By: Cami Wheeler, Shield Editor
This summer, NRCA’s Fun in the Son camp is the week of June 3-7. Each year, high school students can volunteer for community service hours or money for their choir or senior trip. There are multiple stations where high school students can serve, including arts and crafts, games, snacks, Bible story, as well as group counselor and Fun in the Son leadership team.
High schoolers often help year after year and enjoy interacting with the campers in each role they play throughout the week. “I was a camp counselor last year. My job was to help [the campers] out and guide them around the different tasks of the day,” said sophomore Josh Brown.
Often high school students learn much about themselves and others through serving at the camp. “I got to develop some useful leadership skills and learn how to address problems. It showed me how to help people in the best way possible,” Brown shared. “I think that my kids truly did learn a lot from the events throughout the day. It was incredible to see some of the creativity in these kids. They were all so unique, and that was a great thing to experience. Going in to be a counselor, I was hoping to just have a good time with these kids. It was my goal to be a good role model but also show them you can have fun and learn. I am extremely excited to serve this year. I am hoping to be a counselor again.”
Emma Mathes, a junior, has served in Bible story for the last two years and is excited to serve again this year. She enjoys teaching campers about God and his Word. “It’s fun getting to interact with all of the kids, and they enjoy it. “For me personally, I’ve always taught Bible, so I’ve gotten to interact with all the different age groups, and I’ve gotten to see the differences and what each one likes and what works with each age group, which is fun,” Mathes said.
NRCA Art Teacher Leisha Hodgson plans and supervises many of the activities for Fun in the Son each year. While the high school students have guidelines for lesson topics, they also have the opportunity to be creative within those limits. Mathes said, “Mrs. Hodgson gives us a general lesson that she wants us to go over each day, so we do [a lesson on] Jesus’ death and resurrection. We [also] usually do [a lesson on] Creation. We get freedom to do our own spin on it. I always try to come up with a question at the beginning that I relate to [the Bible story] that will engage them. Then we will do the lesson. Sometimes we watch a video or do an art craft, and then sometimes we’ll play a game that relates to the lesson.”
The praise and worship team is another role where high schoolers can serve during Fun in the Son. Beverly Wrobel, a junior, served on the praise and worship team last year. “I was on the [praise and] worship team, so I sang at the assemblies and also taught music class. Some of the kids were really excited about music. Some of the others weren’t, but it was really cool to see them warm up to the music as they had more time with us. I really love music, so it’s amazing to see young kids learn to love it like I do. Just teaching kids to love music is the main impact I wanted to have with them,” Wrobel said.
Both high schoolers and campers are looking forward to having a lot of fun and getting to make new friends and memories that they can carry with them into next year.
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