Fun, friendship, fellowship and faith have all been on the menu at Winnipeg’s Heritage Park Temple Summer Kids Kamp this past summer. An all-day, all-summer-long Kids' Day Kamp is something that the corps (and no other church organization in the district) had ever ventured to do before. The camp ran from 8am-4pm, Monday to Friday, from July 2-August 22 and attracted more than 65 kids.
The venture really started on New Year’s Eve when corps members conducted a prayer tour of the district. They prayed that the Lord would help them to reach into the community─especially to the kids─in order to share the Gospel and help the needy. The concept of a Kids' Day Kamp was soon envisaged and a team was drawn together to run it.
During the month of June the team was involved in all sorts of promotional activities. Each team member had their car painted with information and contact details for the camp. The Kids' Kamp cars (or should it be Kars?) quickly became a familiar site around the city.
Another hugely successful advertising ploy was community barbeques. During these events free food, fun and games were on offer to whoever wanted them. These activities were so well received by the neighbourhoods targeted that they almost became community events in their own right.
When the camp actually started, the children (and team) had all sorts of fun activities to participate in. They used the facilities of Camp Woodlands and Camp Manitou for activities such as archery, wall climbing, swimming, canoeing, slip ‘n slide, ropes, zip-line, crazy-golf etc. Other popular day trips were to Fun Mountain (a water park), Manitoba Museum, the zoo and the beach. The camp program was so fun-packed that Major Susan Van Duinen, Divisional Commander, made two surprise visits only to find that kids were away having fun elsewhere.
By far the most popular camp activity was the daily praise and worship sessions. Over the summer period 22 children knelt at the Mercy Seat and made decisions for the Lord (the majority of these were first time decisions). Parents have come into the corps building just to observe the kids during the praise and worship times. Apparently the kids were going home and singing the praise songs to their parents and asking questions about what the words meant. The parents, in turn, wanted to know what was going on at the camp that was making their kids so interested in “religious stuff.”
The Kids' Kamp team, and indeed the entire corps, give God all the praise, thanks and glory for the wonderful events they experienced during this venture. New fall programming initiatives will give emphasis to a missional mandate of keeping these children connected to ongoing corps ministry.
Top photo: The Kids' Kamp meets with Major Susan Van Duinen; middle: The community block party is fun for all ages; bottom: Cindy Moar (along with 38 other campers) receives distinction from Major Julie Slous into the HPT Hall of Fame as a result of her involvement with the corp's first community daycamp initiative. Cindy has become an active member of HPT since this time.