Northwest Preteen Camp 2016 was held in the beautiful foothills of Mt. Hood in Oregon. It was the “beary” best year ever! Our theme was from 1 Corinthians 13:4-7, “Love . . . bears all things.” We learned to love each other and bear with each other.

There were 85 campers and 64 adult and teen staff, a total of 149. A big thank-you goes to the parents and volunteers who sacrificed time and finances to be part of a great service to God’s youth.

Swimming provided an opportunity to learn a new skill and have great fun. The river float was an adventure with brightly colored inner tubes carrying campers down the Salmon River. 

Archery was, and is, an all-time favorite. For arts and crafts campers had a service project for the shut-ins. The campers created cards of encouragement. Another project was sand art and a picture frame for the camper.

Sports activities expanded the camp theme. During these activities there was a poster that depicted the parts of a bear and added scriptures explaining the theme.

Dance and music gave campers a concept of movement to music, and campers learned the Feast songs too. The campfire was fun with silly songs and great skits from each dorm.

There were seven girl dorms, and their names were the Berry Buckets, the Gummy Bears, the Sweet Cinnamon Bears, the Good News Bears, the Praying Pandas, the Care Bears and the Honey Bears.

There were five boy dorms, and their names were the Sleuths, Brother Bears Bearing Burdens, Bro Bears, the Grizzlies and the Jellystone Bears.

Campers and staff came from all parts of the Northwest plus California, Ohio, and even Germany and the Netherlands. If you would like to join us for Northwest Preteen Camp 2017, please check out the website at uyc.ucg.org for updates.

John and Sandy Cafourek