This was the 15th year that a preteen camp was held at Ironwood Springs Christian Ranch near Stewartville, Minnesota. There were 140 of us, 72 preteens and mini dorm campers, 23 teens and 45 adults.

Our goal was to enrich the campers’ lives by giving them opportunities to build relationships with other children who share common beliefs, experience a variety of challenging activities and deepen their relationship with God by getting to know more about their loving Father through daily christian living and music classes. The theme of this year’s camp was “You’re Never Too Young to Make a Difference!”

In Christian living we looked at the biblical examples of young people and the difference they made. We showed the campers ways to make a difference at camp and encouraged them to make a difference when they returned home.

The preteens enjoyed the new Jelly video, Jelly Makes a Difference! and easily learned the song “You’re Never Too Young to Make a Difference,” which they performed at the closing day program. The campers were delighted by a few surprise visits from Jelly at their camp activities.

Camp Ironwood is a family camp with many parents bringing the whole family and spending four days together. This year we had a wonderful group of teens who served as assistant counselors and activity assistants. They were the big brothers and big sisters to the campers. Adult staff served as activity coordinators, counselors, support staff and some as dorm parents.

Activities included horseback riding, swimming, arts and crafts, field games, climbing wall, archery, BB gun shooting, creek walk, team challenge, campus improvement, sling shot, mini farm and a new activity of tubing down a long slip-n-slide.  Campers also enjoyed evening activities: game night, a campfire sing-along, carnival, treasure hunt and novelty olympics.

This was an experience that those who attended Camp Ironwood this summer will not soon forget. We praise God and thank Him for another successful year at Camp Ironwood!

The dates for next year’s preteen Camp Ironwood will be July 16-19, 2017.