The Amazing - "Amazing Race"

One of the most powerful elements of the camp was the inspiring group of "Y intern" & teenage counselors at camp who did an outstanding job giving their hearts, sharing from their own lives about their own struggles and how they are fighting to overcome. These teen counselors became great friends and in many cases, "heroes" to the middle school campers. There was one standout moment in particular. During the teen panel - the campers were given time to come up with a variety of questions about navigating the Christian life: questions about becoming a Christian, handling relationships with the opposite sex, relationships with parents/siblings, school pressures & insecurity, etc. Then a panel of 10 teen disciples (5 guys, 5 girls) fielded the questions by sharing vulnerably from their own experiences, using scriptures and putting their own convictions out there. This was not only a time of inspiration and teaching for the middle school kids, it was a time that made us all extremely proud of our teen disciples for their courage & personal example. Moreover, that night after the panel and another class on courage & dealing with pressure, many rooms of MSers stayed up late into the night opening up with tears, vulnerable sharing, with many expressing the desire to start studying the Bible to become disciples. The transformation in courage for these young men & women during the course of the camp was incredibly faith building - their vulnerability, their decisions to take on the challenging, “scary" aspects of relationships with each other, parents, etc. Truly inspiring!

New highlights of this year's camp included "So You Think You Can Camp" - a tribe vs. tribe competition of creative skits judged on creativity, spirituality, and involvement by "celebrity teen judges". Also, a middle school and teen band was formed at camp during the daily free time called, "middle school jam" hour. Calling themselves "Just Made It", they put together three numbers they performed during camp for their peers. As well, along the lines of creating different tracks for the classes, we divided the middle schoolers into separate classes for the 6th graders and then 7th-8th graders for a few sessions at the camp. This proved much more effective at really dealing with the key topics and putting proper emphasis on the needs of the kids at different ages.

Bay Area Christian Church

The Amazing - "Amazing Race"

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