United Church of God

Update from Ministerial and Member Services

You are here

Update from Ministerial and Member Services

Winter Camp

If you are like me, you have been wondering how Winter Camp would go this week. Moreover, many of you have joined us in praying for God’s blessing to be upon our camp. Several months ago, Steve Nutzman, Aaron Creech and I began discussing Winter Camp and our desire to hold it, if possible. We understand the tremendous desire on the part of our teen campers and young adults, who serve at camp, to get together for fellowship and to build stronger bonds and friendships.

President Kubik has always been very supportive of our camps and he also wanted to hold this camp—if we could have it in a way that would be as safe as possible. Life, in general, is somewhat risky and we all realized that having camp this year could present some health risks. That has always been the case at our Winter Camp, as some participants have come down with the flu or colds each year. Therefore, we decided we would attempt to conduct Winter Camp.

To run a camp successfully takes months of thought and preparation. Aaron Creech, and his wife, Whitney, have put even more thought, time and effort into organizing Winter Camp this year. We greatly appreciate their willingness to take on this task and to shoulder the extra responsibility due to a very challenging year. They implemented extra measures to ensure a greater likelihood of success, given the ever-present pandemic. We understand and regret that some teens and staff were not able to go, because they were exposed or even came down with COVID before camp. We realize that without God’s blessing, things could have turned out quite differently—and we also realize camp is not yet over, so we take nothing lightly or for granted. Nevertheless, we do greatly appreciate that, so far, things have gone extremely well and we sincerely appreciate God’s blessing upon camp.

Here is our report from Aaron Creech:

Winter Camp 2020 is off to a fantastic start. This year we have 95 campers and 51 staff all working together as we learn about Remembering Our Creator, based on Ecclesiastes 12:1. On Tuesday night, we received about 8 inches of beautiful, Wisconsin snow. The dorms have been able to enjoy the snow with tubing and the added fun with field sports. Our oldest dorms will be snowboarding and skiing on Thursday.

The temperatures have been perfect for camp—cold enough for snow, but warm enough for lots of fun. We are enjoying the wonderful facility at Lake Geneva with indoor classes for arts and crafts, dance, escape room, Bible class, volleyball, basketball and rock climbing. It has been so uplifting to see all of the teens laughing, playing and fellowshipping as they spend time together.

Thankfully, we have been able to really dive into the camp experience. It has truly been a bright spot this year for the campers and staff. The forecast is calling for additional snowfall this week, which will really enhance the winter camp experience. Thank you very much for the continued prayers for God’s protection and safety on the camp.
—Aaron Creech, Winter Camp Director

 

Let us all pray for a very successful conclusion to Winter Camp!