God’s Missionary Kids Camp 2023 was a success!

God’s presence was felt in a real way in several of the services. Children’s Evangelist Frances Stetler did a superb job of teaching the truth and holding the attention of the children. The altar was full of seekers during the Thursday night service, with several good testimonies afterward. It was also an important opportunity for our teens to lead devotional times, pray around the altar with seekers, and feel the weight of praying before a service.

It was a record-breaking year! We had 155 campers, over 90 staff members, and when you add “pre-campers” into the mix, we had a total of 265 people who were a part of the camp. We are thankful for a tremendous crew of staff members who worked untold hours to make it all happen!

We added several new features to the camp, including a commercial cotton candy machine (graciously donated by someone), a zip line, doubled the laser tag capacity, and a miniature “Model T” go-kart. All of these new things were a big hit with the kids! We also had a full schedule of daily team activities with 14 teams taking part.

The biggest addition was a 14’x40′ bunkhouse that created space for an additional 23 people! Thank you to the team of volunteers who built the building over several workdays and to the donors who so graciously underwrote the cost of over $12,000. This is our second 40′ bunkhouse, and it has greatly relieved the housing issue.

We are already planning for next year, and we need wisdom to know how to move forward. GMKC is rapidly growing, and we will need to continue developing the infrastructure at the campground to keep up with the growth. The biggest need for the coming year is to find a solution to keep up with the water usage, as the current well pumps/pressure tanks are unable to do so at peak demand times. In conjunction with the Fellowship Camp board, we will be exploring options to make sure that this is not an issue in the future.

When camp closed, we were tired but grateful that God had given us another great year. We are already working on plans for the 2024 Camp, scheduled for July 17-19, with Children’s Evangelist Ryan Martin. We continue to work to accomplish the dual purpose of Kids Camp: To help kids discover God and to help build the church of tomorrow today.

Thank you for being a part!