Impact Report | North Georgia Camp & Retreat Ministries

GROW PARTICIPANTS
Camp Ministry Experiences
for with and at Your Church
Since 1925, we’ve offered small-group, Christian camping programs
in Dahlonega, GA. In 2008, Glisson launched a traveling day camp
pilot program to bring camp ministry to more people in more places
throughout the North Georgia Conference. Launched as a stand-alone
sibling ministry in 2013, Grow Day Camps takes camp ministry just
about anywhere.
Archery, nature study, belayed tree climbing (when available) and time
in worship and study outside are all core to the experience. Activities
contribute to learning new skills, appreciating God’s creation, building
Christian community and experiencing worship in new ways – all to
support local congregations in nurturing Christian discipleship.
In 2015, Grow Day Camps partnered with 37 churches to host 32 day
camp sites serving 928 campers with at least one site in each of the
North Georgia Conference’s 12 regional districts. Each Grow site is
customized for that specific church and surrounding community. After
decades of being limited to invitations – “Y’all come up to camp!” –
Grow takes camp ministry on the road, making it available to more
people in more places in our Conference than ever before. And it just
keeps growing!
2013 2014 2015
364 604 928
Demetrius’
Grow
Story
How does day camp make you
feel about faith and church?
“It makes me want to get into
it more.”
For the past three summers, 10-year-old Demetrius Meadows has
participated in Grow Day Camp at St. Luke UMC in Augusta, GA.
“I love the activities like kickball, parachute, and the crafts too,” he said.
St. Luke has served the Harrisburg neighborhood of downtown
Augusta for over a century. A lot can happen in 100 years. Much of
Harrisburg has fallen on hard times. St. Luke has not been immune to
that. When Rev. Luther Felder arrived, a handful of long-time members
were discussing closing the church. It was children like Demetrius who
kept the doors open.
“St. Luke has seen as its mission for this church to serve the children of
Harrisburg. In order to do that, we had to be here,” Felder shared with
the Augusta Chronicle. “The members said we want to stay here until
our last gasp to try to help address the needs of the children in the
community.”
Grow Day Camps was designed to take camp ministry just about
anywhere. In 2013, we found out what anywhere looked like: archery in
an alleyway. The team arrived with its patented “camp-in-a-box” trailer
full of program equipment, surveyed the site to plan what all would
happen where, and then fell in love with the children of Harrisburg just
like the members of St. Luke.
That came as no surprise to Marsha Jones, St. Luke’s director of
outreach. She had seen it all before and particularly with the members
of nearby Trinity-on-the-Hill UMC.
GROW DAYCAMPS
“Trinity has come alongside St. Luke as a sister church. The St. Luke
community in Harrisburg sits right next door to the Trinity community
in Summerville, so we are neighbors. We, the poor community, are
neighbors to Trinity, the affluent community. We both feel that we are
called by God to serve each other and that we have a lot to learn from
each other.”
In 2013 and 2014, Trinity provided lodging for Grow’s staff as well as
church volunteers to help make lunches every day. In 2015, Trinity
became even more involved by fully funding the St. Luke day camp site
as a local missions opportunity. It’s become a beautiful multi-ministry
partnership, helping further the transformation of a church that nearly
closed its doors to become a transformative presence for the children
and families of Harrisburg.
“Grow is one more tool for us to use as an outreach to families in
our neighborhood,” Marsha said. “Since there are no parks or free
community centers located in our community, Grow helps us provide a
safe, nurturing and fun environment.”
Demetrius’ father, Chris, concurred: “I liked that Demetrius was around
positive people and I liked that he had a place to go. He liked being
around the kids and counselors and he liked learning about something
new.”
“I think that Demetrius likes going to day camp because he knows that
the counselors are there to spend time with him and they care enough
to have a plan,” Marsha said. “When I asked him what his favorite thing
about camp was he said his counselor, Gabby.”
When asked how he feels about day camp, Demetrius said, “It makes
me feel better about my friends and good about myself.”
His father summarized the impact day camp has had on Demetrius
these past three summers: “Day camp has helped him learn to be with
other kids and makes him wiser about all kinds of things. He definitely
has learned about God and the Bible.”
Grow Day Camps 2016 Schedule
Week 1 Week 2 Week 3 Week 4 Week 5 Week 6 Week 7 Week 8
June 6-10 June 13-17 June 20-24 June 27-July 1 July 4-8 July 11-15 July 18-22 July 25-29
Young Harris UMC
(Annual Conference)
Smyrna First UMC
Midway UMC Auburn
Powder Springs
Area UMCs
Flat Shoals UMC
Ellijay UMC + Blue
Ridge UMC
St. Andrew UMC
Carrollton
College Park
Area UMCs
Marrieta First UMC Monticello FUMC Rock Spring UMC Kennesaw UMC St. Luke UMC Lawrenceville Area Johns Creek UMC St. Timothy UMC
TBD Cokes Chapel UMC Varnell UMC
Trinity on the
Hill UMC
Marvin UMC Comer UMC Cumming First UMC Dahlonega UMC
TBD Mt. Zion UMC TBD TBD TBD Mt. Vernon UMC Trinity UMC Rome Peachtree City UMC
North Georgia Camp & Retreat Ministries 11 IMPACT REPORT · 2015 IMPACT REPORT · 2015 12
North Georgia Camp & Retreat Ministries