"I HAD so much fun at camp! Every body was so nice and Christlike to me. I remember the first of the week when you said Jesus is your best friend. Please don't get mad at me, but I thought that he wouldn't be much fun; but now I think he is fun, and he is my best friend too. (Your my second-best friend. You don't mind not being first, do you?)
"I liked everything, but I liked campfire best, and then when in our cabin you turned off the lights and told a story.
"I was going to talk all night—the first night—but after we had prayed and you said alright girls, goodnight, let's go to sleep, I just couldn't.
"Well, I got to go. I love you so much,
"Yours truly,
"Gina.
"P.S. I am going to be a Christian too."
How would you like to get that kind of an enthusiastic response to your ministry as a pastor or evangelist after only one week of meetings? This letter was written to a college-age counselor at one of our conference summer camps and is typical of the hundreds of such responses that come in each year.
This past summer we celebrated fifty years of Adventist youth camping. It all began during the summer of 1926 at Townline Lake in Montcalm County, Michigan. Eighteen boys under the direction of Elder Gordon Smith were present for this first camp. A. W. Spalding helped pioneer this new phase of the youth ministry and later gave this classic definition of a junior youth camp: "The Junior Summer Training Camp was, and is, in effect the denomination's camp meeting expressed in terms of Junior psychology. Too long the active child and adolescent had been confined to adult forms of religious expression. Now he was given an interpretation of life in active physical recreation and vocational pursuits, mingled and in fused with spiritual objectives and exercises. This made the camp thoroughly spiritual in all its activities and service, and joy in religion was the keynote. No boy or girl will ever lose the sense of the sacredness of the day that began with the Morning Watch on the hilltop and ended at night with the beautiful awe of the campfire, a time of song and storytelling and the orders of the day, with final prayer." —The MV Story, p. 56.
This same basic philosophy still rings loud and clear throughout Adventist camping. With 366 camps and a 1975 (most recent statistics available) enrollment of 30,222 and more than 7,500 youth making first-time decisions for Christ, we begin to see the scope of influence that our summer camping pro grams have on our youth.
Evangelism, the Key Word
Evangelism is the key word in Adventist camping, and, in fact, is the only legitimate reason for the church to spend literally millions of dollars on facilities that provide sanctuaries in quiet areas for our youth to become acquainted with nature, themselves, and God.
A young Christian is no different from others in our machine, push-button, computer-run society. Our schools, homes, and even churches tend to pigeonhole or box up a young person until self-identity is lost. Summer camping offers an alternative to all of this and in the process assists a camper in making life decisions in a lasting way.
The following are goals toward which most camp activities are directed:
1. Learning to live outdoors and be coming acquainted with the outdoor environment.
2. Experiencing individual growth and development.
3. Learning to live and work together.
4. Practicing health and safety.
5. Developing new skills and interests and perfecting old ones.
6. Enjoying a recreational experience.
7. Developing spiritual meanings and values.
Number 7 in the list is the very core of the Adventist camping mission. To accomplish the objective of reaching these thousands of campers who annually attend our camps, the modern camp is normally staffed by scholarship or volunteer, mature college-age youth who are able in a very beautiful and wholesome way to express through daily living the abundant life, and in the process to assist their cabin campers to make decisions, or firm up previous decisions, to serve Jesus.
The average Adventist camp annually has many non-SDA youth in attendance. They attend at the invitation of an Adventist friend or because SDA camps have an excellent reputation for quality programming and responsible leader ship. A large number of the North American Adventist camps are also member camps in the American Camping Association, which provides substantial advertising to the general public. Many friends for the church and decisions for Jesus are made from this group each year.
Need for Adequate Follow-up
Baptisms would be numerous during summer camp if the average director and camp pastor would allow such. However, these interested youth are normally referred to their home church and pastor for further study. Your conference youth ministry team strongly urges your continued follow-up in a spiritual way of these interests gained during the week or two at camp. You will probably be amazed at the positive feelings these young people express about their time at camp.
The average denominational campsite is used today for far more than just six to twelve weeks during the summer. It also serves year round as a spiritual retreat center for church and other groups.
The conference-owned camp, a committed director and staff, are another means to assist the pastoral ministry in our mutual goal of presenting Jesus Christ as a total answer to all of life. As we enter the fifty-first year of SDA camping, your influence and help is solicited to see that the members of your congregation are made totally aware of the mission of your conference camp. After all, don't the youth of your church deserve this kind of an evangelistic experience during the summer of 1977?
