School may end as summer approaches, but we know your commitment to impact orphaned and at-risk children never stops.
Summer can be a difficult time for orphaned children or kids whose families are struggling with poverty because the support they receive from Orphan’s Promise education programs is suddenly no longer available. The mentorship, discipleship, and nutrition they received every day at school are gone.
When will they eat again? Who will they turn to when times are hard?
The answer comes from a place many of us are very familiar with. Summer camp!
Summer Camp is a tradition many of us grew up looking forward to as a chance to experience freedom, and to develop new relationships while having fun. We were able to leave behind the stress and busyness of life at home and jump into the experience of summer camp with both feet.
Most of us were probably coming from safe homes and arriving at safe camps, and the transition from one to the other was pretty seamless. For children from difficult backgrounds, however, trust has often been broken or betrayed, and many arrive at camp unsure of what to expect and scared about how they will be received by all the new faces they see for the first time.
We recognize these fears are very real and even warranted when considering the kinds of difficulty these children leave behind when they come to camp. We can’t even describe the brokenness we see every single day, but we do know that we have a God who can use something as simple as summer camp to bring about healing and transformation.
Our summer camps don’t necessarily look all that different from the summer camp you might find down the road from your home. Days are filled with games, activities, competitions, campfires, artwork, and songs and nights are filled with discussions with camp counselors and new friends. The great thing about our summer camps is that these discussions revolve around learning truths from God’s Word about who He says these children are. They are loved. They are worthy. They are beautiful. They are wanted.
We have seen children arrive at camp reserved, shy, scared and unsure, and over the course of a week, they come out of their shells, they make new friends, they discover who they are in God’s eyes, and they begin to shine brightly as their unique personalities are uncovered.
We know that our education programs are critical to the long-term success of the kids in our projects, but often our summer camps are the keys which unlock the potential of children to find success in school. A child who knows they are loved, they are smart, and they are capable of learning, is able to give themselves the freedom to succeed.
Thank you for helping us unlock the world for these children. You are truly making a difference simply by caring enough to say ‘yes’ to their futures.