- indoubt Podcast ·
- February 17, 2020
Ep. 214: Summer Camp – Is It Worth It?
Every single one of us could probably recount a day, a moment, or a season of our lives where there was a significant change in our relationship with God. For some of us, that happened at summer camp. On this week’s episode of indoubt, we’re joined by Peter Yoon who shares his passion for camp ministry and the incredible impact that it can have on kids and adults alike. It’s easy for summer camp to become all about the excitement, activities, and joys of a parent-free vacation for kids, which is why Daniel and Peter discuss both the benefits and drawbacks of camp, making note of the long-term hope and opportunities that this unique type of ministry can offer. Filled with stories of life-change at camp, this episode is one you won’t want to miss!
Kourtney Cromwell:
Welcome to the indoubt Podcast, where we explore the challenging topics that young adults often face. Each week, we talk with guests who help answer questions of faith, life, and culture, connecting them to our daily experiences and God’s Word. For more info on indoubt, visit indoubt.ca or indoubt.com.
Kourtney Cromwell:
Hey, everyone, this is Kourtney. It’s so good to have you with us for another episode of indoubt. On this week’s episode, we’re joined by Peter Yoon, who’s the NextGen Pastor at Christian Life Assembly Church. He’s talking with Daniel about summer camp. You’ll be able to tell pretty quick that Peter is passionate about camp ministry, and it’s so great to see his commitment to youth, kids, and camp.
Every single one of us could probably think of a day, a moment, or a season of our lives where there was a significant change in our relationship with God. For some of us, that happened at summer camp. Recognizing that camp can have a massive impact on kids and adults alike, Daniel and Peter discuss both the benefits and drawbacks of camp, making note of the long-term hope and opportunities that this unique type of ministry can offer. Here’s the episode with Daniel and Peter Yoon.
Daniel Markin:
Hey, welcome to the indoubt Podcast. My name is Daniel Markin. I’m joined today with Peter Yoon.
Peter Yoon:
Hi guys. Just took a sip of my coffee.
Daniel Markin:
Oh, they give you coffee, dude?
Peter Yoon:
Yeah, yeah, it’s a big deal. I’m a big deal.
Daniel Markin:
Guys-
Peter Yoon:
That’s the worst way to open up a podcast. I’m a big deal. Listen to me.
Daniel Markin:
Guys, we’re joined today by Big Deal Peter Yoon.
Peter Yoon:
Yeah, that’s the worst way.
Daniel Markin:
Peter, we go way back.
Peter Yoon:
Yeah, like years.
Daniel Markin:
Like a year and a half.
Peter Yoon:
Yeah, yeah.
Daniel Markin:
We vaguely know one another. Well, we’ve had a few conversations.
Peter Yoon:
Yeah, we’ve had good conversations in the year and a half. Yeah, I don’t know. You pastor at the church my now wife went to her whole life.
Daniel Markin:
She grew up at.
Peter Yoon:
I don’t know. We’ve just crossed paths. I feel like we had enough mutual friends, and that’s sometimes the way the church world works. You have to introduce yourself, even though you know who the other person is, and they know who you are. I felt like it was one of those.
Daniel Markin:
Totally, see you from afar. It’s like I totally… That’s our generation, too. It’s like, I’ve seen you on Instagram, so I know who you are. I see you tagged in a photo on Facebook, so I vaguely know who you are, but we’ve never met.
Peter Yoon:
Are you just admitting to creeping me on social media right now?
Daniel Markin:
Dude, some people call it creeping.
Peter Yoon:
I feel loved.
Daniel Markin:
Other people call it research.
Peter Yoon:
Wow, that’s fair.
Daniel Markin:
Anyways, hey Peter, look. We have brought you on today to talk about a couple things. First of all, tell us who you are, and tell us what your deal is.
Peter Yoon:
Yeah, those are two very ambiguous, vague questions. I’ll tell you who I am. Other than my name, I’m 24. I just got married, like Daniel, which is very exciting. We were-
Daniel Markin:
This is the newlyweds’ podcast now.
