Summer Camp Season Starts

by Larry W. Greider

June 29 the camps at Hye Sierra, California, and Woodmen, Alabama, began. This summer marks the 14th season of the United Youth Camps program. Each year has demonstrated that a week at camp for junior high and high school students can provide an oasis of faith, growth and hope.

This year our six summer programs are running almost at maximum attendance for the facilities and staff that we have. Currently around 800 campers have been accepted, with some camps still trying to fit latecomers in. Several have waiting lists due to limited space. Making this work are the hundreds of volunteers who are willing to give up some of their vacation time and serve at camp. We are thankful for such a fine spirit of service and for those who share their talent and energy to help create the positive, millennial "Zone."

This year online registration helped streamline the application process and made the difficult chore of collecting hundreds pages of paper less demanding. Many thanks to Paul Wasilkoff and Richard Kennebeck for their many hours of work to create this excellent tool for our camp program.

The theme of our Christian Living classes, which are a major emphasis in our program, is "A Bridge to the Future." The Church understands that we are living in what the apostle Paul called "this present evil age" (Galatians 1:4). The bridge we have is God's truth and way of life as outlined in the Holy Bible. Each day we will explore how to bridge from our world today to the coming world tomorrow, a time of peace under the capable leadership of Jesus Christ.

Christian Living classes will explore how to use the bridge with God's help to provide a safe way toward the Kingdom of God. Areas such as family, friends, faith, truth and the Kingdom will all be discussed, with many practical applications modeled and explained.

The future of God's Church is in the hands of our youth, and it is refreshing to see their enthusiasm for God's way of life. This is a tribute to parents and pastors who help make the UYC experience a highlight of the year for many of tomorrow's leaders. UN