Our junior high winter blast is such a fun camp!

The shouts and laughter of forty campers and their accompanying counselors filled the air. They even made the lodge tremble with their energetic singing and hand motions.

This year, our speaker was the one and only Wiggin!

Wiggin was a camper here at Camas Meadows back when Scruffy and I were . . . much younger. Then he became a camp counselor and finally a youth pastor and camp speaker!

Wiggin spoke about the gospel being good news.

He mentioned how sometimes the gospel doesn’t seem like good news, even though that is what the word gospel means.

Sometimes kids are dealing with some serious church hurt. Maybe their family had a dispute with a local church, fell through the cracks and had real needs ignored, experienced the horror of a church leader who betrayed their trust, or watched the Christians around them treat others in ways that Christ would never have praised.

But while Wiggin was honest and serious about the hard things kids have lived and seen, he assured them that the gospel really is good news.

Wiggin shared about the origin of the word gospel. How it came from ancient military clashes where the townsfolk were waiting for the messenger who would run back from the battle to let them know if their army won the day or had been defeated. Gospel, good news, was a message of victory for the worried people who waited.

And that wraps up this sneak peek of life at our Junior High Winter Blast this winter. For the rest of the story, please visit The Campfire Blog!

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Come one, come all! It is time for senior high teen camp! This year’s theme: Monster Hunter! These brave campers are giving gentle pats to Scruffy and Boo Boo’s Newfoundland puppy, Nessie Karu–the puddle monster. While she is of course adorable, Nessie has very sharp teeth and seems to grow bigger every day. But there are monsters even more formidable than Nessie with her puppy teeth and whirling destructo-tail!

The theme verse for this week of camp was 1 John 3:8b–“The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work.”

Yes, my friends, monsters are real.

During Monday’s chapel, Van Helsing spoke about the deadly and dangerous monster of pride!

There are a whole lot of stories in the Bible about pride. A plethora of cautionary tales. One that stands out for me comes from the reign of Hezekiah, one of Judah’s most godly kings.

 “In those days Hezekiah became ill and was at the point of death. He prayed to the Lord, who answered him and gave him a miraculous sign. But Hezekiah’s heart was proud and he did not respond to the kindness shown him; . . .” 2 Chronicles 32:24-25a

For almost his entire life, Hezikiah served the Lord fearlessly. He stood up to the mighty king of Assyria, even when Jerusalem was surrounded by armies. He repaired the temple, destroyed idols that had been set up to other gods, and celebrated Passover for the first time in many many years. He watched God do the impossible to save Jerusalem from Sennacherib’s invading army. And yet . . . pride was the monster that put a stain on his bright and shiny reign as King.

When God informed Hezekiah that he was about to die, he wept bitterly and asked for a miracle. God relented and the king was healed. In Isaiah 38 Hezekiah even writes a praise song to the Lord about how “Now I will walk humbly throughout my years because of this anguish I have felt.” Well, Hezikiah’s healing caught the interest of the Babylonian king who sent an envoy to Hezikiah with “best wishes and a gift.”

And that wraps up this sneak peek of life at our Senior High Teen Camp this summer. For the rest of the story, please visit The Campfire Blog!

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 In the heat of late July and early August, amidst record numbers of yellow jackets for the state of Washington, a herd of wonderfully rambunctious junior high campers tumbled into camp.

It truly was a herd!

Between staff and campers, the kitchen fed 95 people this week!

And along with those rowdy kids, Pyro, tumbled into being our camp speaker.

You see, Scruffy thought he had the Middle School Camp 2 speaker all covered, but at the last minute, the plan fell through. Pyro, a long-time camp friend and one of our board members, heard that Scruff was madly scrambling for a new speaker and offered to help out.

This week, he spoke on the life of David.

How David, as the chosen king of united Israel and Judah, was supposed to point ahead toward the coming Messiah. Pyro also spoke of David’s incredible failures and a life filled with war and bloodshed, so much bloodshed that he was not allowed to build God’s temple. However, God still used David. Even with all of his flaws, David’s life and reign did indeed point forward to a completely different kind of King.

And that wraps up this sneak peek of life at our Middle School Camp 2 this summer. For the rest of the story, please visit The Campfire Blog!

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Junior B Camp started out bright and sunny with a game in the meadow as campers and counselors met, moved into their cabins, and began a week of summer adventures together.

