Heartland Baptist Assn's Youth Camp
Jane Lacy, Director

Another year of the Camps for our Children and our Youth has come and gone, for some it will be their last time as a youth camper as they have graduated from high school. . We hope that as the Leaders, we have done our job in teaching them about the Mighty God we serve. When they turn 21 we hope they will return and be cabin leaders or serve in other ways to help us continue to have this camp. Sometimes it is a tough job to work at camp with the campers, and you do get tired, but it is so rewarding to know you've made a difference in so many lives. We had 57 decisions while at camp, 5 Salvations, 22 Rededications, 27 Special Prayer, 3 Special Service. In CAMP LIFE and GROUND ZERO YOUTH CAMPS we had over 200 campers and adults in attendance. It was one of the best camps I've directed in a while.  The campers were a great bunch and the adults were wonderful.  We had a real good time with the campers and they do love the water fights we have every year. I convinced some of the junior high that I was only cooling them down by turning the water hose on them. I had to turn it on myself every now and then so they wouldn't dump more water on me.  It was fun way to end another Camp.   JANE LACY, DIRECTOR

New Life Baptist Assn's Camps
Brian Sparks, Director

The New Life Baptist Association had 97 students and 43 warrior/workers attend church camp. It was a great week of discovering God’s amazing power as we looked at the life of Daniel. Everyone was challenged to be different than the world, bold in sharing our faith, and willing to serve God.
We give God all the praise and honor for 9 salvation and 3 rededication decisions. The children’s camp pastor was Paul McKim and the youth camp pastor was Tate Walker. The youth camp had Jim Pearce as their Bible Study teacher and the children’s camp Bible Study was lead by Glenn Scott. This year every student was given a “field manual,” or learning guide, that they used during the week and then they had those Bible lessons to take home with them.
God was so gracious to us during the week with absolutely picture perfect weather. The new giant inflatable water slide was a blast this year as well as the laser tag and obstacle course. The swimming pool, as always, was a big hit and so were the hiking trails with the pinnacle of the hike being the big hill climb or slide (depending on which way you approached the hill). To God be the glory for a safe and fun week.   BRIAN SPARKS, DIRECTOR

Linn Livingston Baptist Assn's Youth Camp
Amelia Holder, Director

LLBA Youth Camp was held July 5-9 this summer and 123 campers rushed to the Grand Oaks Campgrounds to find out more about God’s plan for their lives.  Through cabin devotions, breakout sessions, activities and messages we focused around the scriptures of Jeremiah.  Campers were challenged to make missions a part of their everyday lives, plan out how they would tell their testimonies to others and TELL it to others, along with the Good News.  Once again we visited the Baptist Home and other nursing homes and got lots of good reports back about the residents enjoying the camper’s time there.  A new breakout session, Stump the Pastor, was offered this year and the hardest part was to put an end to it!  Campers enjoyed quizzing local pastors with their Bible questions.  Other breakout/class sessions that were offered this year were: Why We Believe What We Believe; How to be ON MISSION; The Life of Daniel; Missions is Part of the Plan; HOW to Share the Plan; and Confidence with the Spirit.

This year we brought Cole Calloway-Hodson, from the Centralia area, to be our speaker/camp pastor and God gave us outstanding messages through him that triggered many thoughts, discussions, prayers and counseling sessions.  Through the week we were blessed with 10 salvation decisions, 19 re-dedications and 114 campers were counseled or came forward for prayer—many making life-changing decisions.  Our evening services of praise and worship were equally as blessed with the sounds and songs of THE SPARK, a praise band from Wisconsin.

Youth Camp would not have been possible without the hands on help of several people.  I would like to personally thank every one of the staff members for giving up their time, love these youth and serving God in such a mighty and effective way.  Making up our staff were: Tim Huff, Co-Director/Recreation Leader; Jeanne Davis, camp cook; Margaret McQueen & Pam Minor, camp dishwashers; Linda Neely, camp nurse; Pastor Brandon Smith, snack shack; Brenda Neil, Charmaine Huff, Trisha Cohen, Pam Murrain, Brandy Brown, Rhonda Uptain and Lauren Holder, girls cabin leaders; Pastor Richard Davis, Pastor David Gouge, Pastor Scott Mumper, Caleb Wilson, Dan Neil, John Carver and Jerald Morlock, guys cabin leaders; Judy Toops, Tom Schallert, Pastor Alan Brock, Pastor Jason Moore, Pastor Tim Huff, Lauren Holder, Gabrielle Holder and Kendra Beaver, breakout session leaders; and a huge thanks to Donna Zell and Don & Jolette Boyer for their help making camp possible.