Peter Yoon:
Yeah, we were thinking of doing a podcast on marriage, and we thought we’d bring a lot of value to that conversation, after our combined six months of experience, but we thought we’d go another way. Save that for a rainy day. I’m also the NextGen Pastor at a church in our area, in the city of Langley, called Christian Life Assembly.
Daniel Markin:
What’s a NextGen Pastor?
Peter Yoon:
Yeah, that’s a great question. Our youth ministry, we act cohesively as one kind of youth ministry, but with unique focuses on both middle school and high school. I give oversight to both our middle school and high school ministry. Just calling it NextGen gives clarity to our middle school and high school pastors, so that there’s, yeah, there’s a cohesiveness, but also there’s a uniqueness to each age group and demographic in the way that we want to be reaching and discipling those students, as well as partnering with their families. I’ve been doing that, or a variation of that role, at my church for the last five and a half years almost.
Daniel Markin:
Wow.
Peter Yoon:
My beautiful wife, Paige, we got married about five, just over five months ago. We’ve been loving life. We live in Langley together.
Daniel Markin:
Where’d you guys honeymoon?
Peter Yoon:
We honeymooned kind of everywhere. It depends how you look at it. Our real, actual honeymoon, the planned one, was two weeks in Greece. Then we did a couple days in Germany and in between in transit. Then we ended up doing two weeks in Korea. That’s where I’m from, in case you couldn’t tell by my accent. We did a Korean wedding, too, so I got married twice.
Daniel Markin:
Dang.
Peter Yoon:
Yeah, to the same girl, to be fair, but married twice, the first time in June, and then the second time in July, just about a month apart, so got married here in Vancouver. Most of my extended family, actually no, I should say all my extended family live in Korea. As opposed to trying to fly all of them out, and even trying to incorporate some of our traditional, ceremonial aspects of a Korean wedding, we thought, oh, let’s just do a wedding here.
My immediate family was here, her extended family and immediate family as well as her friends here, and then we did a wedding in Korea, all our extended family in Korea, and did a bit more of a traditional wedding over there, and so kept everyone happy and engaged. It was awesome, and we didn’t have to worry about not having enough room for everyone that we wanted.
Daniel Markin:
Now, did the family in Korea, did they already know that you were married?
Peter Yoon:
Yeah, I think so. I mean, it was like… Yeah, I mean, yes, because we were, yeah, we were staying together, so hopefully. Yeah, no, they did know. They tried to vouch to do the Korean wedding actually earlier, or before the Canadian one, because Korea’s summer weather is just absolutely just humid and way too uncomfortable for people to get around, but we loved the idea of doing a honeymoon in between our two weddings, for some reason.
Daniel Markin:
That’s cool.
Peter Yoon:
In hindsight, wouldn’t change it, so I love it- It was a good decision there.
Daniel Markin:
Sweet, man! So, you’re a NextGen Pastor. You’ve been working at CLA for a while, newly married, and I want to talk to you today about camp ministry, and just hear about your experience with camp. What, in a nutshell, and this, I guess… Here we go, another vague question. What is camp ministry?
Peter Yoon:
Yeah, that’s a great question. I mean, I think camp ministry is ultimately, because it can be so seasonal, in a more general overview of camp ministry, I think it’s a time, specifically, that a group of people take away to seek after things like community in the church context, things like encountering God together. Infused with all of that is just a lot of fun, a lot of energy.
Camp ministry, believe it or not, isn’t just for youth. Often we think through that lens, because it’s probably the most common way we see camp ministry done, but whether it’s done in the spring, summer, fall, winter, camp ministry I think, for me, especially within the church ministry context, is an allotted time set apart for people to go after community, fun, and encountering Jesus together, out of our daily, or weekly, or even monthly, rhythms of our lives. I think there’s something to be said specifically about that.
I’ll give a little bit of a context of how I got involved with camp ministry as a whole. The church that I’m a part of, the church that I work for, I also attended since I was 10 years old. Ever since I have attended that church, or our church, we’ve had a youth summer camp ministry available for people from age 11 through essentially 30, so it was like middle school, high school, and young adults. We had three camps running all the time, since I’ve been at our church.
I think I’ve been to… This was my 16th camp, this past August.
