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| Camping Sunday |

Camping Sunday, sponsored by the conference Committee on Retreat and Camping Ministry, provides an opportunity to share information about the programs and facilities at camps Harmison, Manidokan, and West River, to take a special offering for camperships and to recognize those in local congregations who volunteer in the camping program.

Special offering envelopes are available by calling (800) 922-6795. Further information can be found at the retreat and camping ministries Web site at www.bwconf.org/camping/ .

Offering supports camperships

By Kathryn Leight
UMConnection Correspondent

Summer camp can open up new ways of seeing God and change a childs life, say the people who provide a United Methodist camping experience for thousands of children each year.
On Feb. 24, area congregations will have the opportunity to provide these experiences for children who cant afford them by taking a special campership offering.

Camping is a valuable tool in ministering to the specific needs of young people, said the Rev. Bill Herche, director of the Manidokan Outdoor Ministry Center in Harpers Ferry, W.Va. Camping offers young people the chance to get away from the problems and pressures of life. Without all that clutter, they can better hear God and better know God, he said.

Andy Thornton, director of the West River United Methodist Center in Churchton, has also seen the benefits of camping on young people. They come here and have one of those mountaintop experiences, where what they have been hearing in Sunday School just clicks, he said. Thornton feels that camping works because it takes children into a different, high-energy, fun-filled environment.

The camping scholarships are distributed by the conferences Committee on Retreat and Camping Ministry, which is sponsoring the special Sunday.

Giving to camperships provides young people the opportunity to talk, have an adventure, and let go of their frustrations. Camping is a release, said Herche. I have seen radical changes in young peoples lives. He recalled a young girl whose eyes were dark, and whose face was drawn when she arrived. At camp, she came to know Jesus Christ as her Lord and Savior, and even her countenance changed, he said. She radiated.

Many children who attend camp increase their participation in church activities once they get home, Thornton said. Camping is interactive and exciting, and it draws young people to church and gives them a vision of a bigger world beyond their neighborhood.

Both Herche and Thornton have witnessed the tremendous impact that camperships have on the lives of young people. We are all called as the church of Jesus Christ to see that everybody hears the gospel and comes to know Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. This is one way to do that, said Herche.