In this video we hear from three different volunteers who have served at UGM Camp.
Nathan: UGM Camp is Faith Bible Church reaching out to families in our community so we can share Christ with their kids. This might be my tenth year.
Amber: I’ve been serving at UGM camp for seven years. So to help the campers to memorize any of the verses that were learning throughout the week we put them in the song form, and we help the memories with hand movements.
I get the kids excited like “hey you just memorize the Bible verse, yeah that might be your first Bible verse you’ve ever memorized!”
Todd: this is the third time or fourth time that I’ve been up here helping out with UGM camp. So getting kids outside experiencing God‘s creation and then exerting themselves and and having to play hard that’s just great for them—all the games that we play, the activities that they have up here, that they’ve never experienced—archery and swimming in a little creek—in a river and getting a chance to fish. And then I think they really have an opportunity to be thankful as they learn about God and they spend time in nature that they can really connect those two things.
Amber: Building trust and encouraging the kids definitely happens on the float day. The river float is exciting and scary for some campers and it’s challenging because we are hot after a 45 minute walk to the top of the float and then we go down and we get into a nice cool river. The girls, the boys, the volunteers, everybody has a really great time floating—the highlight of UGM Camp for sure.
Nathan: One kid this year, the first day he told me that he had never been to church except for one time for a funeral and he wasn’t sure about who Jesus was or what Jesus had done for us or why he died and so for the first time he’s hearing about who Jesus is what he’s done for him.
Now he’s starting to understand Jesus better. That story is better repeated every year as far as I can remember.
Todd: Last night after we talked about sin and the fact that all of us are sinners I shared with a young man about how I used to feel hopeless because my burden of guilt was so big that I felt hopeless and he started crying and sobbing, and he felt hopeless too but we were able to share the fact that that’s a good place to be to feel hopeless about our sin because then we can turn to the one who gives us hope. And so we shared Christ with him and I think that God‘s gonna use that time in this little guy’s life and in his heart to really point him towards Christ. So we’re praying for that—we’re praying for him this week that that’ll happen and we’ll have more opportunities to share with him.
Amber: The most encouraging thing that I see in these kids is when I hear them humming the songs or singing the lyrics, reciting the Bible verses. And these are kids that have probably never even open up a Bible and their reciting verses—I love seeing that.
Todd: What’s great is that with the encouragement and a little bit of candy that they are hiding God‘s word in their heart as we work through our memory versus in the morning. So even though we might not be seeing a lot of fruit during the week, I do know that God‘s words powerful.
Amber: One thing I really love about This Camp is these girls will come in and they have never prayed before and by the middle of the week or the end of the week I’ve got every single girl praying to God—they are giving things to God. And they’re learning how to open up the Bibles and find scripture and they’re coming out of here singing the songs and they got a big ol’ smile on their face.
I just pray that these five days are fruitful, and we may not see that fruit but it is definitely a seed planting ministry.
A loving community making disciples of Jesus Christ.
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