As parents, we are always trying to find fun and easy ways to grow our children’s love and relationship with Jesus. This was especially important to me recently since I myself have dove head first into my faith. I want to bring my family with me! One way we did this was catholic summer camp.
Catholic Youth Summer Camp
A good friend at work suggested we look into Catholic Youth Summer Camp (CYSC). Her brother has been a councilor there in the past and is just crazy about it! We had never thought about camp or anything like that before but after hearing how excited they were, we looked into it. It only took 3 seconds on the website to fall in love.
The next part would be the hardest…convincing our not-so-outgoing-and-brave 12-year-old to go…alone. I didn’t want her to turn down the idea right away so I just casually showed her the website and she got so excited! She wanted us to sign her up right away….regardless if her friends could join her! (One of her best friends was able to go at the same time so that was great!) We were SO proud of her and excited for this adventure!
Camp
Marlee left for CYSC on Sunday, June 30th. The campus was beautiful! And everyone there was so full of joy. It was truly amazing. We left her knowing she was going to be well cared for and was going to have a blast. She had no hesitations either which was awesome…since this was the longest she had ever been away from home!
Mom, everything was just so cool! Club was my favorite part! I can’t wait to go back!
The camp is so well organized and they keep the kids busy! It’s the perfect balance of prayer and fun! They learnt about Jesus, how to pray, mass and even adoration and worship but also had fun, played games, did high-adventure activities, swam and danced!
For a glimpse into her week, watch this video!
Goals
We had three main goals for Marlee when signing her up for this camp. Growing her faith and relationship with Jesus, gain courage to step out over her fears, and to meet new people and make friends. To say she accomplished all three is an understatement!
Faith
We picked up her on Friday and her heart was on fire for Jesus! She had Prayer Lab each day where they taught her the best ways to pray and she even said for the first time ever, she felt God answering her! (Chills!) She went to adoration for the first time and was prayed over and prayed for her new friends. She also learned some fun, new prayers. It was beautiful!
Courage
Our kids are all pretty reserved and don’t step out of the box much. They had so many high-adventure activities: rock climbing, zip lines, rope obstacle courses and more. I knew Marlee would be challenged and would maybe not do everything but we hoped she would try. Well, she did everything. At one point, during the high rope obstacle course, she almost didn’t do it. She was afraid and got teary-eyed with fear. Her councilor and friends encouraged her and she did it! She conquered her fears!
Friendship
Like I mentioned earlier, one of her best friends was able to go with her to camp…which was such a blessing! But these girls were put into a small group and they did all the activities and such together the entire time. They got so close and she made some great new friends! And thanks to technology they can easily keep in touch.
After her week at camp, Marlee has plans to go every year all the way through high school. Her heart is so on fire and I know she is going to bring along new people each year. If you have similar desires for your children as we do ours (and I think most do!) then we STRONGLY suggest sending your kids to CYSC!