Daniel Markin:
Wow.
Peter Yoon:
Yeah, my fifth on staff, and my 16th in a row, not having missed once. It’s been the same campsite, over on Vancouver Island near Duncan, at Cowichan River Bible Camp. Shout out to them. We’ve been there, I’ve been there my summer every year for the last 16 years of my life.
Daniel Markin:
What you’re saying is you’ve engraved your name in every bunk bed.
Peter Yoon:
No, I don’t vandalize.
Daniel Markin:
I’m kidding.
Peter Yoon:
I’m a good person like that. No, so I grew up, again, going to these summer camps. What’s unique is I think less and less of local churches would run their own summer camps. That’s for a variety of reasons. First, it’s a logistically very hard thing to plan, for one local church to galvanize its resources, gather the volunteers that are necessary. It’s quite difficult. Second, because most churches don’t own property, they’re having to rent out property at another campsite. Again, the kind of infrastructure that’s required to run a camp through a local church is quite difficult.
What happens with most youth ministries is that they’ll join a camp that’s run, whether that be something more established, or something that’s newer, or they’ll join with other youth groups to try to do a combined one. In our area, we’ve got summer camps like Green Bay, Qwanoes. These are big camps that a lot of youth groups would funnel their students to in the summer.
Fortunately, for us, we’ve been able to run our own youth summer camps, just our students, just our kids, through our local church for the last, yeah, 15-16 years, and so it’s been a real gift. I think the plus there of our local church being able to run our own summer camp is in that we get to drive culture and community. One thing that we love to say at camp is that we get to take camp home. Because we’re doing it with the people that we’re doing life with, there seems to be a bit more of a continuity, as opposed to gathering with other people that maybe you didn’t know before the camp experience, and so nothing bad about that. I love camp ministry, but really, the only experience I have of being a part of or running a camp has been through our local church.
I’ve spoken at a lot of camps that are run by an organization like a Qwanoes or a Green Bay, and camps that are run by other local churches or groups of youth ministries. All those camps have been really cool and inspiring and galvanizing to my faith. Yeah, camp ministry, I believe in it lots, but I would say, back to the original question, in a real general sense, camp ministry is just, yeah, an allotted time for people to set apart to go after things like community and encountering Jesus together. Then, within the youth ministry context, I just think camp ministry is like youth ministry on steroids for a week.
Daniel Markin:
Yeah, oh yeah.
Peter Yoon:
Because it’s just you get a whole year of meaningful ministry, sometimes, condensed in a week, because there’s nothing like it. Again, I think there’s something to be said about the whole set apart retreat thing. For thousands of years, followers of Jesus have been practicing this idea of retreat, getting away from our daily distractions, our rhythms that we’re used to. The comforts that we lean on can often become the crutches. Then, when you set apart time, A, you build relationships, because you’re out of your daily rhythms, and in a really cool and healthy way you find yourself maybe in an uncomfortable or unfamiliar place and situation, and you just bond over games and laughter and dinner and lunch and breakfast.
Think about six days, as a teenager, where you’re sharing a meal three times a day with people your age, and you’re playing really fun games, and you’re being a kid, and you’re laughing lots. You’re hearing the Word of God, and there’s space for you to encounter Jesus and go after that in the context of community. It really is youth ministry on steroids. You get to see often what you would see in one year of doing youth ministry, if you’re just part of a youth group, maybe as a small group leader or whatever weekly in a whole school year, you’d see that in one week or five days at a summer camp, because that’s just what happens.
Relationships are built when there’s shared experiences, so quality time and quantity time. That’s what camp provides in a really meaningful way. Yeah, in the youth ministry world, camp ministry is freaking awesome.
