Week 1 - City Camp is Back!

Week one at City Camp was a ton of fun! We have 15 interns hanging with us this summer working to share the hope of the Gospel with the campers God has brought into our care. Many of the campers we have built ongoing relationships with don’t get out of school until next week so we had a slower start which gave us time to get all of the logistics worked out. We averaged about 85 campers per day and are looking forward to 100 coming on Monday!

We are so thankful to be partnering with Harvesters Kids Café this summer to reimburse us for breakfast and lunch meals. We are also excited to be partnering with the YMCA (Vivion Road and Platte County North) and Sherwood Bible Church to provide campers with the awesome opportunity to swim twice a week.

Each week of City Camp is characterized by a different theme. The theme for week 1 was “Survivor.” We spent time building team unity, competing in challenges, and learning about surviving. We had the opportunity to share with kids the ultimate survivor story of Jesus. He survived death and offers us the invitation to stand in His power so we too can survive our greatest enemy, death.

We also wanted to give campers the opportunity to learn about practical survival tips. We had several special guests come to help us with these activities. Chris Suchan, Chief Meteorologist at KCTV 5, came to teach us about surviving extreme weather. The campers loved getting to watch the footage of extreme weather situations and were even more excited about the chance to make the evening news!

Lucy Akins, from the Mission’s Medical Services team, came to teach us about surviving injury and helped each of the campers make their very own survival first aid kit. 

The Kansas City Fire Department sent 2 fire trucks and 8 firemen out to us to help us learn about surviving a fire. The campers had a great time on the trucks and hanging out with the firemen. We also had the opportunity to visit Clay County Parks and Rec to learn about surviving in the wilderness. Their park rangers taught us about mammals, snakes, archery, and took us on a nature hike.

Wow! Just remembering all that we did wears me out! It was a full week and we can’t wait for week 2 so we can build more memories and share the hope of the Gospel with the campers.