Indiana South District Youth 

It is the greatest campground that I have ever seen. It is full of beauty, and you can just feel the Spirit moving. It is an  awesome place to go when you feel like your spirit or your body needs revived. It is just so calm and peaceful, and you could never ask for better facilities.  Everyone who has used it says it is one of the most beautiful campgrounds they have ever been on. I normally go down there at least three times a year, but once I went four times.  Now I will tell you about my experiences and all the unforgettable memories, and I will tell you what makes this camp so special to me.

The first camp I go to during the summer is our District Kid’s Bible Camp where I am either a counselor or a worker.  It is just so great to see all these kids come to this camp just so they can learn about God.  But sometimes the kids just come down there to hang out with friends and to have a great time, which is all right.  One of the reasons we invite these kids here is so they can get away from home, but our main goal is to plant seeds in these kids so that they want to draw closer to God.  After we plant a seed in them, we encourage the kids to go home and plant seeds in their parents so that they can draw closer to God and be a closer family.  It is so exciting to see a kid ask God into his or her heart for the first time. I have had a chance to talk to some kids alone and pray with them, and I tell you that there is no greater feeling than knowing that you have helped a kid with either an emotional problem or a spiritual problem. This year was my first year as a counselor so I was a little worried, but it turned out all right. I had a few troublemakers but we solved all the problems in the end. I did lose my voice and my temper but I have learned that is sometimes how you earn their respect.  They may say that they hate you but they really don’t. Last year wasn’t as good as this year, but I still have some good memories. I was one of the workers who had to serve food, clean up the dishes, and take out the trash, so it wasn’t exactly what I had expected, but it was still an awesome time. I still helped a little with the kids, and I still got to pray with them. So all together that is Kid’s Bible Camp in a nutshell and I can’t wait to go next year.

The next camp is our district Teen Camp, which is my favorite camp out of them all.  We have a live worship band come in and play some awesome music, and we have some of the greatest speakers that I have ever heard.  It is just the most spiritual time when all the teens are standing lifting their hands towards God.  It is so moving and powerful that it is even hard to describe.  But one word we used last year is all that I need. Indescribable. It fits God to a “t” and it fits how I feel about this camp.  But I am still trying to describe it anyway.  Last year was one of our worst years because we had a lot of problems.  One of my friends passed out so many times that they had to take her to the hospital.  And also during this camp, one of my other friends was sliding on concrete where it had just rained and slipped and fell forward and cracked his head on the concrete.  They are all okay now, so thank God for that.  I have been going there for three years now and each one has been awesome, but I have to say that this year is the best one so far. We had the greatest speaker come in, and he just came out and told it like it is. Our worship bands over the years have been awesome, but the band this year from Wesley Chapel near Indianapolis has been my favorite. I roomed with some of my best friends David Reed, Oscar Sunstrum, and Jeff Willis this year, which was awesome. Oscar was an exchange student from Sweden who was spending three weeks with a couple from our church, and lucky enough, Teen Camp was during his last week.  He was not raised in church, but he accepted Christ into his heart at Teen Camp.  Last year, a friend of mine, Shaun Burton, went up to the alter bawling and about five of us went up to pray with him.  It was a very spiritual time.  We joke with him that “God didn’t touch him—he got the smack down.” And those are just a few of my favorite memories from Teen Camp. I can’t wait to see what God is going to do next year.

At the end my summer, it’s the District Family Camp where families can come to draw closer to God and draw closer as a family.  They have a group of singers come in and lead worship that is usually old hymns, which is pretty cool.  We have two speakers come in and they trade off day after day. This camp normally lasts about a week and three days starting on a Thursday and ending on the Sunday of the fallowing week.  Every year on the first Sunday of the camp, they dedicate that night to the youth and we travel down there to take part in the youth service.  Last year was my first year.  We got to go for a few days, and I really enjoyed it.  This year I only got to go to the Youth Service, and I really missed the other services.  Next year I hope that I’ll be able to go and spend the whole time down there and room in with some friends.  It sounds like it will be a great time so I can’t wait until next year to see what God has in store.

This is the last camp I go to every year. Last year we went to a fall retreat where my dad was a member of the worship band from our church and so he picked me up from school that Friday and then we drove down to Orleans again in the Jeep with the top down, which was awesome.  When we got there, we were close to the first ones there because we had to set up the speakers and everything else.  Everyone else from my Church and Hulman St. Church were on a bus that got stuck behind a wreck so they were the last ones there and I was so happy to see all my friends again. It was only three days, but they were all full of fun.  We had a great speaker who gave great messages, and the worship band was awesome.  When the weekend was over, it was hard to say goodbye to all my friends from Hulman St. but I knew I would see them again at camp this year.  This year we decided to change it and make it a leadership conference where all the youth pastors in the district would pick students that they thought had leadership skills.  My sister, David, and I were picked from our church to go, but besides us, there were only about five from another church. We decided to go to the other church, and when we got there we made friends in no time.  We played dodgeball in their gym, which was awesome, and then we ate some pizza and our youth pastor gave a message.  After a little more hanging out, we all went to bed.  When we woke up we waited on the girls to wake up, then we had breakfast and the husband of the youth pastor from the other church gave a message, and we went to a place where they had laser tag and all sorts of games to play. That weekend was awesome, and I hope we can do it again next year.

And that is just a fragment of all my wonderful camping experiences at this “indescribable” camp that I have tried my best to sum up for you. I wish I could take everyone I know to this campground just so I could show them what it is like. But for now, this is the best you’re going to get, so I hope you enjoyed my memories.

Joseph Daffron
Faith Wesleyan Church, Ground Zero Student Ministries