My own story, actually, is so interwoven into camp ministry. Maybe that’s one of the reasons I believe in it so much is not only have I had a front row seat to life change of just dozens and dozens and hundreds of young people in front of me, both as a pastor who’s run camp and as a volunteer leader when I was in high school, because I volunteered for middle school growing up, but also as a person who experienced Jesus in such meaningful ways, in such milestone ways at camp. If I can point to a few moments that really are such significant markers in my journey with Jesus-
Daniel Markin:
The watershed moments where the-
Peter Yoon:
Yeah. In grade six, or going into grade six, when I was 11, that was a moment at camp when faith became my own. Like you, I grew up with my dad being a pastor and grew up around the idea of God and church. I don’t think I ever doubted His existence or even His goodness, at the time, but there’s a difference between knowing that there’s a benevolent Deity and having a relationship with Jesus of the Bible. It was when I was at camp in middle school that I encountered Jesus in a way that was so personal, so powerful, and so specific, and it really changed my life. Then when I was, I think it was the following year, I felt called into ministry, and so as we talk about even when the-
Daniel Markin:
When you were 12.
Peter Yoon:
Yeah, 12, 13, yeah.
Daniel Markin:
Wow.
Peter Yoon:
If you think about middle school ministry, maybe that’s another reason that I am so passionate specifically about that group, or maybe not that I’m more passionate about that than high school, but the reason I’m passionate about, I guess, advocating for middle school ministry and middle school camp is because, despite how smelly and stinky we are at that age, it’s just amazing, and in kids’ lives, too, just to see the way God will work radically.
I remember that moment where I felt the sincere call and pull towards vocational ministry and actually did have a picture of what it looked like, because of my dad and my mom. I’m a third generational pastor, and so it was like, oh, like I knew… I mean, it was naïve in a lot of ways. There was just this childlike faith. I didn’t know all the costs, of course, or the decisions I’d have to make, or what obedience looked like, felt like, all of that, but it was sincere in terms of knowing what I thought God was calling me to. Even in the three, four years, where I walked away from the Lord in high school, I always went to summer camp, and it was always that thing that always grew this love for Jesus, or even this interest in Jesus, even when I wasn’t interested. It was just God working and moving in my heart.
I’m really connected to camp ministry, because it changed my life radically. I’ve got youth leaders to thank for the rest of my life, for the voice that they were, the encouragement that they brought, the community that they pulled me into, but ultimately, ultimately, it’s just been year over year, I’ve just seen God change lives at camp. It’s not a simple formula, but in a lot of ways, it is simple. A couple of the key ingredients is just create space. You bring people, healthy leaders, and good things happen.
Daniel Markin:
If you can share some stories, what are some stories from camp that you’ve witnessed that have just… As working in ministry, and then even when you were just volunteering in high school ministry and things, what are some stories that have impacted you tremendously that you’re like, wow, yeah, I’m all in on camp ministry because of these things?
Peter Yoon:
Well, I’ll just go back to this past summer. Just over three months ago in August, our most recent camp, we had a conversation with a kid.
Daniel Markin:
What age?
Peter Yoon:
This was at our high school camp, so he was probably 16. He just had been going through just the worst year, and none of us had any idea. He was kind of connected to our youth ministry, but not regularly attending.
Daniel Markin:
Can you share what he was going through kind of thing?
Peter Yoon:
Yeah, he was just going through a ton of mental health things. He was just wrestling with so much anxiety, panic attacks, depression. He was actually coming out of the hospital, and then he shares at camp of just how meaningful the past four days… It had been towards the end of camp at that time when we talked about how much joy he felt, and how for the first time in months he felt like there was a reason to wake up, and the love that he felt from his Father in Heaven.
I was like, ah, these are the moments. Can those moments happen outside of camp? Of course, of course, but there’s something to be said, especially for a guy like that, who just felt just stuck in this place where he couldn’t get out, to be in a place that’s outside of his, again, his weekly or daily rhythms.
Then a couple years ago, I remember one of our middle school girls got healed from, I want to say it was either a dairy or gluten-free allergy. I said gluten-free, gluten allergy. We had a moment in our morning chapel, where we just taught on prayer ministry. One of our favourite definitions of prayer ministry that we love to teach to our students is it’s meeting the needs of others, based on God’s resources, not ours, so we just say, hey, prayer ministry is a moment where we get to serve and love one another in prayer. It’s not a moment for us to counsel or whatever.
We taught on this, and we released people to pray for their friends in their cabins and stuff like that. One of the things we just prayed for is that, hey, we just believe God heals today. We don’t have all the answers around why He heals some people and not others, but we just want to release you to do this.