Jeremiah 29:11                       AMELIA HOLDER, DIRECTOR

Linn Livingston Baptist Assn's Children's Camp
David Gouge & Brian Baker, Co-Director

Children’s Camp 2011 was a great experience and success in spite of being understaffed on both the male and female sides of the campground.  We had 126 boys and girls as campers and 35 men and women as camp staff; only 11 of which were Cabin Leaders and 12 of which were Junior Cabin Leaders (or CITs).  David Blakely, Pastor at Park Baptist in Brookfield, served as our Camp Pastor and Brent Isom headed up a Camp Band consisting of 4 other young men and women from First Baptist Church-Marceline and Bethany Baptist Church-Marceline. 

Our camp theme of “The Biggest Loser”based on Matthew 16:25was well received as we encouraged the boys and girls to lose themselves and this world so that they might gain more of God in their lives.  There were 6 professions of faith and salvation, 2 rededications of faith in Christ, and several others who made faith decisions as they dealt with God during the week.  Our camp staff was wonderful and they worked together very well to make everything go smoothly and successfully.  We are looking forward to Children’s Camp 2012 which will fall sometime between June 29 and July 6 depending on the Camp Committee’s decision on how best to handle the 4thof July and Camp.

Next year’s camp will feature a theme centered on FREEDOM IN CHRIST to coincide with the celebration of our Nation’s independence!  It is imperative that we have more staff in the coming year for camp so please consider making an investment in our kids by coming to camp in 2012.  Consider it your personal mission trip and seize the opportunity to change lives for Jesus!  Thank you for your time and thank you to each of you who contributed to Children’s Camp 2011 in any way!                           REV. DAVID GOUGE, CO DIRECTOR WITH REV.BRIAN BAKER

Thousand Hills Baptist Assn's Children's Camp
Gene Xander, Director

Children’s camp was held at Grand Oaks Baptist Assembly June 6-10, 2011.   The theme was “Citizens of the Kingdom”.  JoAnne LaRue spoke at the worship services and kept the children’s attention very effectively with her chalk talks, her ventriloquist puppet, and fun power points and inspiring messages.  She taught about Daniel and presented a nice balance of opportunities to accept Christ as well as commit to be a “Daniel” as a citizen for the Kingdom. Tim Cason led the music and blessed us with his limitless musical abilities on multiple instruments.  Tim also shared what Christ was doing in his life currently, and related very well with the children all week. 

Bible studies were led by Daniel Gibson, Martha Perkins, Sandra  Attey, and a 4-person team of collegiate Summer Missionaries.  Missions explorations were led by Daniel Gibson- El Salvador, Sandra Attey – overseas, and Lori Landon-being a missionary right where you live.  Our camp nurse was Wendy Wilson, and she was kept very busy and did a fantastic job!

Afternoon recreation included a bounce house, fishing led by Missouri Dept of Conservation staff, swimming, crafts, and court games/free time.   We were able to rent the Missouri Baptist Block Party trailer and use the bounce house included in that.  Instead of sno-cones, we went with the simple and easier to manage freeze pops – which went very quickly on those hot days.  The weather that week was hot, but we were blessed to be able to be outside every day, swimming and enjoying the fresh air.  We did have a time of bad weather on Thursday evening during the beginning of the talent show, when the tornado sirens for Chillicothe went off with a tornado that was several miles past us and moving away from us.   Don Boyer was excellent in providing us information and guidance and the staff all were wonderful in helping the children to work through any fears and soon all the kids were laughing and enjoying the talent show as the evening went on.

Evening activities included swimming, talent show and a campfire.  The talent show was a wonderful time of encouragement and laughter and smiles.

We were able to have 4 collegiate summer missionaries from the Missouri Baptist Convention come and dive in with us.  They were a wonderful blessing, from sharing their lives with the kids all thru the days, to assisting as cabin leaders, bible study leaders, kitchen servers and cooks, and more. 

