Keeping camps and churches close

Jim Nightingale

Jim Nightingale, director of Redberry Bible Camp, made a passionate plea at the recent convention of Saskatchewan Mennonite Brethren.

“I want to see more visible tangible ways in which our churches are valuing camp ministries,” the director of Redberry Bible Camp near Waldheim said. “We as camps often feel at the bottom of the list.”

While specific to the Saskatchewan Conference (where camps are not in the conference budget), Nightingale’s plea resonates with others at the front lines of camping like Rick Arkell of the Alberta Conference’s Camp Evergreen. They see the tremendous opportunities they are given to touch people for Christ, and long for their ministry to have close tie-ins to the church.

Three needs

Rick Arkell

What do camps need from the church? Prayer, finances, and volunteers, Nightingale says.

Rick Arkell echoes this trio of requirements. “The prayer base is first,” he says, “And I don’t say that just because it’s the Christian thing to say.”

Volunteers are very important too, he continues, and not just the young people one might think of as the typical camp volunteers. “We’d love to have a senior citizen couple come and be ‘Grandpa and Grandma’ to the kids for a week.”

In Ontario, Camp Crossroads has enjoyed high support from Ontario churches. Director Joyce Schimpky sees volunteers as the key. She or someone else from the administrative team try to visit every church each year, building support and seeking workers.

Follow-up connections

Joyce Schimpky

Nurturing campers after their near-mountain or mountaintop experience is a significant challenge for camps, a challenge that also needs church involvement. Requirements of the government’s Privacy Act, however, have restricted information camps can give to churches about who attends.

Campers can, however, be given information and packets for follow-up activities.

The best follow-up still comes, says Camp Crossroads’ Schimpky, through post-camp connections by staff volunteers who build relationships with campers. And that brings the connection right back to the church!

—Dora Dueck