I remember seeing this galvanize and just strengthen this girl’s faith, who was 11 at the time, I think. I remember being like, oh yeah, what a special thing that she’ll never forget for the rest of her life, that a group of girls in her cabin laid, put a hand on her shoulder, and said, “Oh, we just think that God cares about your allergy.” Yeah, and so there’s tons of stories like that of healing emotionally, spiritually, mentally, physically.
There’s stories of people who came in with such a hardened heart towards Jesus and the church and, like you said, after a week of just spending time with His church and encountering Him, just leave literally totally different from the way they walked in, to the point where parents and families are scratching their heads in almost disbelief, like oh my gosh, the kid that we sent off to camp a week ago was not the kid that came back. I think that’s just a testament to the goodness and grace of Jesus. Yeah, but every year, just dozens of stories.
We baptized, I think, 15 students, between middle school and high school, this past summer through camp. I don’t know. Even in my last five years on staff, I’ve probably seen… We’ve probably baptized 150 people, maybe more, maybe less, but it’s just crazy. Again, that’s not to brag about anything than just the transforming power of Jesus, and the kind of ministry that happens, and the decisions that young people make when they experience Jesus in a real way that’s sincere and authentic, and so yeah, it’s beautiful.
Daniel Markin:
Can I ask you a controversial question?
Peter Yoon:
Oh yeah.
Daniel Markin:
Which is kind of fun. I’ll play devil’s advocate here, though. One critique I often hear about camp ministry is that you get a bunch of smelling, sweaty teenagers into a room, get them all hyped up, get them all emotional, and then when you finally do the altar call, and of course everyone wants to do it, because they’ve had this really hyped up emotional week. Then they go back home, and then they… Quickly, the camp life fades away, and then they fall out of it, and they’re back to the same kid they were. The parents, they send the kid back, and the kid came back completely different, and then they come back and a month later, they’re the same kid that was there before. The question is, is camp ministry just a hype thing?
Peter Yoon:
Right, and I don’t even know if it’s controversial. I think it’s a real thing. There’s aspects of camp that is just… It’s hype. If anything that you look forward to with that kind of marketing, energy, and planning, I think will just inevitably give this feeling of hype. In that sense, of course, it is hype. I’ve heard someone say, “It’s only hype if it isn’t real.”
I think you’re right. I think not just in camp, but in general, in ministry as pastors, we have to be really careful about what manipulation can look like. Often, we can manipulate the space and the environment, without us even thinking or knowing. Maybe it’s based on how we grew up encountering youth ministry, or whatever. You’re right. I think there’s moments where it is very hyper-emotional, and we’d be very cautious.
For example, there was this one year there was a really emotional night on a Wednesday night at camp in our high school ministry. Kids started calling it, Cry Night. Then for the couple camps after, they were like, “Oh, I can’t wait for Cry Night. I can’t wait for it.” I was like, oh, what an unhealthy thing to label and go after, because it’s also unhealthy, or unhelpful even, to describe one emotion to be the right response to Jesus doing something in your heart, to go, “Hey, you have to cry, or it’s not sincere.” That’s poor and unhelpful theology to go, “Hey, you know if God is working in your life if you cry, if you blank, if you jump, if you laugh.”
Yes, we are cautious of that. I think you’re right. There is what people would call, I guess, a camp high, and then a bit of a camp crash. Again, what’s beautiful about doing camp ministry through our local church context is-
Daniel Markin:
They go from the camp.
Peter Yoon:
Yeah.
Daniel Markin:
And it continues with the local church.
Peter Yoon:
Yeah, and I think in youth ministry, like in any other ministry, we’re not calling people to a week of discipleship to Jesus. We’re calling them to lifelong discipleship to Jesus. There’s a mandate on the pastors and the lay leaders to disciple and to walk and to shepherd people accordingly to that vision. Yeah, we always say, how sucky would it be if the only time you can encounter God was seven days out of 365 of the year.
Daniel Markin:
Which is a reality for some people.
