“You did not choose me, but I chose you,” Jesus assures us in John 15:16. To be chosen means that we are brought into a relationship with God not by anything we do, but only by the gifts of grace and faith. These are the truths that gave life to our past summer theme of “Gathered By Grace: Jesus Chooses Us.” We formed community, worshiped, prayed, played, sang, acted, crafted, swam, paddled, learned, ate, laughed, cried, and discussed through the ever-present grace of God in the midst of camp. God’s grace continues to carry us through the fall, winter, & spring as we welcome retreaters, conduct weekend camps, and prepare for another summer of ministry.
What is summer camp at Luther Point all about? The evaluations that campers returned tell us that their favorite two elements of camp are the counselors and the new friends they meet. Relationships are at the core of what the camp experience is all about. We had an amazing summer staff on hand to facilitate these relationships and to keep the campers healthy and safe. This past summer’s staff was exceptional and they served this camp and these campers selflessly. Without their dedication the ministry of camp wouldn’t be possible.
Our summer programs went very well overall and we tried some new things that ended up being positive additions. We added a Fine Arts camp that was well attended. We had our first ever Adult Women’s Canoe Trip, which many adventurous women took advantage off. It was also our first summer with our touring kayaks, which we took down the St. Croix River and through the Apostle Islands of Lake Superior. We also did our Sr. High off-site programming in partnership with Luther Park for the first time. This allowed Luther Point to send Sr. High on a Milwaukee Servant Trip, up to Ely to go houseboating and learn about leadership, and it allowed Luther Park Sr. High to join in on our Kayaking program. Our Day Camp program brought our staff out to area congregations once again to share camp in a VBS setting. Unfortunately, this was our third consecutive summer of decreasing congregational participation in the Day Camp program.
This was the first year of a new model for our year-round retreat programming. Last spring a retreat committee was formed with volunteers from both Luther Point and Luther Park to plan and promote joint retreats between the two camps. Our first joint retreat was held in September – a Choral Retreat that had just under 60 people in attendance. We are looking forward to continuing this partnership in order to offer strong year-round retreats.
This was also the first year of supporting a year-round ministry team. To be honest, the first year was a challenge. The partnership that we had made with Youth Encounter didn’t turn out as well as we had hoped and the team we had in place simply didn’t represent Luther Point the way we had intended. So, we are entering year two of our attempt at this year-round concept and it is going much, much better. With our new Impact365 team, we have dropped the Youth Encounter partnership and are going at it alone, making serving on summer staff a requirement for being on the team. In addition to being a resource for youth ministry in the area congregations, Impact365 is also serving as interns in the office.
The increased presence in our congregations is paramount to continuing to exist as a camp. After years of declining camper numbers, we are getting closer and closer to being less concerned with thriving and more concerned with simply surviving. Luther Point was founded 60 plus years ago because a group of people from your congregations got together and said that outdoor ministry was vital for the life of your congregation. I don’t think that this should be any different today. It might be easy to say that camp is becoming irrelevant and that an anti-technological place can’t keep up in an increasingly digital, post-modern world – but the reality is that we can point to hundreds of kids who grew in their faith lives through God’s work in this place last summer. These kids are leaving this place, heading back to your congregation with a renewed sense that God is real in their lives. We are in a vital partnership. Luther Point exits ONLY to strengthen the ministry of your congregation by forming faith and pointing to Christ.
Grace and Peace,
Jesse Weiss
Program Coordinator
