Here’s a letter I wrote today to our high school ministry parents the last night of camp – if you do something like this already, post it in the comments, and if not use this as a base for one from you next year after camp. Enjoy!
Hi parents!
It is 1AM and I’m just getting back to my cabin to pack up and get ready to head home tomorrow morning. Your kids are doing the same thing right now after a hilarious late-night talent show — the finale of a truly great week!
I wanted to share some highlights with you before we make it back into town tomorrow afternoon. We’ve been up at Camp Ojai (www.foresthome.org/ojaivalley) all week with the theme Love: Revolution. Our speaker was Afshin Ziafat (www.afshinziafat.com), a former Muslim who accepted Christ several years ago. He has a powerful story he shared on the opening night — and continued each of the following evenings to challenge students to love God, share their own story and invite friends to church. The music leader was Tim Timmons (www.timmonsmusic.com), our guest from Mariner’s Church this week. He’s done an amazing job helping us be grateful for each day of life, which was especially poignant after sharing his battle with cancer.
I’ve encouraged your student to spend time with you on Friday night — before they jump into their world. I asked them to escape with you for the evening to talk about camp. I can’t wait for you to hear their stories and share their decisions with you. If it is at all possible, grab dinner and talk about camp together — here’s a few things you could talk about, a few questions to get you started:
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Josh Griffin has been in youth ministry for 15+ years and serves as the High School Pastor at Saddleback Church. [
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Geoff Stewart serves the Jr / Sr High School Pastor at Peace Portal Alliance Church in Surrey B.C.
Sorry to be really thick: how do you get it to them before they meet their child at the bus? Do you email or have you pre-written and posted it before camp?
Looks a really interesting idea, and as we’re off to camp in 8 days time, one I might just be able to implement before we go!
Simple … I wrote it last night at 1AM … and entered all of the parent email addresses by hand (I didn’t know we didn’t have them in digital form until I was committed to the idea) until 3AM … then pushed send from camp, which happened to have limited Wi-Fi. I’m pumped about this!
JG
This would be great idea, am sure there are many parents and adult camperswho would like to see notes from camp. Let me know what I can do to help implement this, am aways willing just not very able hehehehe has someting to do with intelegence or the lack of! Chief
Just as a follow-up … this letter has gotten an amazing response from parents. Woo-hoo! JG