Peter Yoon:
Right, and so we just try to preach and teach this idea of lifelong friendship to Jesus while not downplaying the significant moments. I think, like humans do, we just have to be careful about swinging to either extreme, this idea of, oh, non-emotional, strictly just intellectual encounters with God, to, oh, just manipulative emotional hype responses to God. I mean, there’s both. God’s made us as intellectual and emotional beings, and we don’t have to shy away from either of those. You don’t have to check your mind at the door, but you don’t have to check your heart either, you know?
Daniel Markin:
Yeah, I think, well, exactly what you’re saying is we can tend to view that like, well, true Christianity is actually just studying the Bible and you’re knowing this, but at the same time, it is relationship, and you do experience God. Every single person, when they get saved, that’s a really emotional thing. Let’s not forget that, and let’s not see that as a bad thing. I think, what you’re saying, you don’t want to just chase the emotion, like Cry Night. I think if you’re going into Christianity for that, chasing a worship experience, that’s the wrong way to go about it. Obviously, you want to go to worship God for who He is.
Peter Yoon:
Yeah, and so I would just say, for those who are a part of camp ministry, just know that your part to play is a significant one, but it’s one section, hopefully, of a young person’s lifelong discipleship to Jesus. I think if we can see it like that, almost like a catalyst to someone’s faith, of course, it’s important. All of us would probably be able to recount a season of our lives or a day or a moment or a weekend or a week, where we would say there was a significant change, or there was something that God did in a real meaningful way.
Again, I think that just happens when you set time apart for the Lord. How many… Not any of us are spending every day of our lives constantly just around healthy community, going after things of the Lord together. I think when you just do that, and that’s what camp ministry is, beautiful things happen.
The hype of camp ministry is a real thing. It’s a real challenge. Even us coming out of camp, going into our fall launch right away, there’s things that you have to be willing to teach. I think that’s with everything.
Daniel Markin:
Like what?
Peter Yoon:
Things like, “Oh, I loved the way I experienced God in worship at camp.” You have to teach that there is something unique about camp, for sure. There’s something beautiful about it, but your ability to experience Jesus in fullness is for one reason, or due to one reason. That’s because of what Jesus did on the cross. That means you can experience Him in as real and meaningful, powerful of a way here in your room, or here at youth group, or here on a Sunday morning, or here at your school than you could’ve at camp.
I think it’s also teaching young people that, again, because it’s a lifelong friendship and relationship with Jesus, not every day is going to feel like this great epiphany and this emotional moment where everything clicks, you know? I think that’s maybe due to some of our even social media world that feeds into this idea that every moment of your life needs to be a highlight, and if it’s not, it’s not real or sincere.
It’s just ironic, that way of thinking, but I think it’s definitely bled into youth ministry and camp ministry and the way that we approach it. I think, just as a pastor, you have to be willing to teach that, this idea of lifelong relationship and friendship and discipleship to Jesus, while not downplaying and sacrificing or throwing away beautiful moments that are offered in camp ministry.
Daniel Markin:
Yeah, I think you’re right. I think, to summarize it then, it’s like camp is a means to the end, and the end is Christ. Camp isn’t the thing you chase. It’s an excellent tool that can be used in the discipleship.
For example, for you, and even for myself, those weekends away, consistently over a lifetime, we don’t know the impact that they had on us, but we look at ourselves now, still walking in the faith, thinking, do you know what? I have experienced the Lord in incredible ways at camps, and He’s met with me there. Those sort of things are… I just like to describe it as Ebenezer’s. You know, in the Old Testament where the Lord would… He told them. He said, hey, set up these stones, and this will be an Ebenezer. Then you can tell your kids one day when they ask you, and your grandkids, hey what are these stones here? All right, and you can tell your kids, well, this is what the Lord did for us, and we set that up so we can remember that.
I always try and think about my experience at camp, and these emotional experiences that, even when it doesn’t feel like faith is real, because you’re right. There’s times where it just, it goes, you don’t feel great about your life and your walk in Christ, and you’re just discouraged or whatever. Tucking away… I’ve always tried to tuck away those Ebenezer’s in my mind and be like, but there was a time, and a moment, when it was so real. I can’t shake that. I can’t forget that. I just can’t explain it. I think there is a… Using camp as a tool, as an Ebenezer, is amazing.