We had 104 total campers with 76 being children.  By far the best part of the week was seeing 17 children accept Christ!!            REV. GREG XANDER, DIRECTOR

Thousand Hills Baptist Assn's Youth Camp
David Cook, Director

When I think about Youth Camp this year, there are many things that I think about.  One thing I think about is the great people who led the Bible studies this year.  Sandra Attey (FBC Milan) led the High School girls, Cheryl Flaim (HSBC) led the Middle School girls, Russell Huff (FBC Green City) led the High School boys and Daniel Gibson (Fellowship) led the Middle School boys. The theme for the weekend was “Kingdom Citizenship – this world is not my home”.  I developed one of our Bible studies based on Daniel 6, which encouraged the kids to think about the life they are living and letting it be different than those around them. Russell Huff developed the other Bible study based on 1 Peter, which reminded students that we are considered aliens in this world, and we should be different from the rest of the world. 

Another thing that I think about is how Charles Hunsaker (FBC Kirksville) was our camp pastor, and did a great job at preaching the word to the kids and challenging them to stand up for their faith.  The youth praise team from FBC Kirksville also did an awesome job in leading the worship at the camp.

I think about other special things that happened, such as when Carroll Walker (FBC Green City) came on Friday night and shared his archery skills as well as his testimony.  For those who don’t know Carroll, he lost an arm in a farming accident and so he shoots a bow and arrow with one arm with incredible accuracy!  On Saturday afternoon Greg Pitchford and Donnie Kamp (FBC Chillicothe) came and shared about their 2 week adventure in Africa helping missionaries there with AIDS education.  On Saturday afternoon, for those interested, Tammy Tingley (HSBC) took some kids on a hike and Danielle Dilday (FBC Kirksville) helped kids make a collage.  On Saturday evening we had some music around the campfire, and the Apostle John came and shared some stories about when he saw Jesus.

Overall we had 53 campers and 21 adults making a total of 74 campers.  There was one decision made for Christ and one rededication, and several kids went to their leader for prayer at different times.  A special thanks to Bro Bill for all his advice and support as well as Karen Elmore for all her patience and guidance during the time leading up to the camp.   DAVID COOK, DIRECTOR

St. Joseph Baptist Assn's Youth Camp
Don Beavers, Director

Saint Joseph Baptist Association Youth Camp was held June 20-24, 2011. The theme of this year’s camp was “EIKON”. We focused on the Book of Colossians and how Jesus Christ is the image of the invisible God (Colossians 1:15. One hundred sixty campers and 46 staff attended camp this year. 11 decisions for salvation and 9 for rededication were recorded. Steven Bradshaw, Youth Minister at Frederick Boulevard was camp pastor. Seth Mason, Worship Pastor at Missouri Valley led our worship. Kitchen leader was Mike Owsley from First Baptist, Albany. Assistant director was David Long, First Baptist Stanberry. Don Beavers from Calvary Baptist was director. Camp was great this year. Thanks to all who served. We continue to be challenged to staff the camp. The new requirements for background screening provide another challenge. However, God richly blessed this year. We had an adequate staffing level in all areas of the camp. DON BEAVERS, DIRECTOR

St. Joseph Baptist Assn's Children's Camp
Micah Fries, Director

Children’s Camp , August 1-5, had the theme of “Heroes” and was based on Hebrews 1 and 2. Micah Fries and David Kaster headed up this group which, as usual, nearly filled the Grand Oaks facility with 200 children and 70 workers. Hot weather took its toll on many, but volunteers in reserve came forward to join the team as the week went on. Children learned about living as by faith in God. REV. MICAH FRIES, DIRECTOR

Missouri Valley Baptist Assn's Youth Camp
Margaret McCampel & Connie Kendrick, Co-Director

We had a great week at Youth Camp '11. Our theme was Any 3, witnessing to anyone, anywhere, anytime. We had 5 salvations, and countless rededications. We had 87 campers, and 34 staff. The Hannibal LaGrange University Camp Team, New Edition was a wonderful addition to our camp. They did skits, lead the worship music, and brought the messages. We give a big thank you to all the churches sending their youth to us for the week, to all the staff who volunteered their time also. The camp committee is already making plans for next year, June 18-22, 2012. All the praise goes to God! MARGARET MCCAMPEL & CONNIE KENDRICK, CO-DIRECTORS