One of the special elements of this week was the fact that our speaker (camp name Phoenix) had experienced this exact moment herself way back when she was a camper attending Camas Meadows for the first time.

Phoenix went on to become a camp counselor herself, where she got her awesome camp name. She now has a little one of her own and she and her husband work for the Moody Aviation School. So much life has happened since she was last here serving at Camas Meadows. It was so exciting to have Pheonix back in the role of camp speaker.

Monday’s chapel was titled “Who Am I?–Knowing Our Identity”, and Pheonix spoke on knowing our identity.

“Know that the LORD is God. It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.” Psalm 100:3

The little people in our lives face so much pressure. Everyone wants them to achieve great things: in sports, at math competitions, getting a solo in band, being a drama star, knowing exactly who they are right now and striving for their goals with gusto . . .

Both grownups and children alike, often forget something vital about our identity.

We can rest in an awesome knowledge that is mind-boggling and beautiful. We were made in the image of God and He longs for us to choose Him and to be His very own.

And that wraps up this sneak peek of life at our Junior B Camp this summer. For the rest of the story, please visit The Campfire Blog!

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Hello, Blog friends. It’s Campfire Saturday! Please enjoy this sneak peek at one of my blogs written for Camas Meadows Bible Camp. And please forgive my tardiness. It’s taken many months to recover from the bad concussion I received this summer and I still have a ways to go. But it is Saturday and I’m sharing blogs now, so please enjoy!

Our first camp of the summer was for children ages nine to twelve. Soleil (a former camp counselor from many years ago) was our speaker and the theme for the week was Journey With Jesus: A Road Trip of Faith!

On the first day, Soleil read Genesis 12:1-4 and told this new group of campers all about God calling Abram to go on a road trip with Him! Monday’s Road Sign: Invite Jesus! He’s the Guide!

Children have so many new experiences at camp. From giving a 20lb puppy gentle pats to playing paintball for the very first time, each experience is an adventure.

Our camp nurse, Trauma Tropper, keeps track one aspect of camp adventure whenever she joins us. You guessed it, the injury statistics!

First Nuse Visit: Sasquatch. Most Visits: Sasquatch with 30 total visits to the nurse! Cook/Support Staff only had 12 visits, but what was remarkable was that most of these visits were from a single support staff member! Fewest Visits: Mountain Panther with only 3! Most Cuts/Scrapes/Splinters/Burns: Owl’s Perch with 13! Most Insect Bites/Stings: Robin’s Roost with 7! Most Sprains/Strains: Sasquatch with 3. Most Head/Nose Injuries: Chipmunk with 4. Most Serious: Owls. Weirdest: Bear’s Abode with the back of an earring embedded in an earlobe!

Well, Trauma Trooper is even able to make camp injuries sound fun! Who knew a single cabin could obtain seven nurse-worthy stings and bites or that a single cabin would manage to both participate in camp activities and visit the nurse thirty times? Amazing!

Well, now that we have experienced Trauma Trooper’s Adventures in Camp Nursing . . . let’s jump back into Soleil’s Journey With Jesus!

And that wraps up this sneak peek of life at our Junior A Camp this summer. For the rest of the story, please visit The Campfire Blog!

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At Camas Medows Bible Camp, the day after Christmas isn’t for finding all the stuff you lost underneath that pile of Christmas wrapping or eating leftover pie all day long.

Nope. Here on this mountain meadow, the day after Christmas is when we welcome a group of rowdy teenagers (and older staff, too) to come into our winter wonderland and take a moment to consider if they are being called to serve God at camp this summer.

It’s time for the Summer Staff Winter Retreat!

For those who have already been on staff with us, it is time to hang out with the friends they made over the summer and be refreshed with Biblical encouragement.

For staff during our busy summer season, there is little to no down time.

Hard physical work if they are on the support staff team or the constant weight of being both spiritual mentor and 24/7 childcare for a cabin of campers if they are counsel staff take up almost every hour of their week of service at Camas Meadows.

And some staff members come for multiple weeks! They make it possible for campers ages 9-18 to rest, play, and grow closer to God in this beautiful setting.

However, some campers at the Summer Staff Winter Retreat have not been staff yet.

They are only considering what it might mean to spend their summer in service at an off-grid Bible camp.

For campers just considering coming to staff training for the first time in June, this retreat is a great time to get to know the current staff, soak up some great Bible teaching, and build an igloo or acquire a frozen nose while zooming down the camp’s terrifying tube hill at night!

