Faith in Action: A Camp Counselor’s Story Igniting a Movement Among Friends

Post By

Elijah Shively

This past week, I had the privilege of speaking with the mother of a camper who has attended Camp Joy El for several summers. Each year, he and a few of his friends make the couple-hour drive from New Jersey to join us for a week of summer camp or a weekend retreat. The first year, he came with just one friend, but each year since, he’s brought more and more friends along to share in the experience.

This past summer, he and his group had a counselor named Doug, a college student from a local university. Doug shared with the boys how seriously he had been taking his faith over the past year and how the Lord had transformed his life during his time at college. For these boys, Doug’s story was deeply inspiring. They realized that while they identified as Christians, they hadn’t been prioritizing their relationship with the Lord as much as they could have.

During my conversation with the camper’s mother, she expressed how thrilled she was to see the impact camp had made on her son and his friends. She shared that, since returning home, the boys had started a Bible study at their school and were working hard to make their faith their own.