Let’s just end with this then. If there are students or high school students, so maybe college students, high school students, who are thinking about getting involved with a camp ministry, I’m going to guess that you’re going to encourage them into doing that.
Peter Yoon:
Yeah.
Daniel Markin:
What kind of guidance would you give them, as they approach doing that? Because some kids are going to be like, “I’m going to work the entire summer at a camp and make no money!” Is that wise or, I guess they’re just volunteering, or should they just volunteer a little time. How would you guide kids in that?
Peter Yoon:
Yeah, there’s a couple ways to look at it. I think it’s one of the best ways you can spend a summer, though, no doubt. Every follower of Jesus is called to make disciples, who make disciples. It’s not exclusive to pastors, not exclusive to the most executive leaders, or somehow the most influential or the most intellectual or the most gifted. Every follower of Jesus is called to make disciples that make disciples.
Camp ministry will teach you how to do that in a shorter amount of time more effectively than almost anything else I can see out there. In terms of your leadership development, the way that you’re placed in uncomfortable positions, where you’re almost forced to be on your knees, where you realize, hey, this is the end of my rope and the beginning of where God’s miracles start and His work and the way that His Kingdom operates. Camp ministry is the best experience of that, and so I would say go for it.
If you’re a high school student, who’s got the summer, or you’re a young adult even, between uni, like money… The $8000-$10,000, if you’re like, I don’t know, have a balling job, the $15,000 you can make in the three months or whatever… I’m not even saying, don’t think about what wisdom would have to say about financial stewardship or any of that, but I just think an investment into the next generation and your leadership development and your ability to disciple the people around you, those are metrics in the Kingdom that are invaluable.
Ultimately, I would just say the metric in the Kingdom of God, ultimately, is down to obedience. If God is calling you to it, or you feel like maybe this would be a great experience, don’t fight it. It probably will be. Again, it’s just a window into what it looks like to be a disciple maker in God’s Kingdom, and you’ll learn lots about yourself. You’ll probably fall in love with it. Most people I know that are involved in camp ministry rarely do it just for one year. It’s like people with tattoos, you know?
Daniel Markin:
Yeah, they get used to it.
Peter Yoon:
You either have no tattoos or a bunch of them. It’s just like once you’re in, it’s just kind of addicting, because of the life change and transformation that you see. It’s just inspiring. Again, it’s supposed to give a window to lifelong friendship to Jesus, and so camp ministry isn’t the be-all, end-all, like we talked about, but it’s a significant ministry that catalyzes so many people’s faith and brings people closer to Jesus. I would say, go for it.
Daniel Markin:
Love it. Well, Peter, we are at the end of our time here. Thanks for joining us.
Peter Yoon:
Thanks for having me, man, appreciate it lots.
Kourtney Cromwell:
I’m really glad Peter was able to join us for this episode and share his passion for what camp ministry can do in someone’s life. If you’re interested in being involved in summer camp, in any way, I’d absolutely encourage you to do it for any length of time. Summer camp was a part of my life, growing up, and it made a huge difference to me, but it wasn’t until I volunteered with the teens that I could see a change, not just in their lives, but in mine, as well.
Summer camp, and any form of camp ministry, is incredible. If you’re thinking about it and are unsure, look into it. If the application’s open on your computer, and you just haven’t filled it out, send it in. Or maybe you’re already signed up and are looking forward to camp this year. Either way, I hope that you found encouragement through this episode and get involved with camp in some way.
All the links will be up on the episode page online for anything that was mentioned in this episode. If you’re curious at all, definitely take a look. If you missed last week’s episode, or any episode at all, and want to go back, check out indoubt online on Spotify, Apple, or on the indoubt app, where you can find all of our past conversations. Check back with us next week for a brand-new episode, where Isaac is joined by Kathryn Butler where we’re discussing the questions surrounding the topic of end-of-life medical care.
Kourtney Cromwell:
Thanks so much for listening. If you want to hear more, subscribe on iTunes and Spotify, or visit us online at indoubt.ca or indoubt.com. We’re also on social media, so make sure to follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.