Scruff was the speaker this year and he focused on the questions Jesus asked.

He gathered them all into a document and printed them off. Then posted them on the big log pillars at the center of the lodge.

There was only time to cover a few, but simply reading over every question was an amazing experience.

Scruff’s plan was to “Enter into the encounters people had with Jesus and the questions He asked them and to wrestle with those questions ourselves.”

So, which ones did he cover?

Do you want to be well?

Who do people say that I am?

Who do you say that I am?

What do you want me to do for you?

Will you also leave?

Thank you for enjoying this sneak peak at what I’ve been writing over at The Campfire Blog! To hear the rest of the story about Summer Staff Winter Retreat, just zip on over there!

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Junior high campers are absolutely hilarious! They are fun and rowdy, sassy and bold, full of passion and capable of incredibly deep and meaningful conversations about God and just life in general.

This is the age group most likely to make a decision to follow Christ.

Why?

One, they are rowdy about absolutely everything. If they are not being rowdy about prayer, Bible learning, or the very idea that God exists, they are being rowdy about food, gaga ball, night games, or just the forest basics like pinecones and squirrels.

This rowdiness comes with an incredible capacity to grow and change and decide for themselves.

It is at approximately the age of twelve that the human brain matures sufficiently to grasp concepts like metaphor, abstract thought, and right and wrong outside of previously established boundaries. It is at this amazing age that children realize that they have the choice to follow Jesus or not. If their family has always followed God, they still have a choice. If their family has never followed God, they have a choice. Such an amazing revelation!

Speaking of families, it was incredibly exciting to be able to take a photo of three different generations of women who have been involved in camp ministry here at Camas Meadows. Grandma is the wife of one of our former board members and even worked as a camp counselor once when she dropped off campers only to realize that we did not have sufficient staff. So she stayed to counsel a cabin! Xena (yes, that is her camp name) was a counselor way back when I (Boo Boo) was a counselor and also served during Scruffy’s very first summer leading camp! Xena’s daughter was a camper this week and it was crazy fun to watch her jump into camp activities knowing that her mom and grandparents have been a part of Camas Meadows Bible Camp for so many years.

We had such a beautiful variety of middle schoolers tumble into camp this week with all their vivacity and obstreperous charm. There were children who had grown up steeped in every aspect of the Christian faith, who could zip their way through the books of the Bible blindfolded, and give a thoughtful answer to tricky theological queries with aplomb.

Among this raucous splash of humanity were also children who had no faith background at all. Sometimes they would giggle when a counselor prayed or shout out a wild and perhaps slightly sarcastic, “Amen, brother!” during chapel as they attempted to navigate a strange social situation that was completely foreign to them.

Oh how precious each young camper is. It is such an incredible honor to invite every one of them into the world of Bible camp. Weather they just came for the camp part or are happy to learn a bit of Bible, too, every child was an honor to serve.

OK, folks. Head on over to The Campfire Blog for the rest of the stories and pictures from our amazing week of camp during Middle School 2!

I hope you enjoyed this Campfire Saturday!

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The first weekend in March is special. This is when we host our Junior High Winter Blast!

In 2020, Junior High Winter Blast was the last camp we ran before everything shut down. It was such a rambunctious time of laughter, fun, and learning about God together. Then we faced the heartbreak and pain of a long, quiet year without camps. That last Junior High Winter Blast was such an important reminder to us. It helped us remember the joy of serving God in a camp setting. To be faithful to God’s call, even though what He asked of us was so very hard. To continue striving after Him, no matter what that looked like.

Now, we have come full circle. A spring, summer, winter, fall, and another spring where we were able to host individual families, but not camps. An amazing summer of ministry. Yes that summer did include a whole lot of hoops to jump through, but it was so worth it. A delightful winter of hosting rental camps that wrapped up with us finally being able to run Junior High Winter blast once again!

It is so good to walk out of the desert for a moment and breath in the fresh air of victory! Yes, our walk with God travels some tough places, shadowed paths, and confusing seasons. God is just as close in the darkness.

However, the joyful craziness of Junior High Winter Blast provided an important time to celebrate, to remember that God also blesses us beyond what we deserve or can even imagine.

Hmmm … so what does one do at Junior High Winter Blast?

Come and Join us on The Campfire Blog!

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