the time it gave us to focus on ourselves, which is something that we haven’t done for a very long time. We were able to get back into enjoying fitness, would you believe it! After being recommended to look for some twin sets on sports websites, we decided to take the plunge and exercise for enjoyment again. It is definitely something we want to keep up, even when the kids aren’t at camp.

I’ve been speaking at camps for over 7 years now, and I’ve seen some incredible things happen in the lives of the kids there.

A Summer Almost Beyond Words

Imagine a summer filled with amazing weather, tons of camping and driving all over BC… for some of you that sounds amazing, for others not so much.

Now that I have had a week or so to process our summer, I can honestly say that it was beyond anything I could have imagined.

Watching the eyes of a child light up at the reality of who God is to them, that they are His child and they are forever in His family and in His arms. Seeing people, for the first time in their lives, grab their bible and inhale every word as if their very existence depends on it.

Hearing the stories of families, both heart warming and heart wrenching as they open up, as they recognize that through our transparency, they aren’t alone. Hearing bursts of conversation mixed with tears and prayer in cabin groups after presenting the gospel and sharing Jesus’ sacrifice with teens, and hearing camp after camp describe the sheer mass of bibles that were given out at the end of the week, to kids who don’t have them and most often don’t come from homes with faith or church background.

Is there anything better than a summer filled with joy, transparency, community and the Holy Spirit working in the lives of children, teens and families and marriages alike?

The only thing better for us is the tangible reality that God allowed us to be a catalyst as camp speakers at 5 camps over 6 weeks of the summer.

We estimate a total of over 400 campers and an additional 2-300 staff and volunteers that we were able to minister to through our speaking, sharing, counsel and relationships.

We did this in an incredible number of different contexts like marriage, spirituality, leadership, sex and dating and more.

I won’t lie, the summer was exhausting on a lot of fronts, speaking over 10 times a week for 5 of those weeks was stretching and enthralling all at the same time.

We are incredibly blessed and honoured to be tools in God’s hands and to be able to see first hand the direct and immediate impact of what God is doing through us.

To those praying for us, thank you! We desperately needed it, and God showed up, your prayers were answered!

For those supporting us financially and in other ways, thank you so much for enabling us to be used in such incredible ways, we couldn’t do it without you.

Sincerely,

David and Melissa McVety