God-Style Camping

A Tomoka Christian mission team recently returned from Camp Chenaniah in Honor, Michigan. They ran a week of summer camp there. Two members of the team, Scott Hale and Ryan Houser, shared some of the trip highlights.

From Scott:

My experience at Camp Chenaniah in Michigan was unbelievable. My beautiful wife and our three kids (Jay, 12; Kieran, 6; and Riley, 2 1/2) started our trip at 4:30 a.m. in the TCC parking lot and arrived at camp by 8:30 p.m. that same day. This was their first mission trip but they were all troupers!

Now I've been on mission trips overseas before, and while I'm not at all lessening those experiences, the realization that some of the same occurrences are happening here in the states just ate me up.

After you get past the "rustic" atmosphere, I thought the camp itself was an incredible scene. The reason that Camp Chenaniah may not have the latest living conditions or best of modern technology is because the owners, Mike and Belva, do not charge much for the campers to be able to come. Part of this is due to the economy, but mainly this is because the surrounding area just does not have a lot of money. In some cases they don't charge anything. They may have kids who are allowed to attend on a volunteer work basis, say, to help in the kitchen, or take out trash. The philosophy there is that Mike and Belva would rather have the kids there learning about Christ than not.

I would have to say that my favorite part of the week was the worship. The camp's chapel collapsed last winter due to weather and age. So we met in an old Army surplus tent. It was damp, dirty, and dusty and had wooden pews nailed down to two-by-fours. But the worship was pure. These kids let it pour straight from their hearts. These kids are truly looking for Christ; they are clinging to the hope of His promises.

Being out at Camp Chenaniah with these kids reminded me that it's not about the building, it's not about the facilities, it's not about how many are in attendance. It's about offering God our hearts and getting back to what is pure.

My family and I are already trying to plan our trip back for next year!

From Ryan:

I was nervous about Camp Chenaniah at first. I had never been there, and I wasn’t sure what the campers would be like. I had to trust in God that he would use me however He needed to that week.

Chenaniah turned out to be one of the best and most “Seriously Ridiculous” weeks I’ve experienced all summer. I loved every minute of it. From the team, the campers, the games and everything else, God was under control of every aspect. By the end of the week, I didn’t want to leave — despite the spiders and moths everywhere — and I wished I could have stayed longer.

The team from Illinois and Michigan were great to be with. I am blessed to have met them and still be talking with them almost a month later. It was fun to hang out with not only the new counselors I met, but the ones from Tomoka, as well, especially knowing that we all shared the same goal of reaching the kids and showing the love of Christ to them.

One of the most incredible experiences I had with the campers was on the last night. It was about 11 at night, and some of the kids were still up. They were talking with each other and just playing around. I thought it was funny and eventually they began to talk with me about salvation and baptism for a while. They had a lot of questions to ask and I just talked with them and tried to answer their questions. A lot of them didn’t know much about different Bible stories and how to get a close relationship with God. It was powerful to see such young people desiring God and wanting to know more about Him.

The last day, we all went to the lake and saw 11 baptisms! It was such an amazing experience to see the kids I had been with all week accept Christ as their savior and be baptized! Even one of our staff got baptized!

I went away from camp knowing nothing that had happened this week happened because of us. Everything was under God’s control and it was comforting to know that. I pray that the campers and even the staff take the lessons we learned and grow closer to God each day. I am excited to go back next year and see them again, and I can’t wait to see what God has in store next July!