This past week I had the opportunity to experience Hume Lake as a counselor. With nervous excitement, I made the almost 5 hour trip on a bus full of ecstatic kids aging from 4th grade to high school. I would be responsible for 11 high school guys who’s spiritual maturity ranged from agnostic to doubting christian. Some of them had grown up in church and had not yet made their faith their own, while others had only experienced Jesus through this yearly pilgrimage to the evangelical mecca of christian camps. Yet, all of them were excited for this week.
For the past four years, I have been hearing about the glory of Hume Lake Christian Camps. It almost seemed like a cult of some sort, as if the entire camp had some sort of magic about it. Many of my friends had been there as a camper and more had been a counselor or worked there as summer staff. Being a skeptic of such places, and even more cynical about the hype surrounding it, I was curious to see what all the fuss was about.
The first night blew me away. The chapel, the band (which just happened to be friends from a chapel band from Biola called The Procession), the speaker, (PJ from the Well community church in Fresno), the production was amazing. The theme was pirates and the story was that of Peter as he struggled to follow Jesus, his captain. The opener (trying not spoil it for anyone) was one of the best productions I have seen. It was fun, engaging, and ultimately encouraging as it pointed us to put our trust in Jesus as the only one who could defeat sin and the flesh.
I have always been worried about camp ministry. What if the band sucks both musically and theologically? What if they play weird songs? What if the speaker says something that is just plain wrong? What if they do a bunch of altar calls in order to stir up the emotions of the campers? Are they merely searching for numbers? Do they even care about the longevity of the faith of the campers? Do they care about the Church? My past experience at other Christian camps have made me wary of such things as I have found my faith suffer from being too stimulated by this mountain experience. (This is of no real fault to anyone in particular as most of these concerns arise from unintentionally rather than malice). However, I was relieved when Hume staff echoed my own concerns. They were worried about these things as well, and took great effort to overcome them.
The entire week was filled with Jesus. At every event, every chapel, every meeting, at everything, the staff made it clear what they were about. Hume Lake exists to tell people about Jesus and see them grow in their faith. More than once, I heard the staff members who were in charge of recreation (the fun, go crazy, team competition) say that if you had fun playing the games but did not grow in your faith, you had missed the point of Hume. Furthermore, Hume Lake did a fantastic job of turning the focus away from their camp and point us to the local church. Hume had set apart several times to connect with just our church. Our leaders were free as a church to do what we wanted, which was a great way to contextualize the sermons to our campers.
These are just a few examples that demonstrate the way that Hume Lake has excelled in pointing people to Jesus. My eleven campers left changed by their time at Hume. Many of them are beginning to see that they need to make this faith their own. Others are learning what it means for God to be a good and loving father, and others are simply learning that they don’t have to have it all together for Jesus to save them. I am incredibly thankful for ministries like Hume Lake and their commitment to loving and serving kids of all ages by pointing them to Jesus.
After all these years, I finally got see what all the fuss was about. The verdict: I love Hume Lake.
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