“Crooked Creek was one of the best weeks of my life,” senior Gianna Cuthbert said.
From typical camp games to speeches, unique to her experience, Cuthbert and other students came home with new friendships, and a changed perspective.
Several times a year, students from around the world join together in groups at one out of the 33 Young Life camps located all the way from Scotland to Texas. Throughout the time, campers are offered different experiences such as go-karting, backpacking in the mountains, kayaking, rock climbing, horseback riding, and much more while also learning the word of God.
“I feel like I’ve definitely gotten closer to God, because the people who are preaching want to speak [specifically] to students about it,” sophomore Harper Cordes said. “It’s not just a general idea, so it feels very specific, and I can connect to it a lot.”
Starting in 1941, Young Life, a Christian ministry, began. Dedicated to middle school, high school, and even college students in all 50 states in the U.S. and over 100 other countries, the mission of “introducing adolescents to Jesus Christ and helping them grow in their faith” began.
“So far, I can only say good things about it. It’s a great environment with people who want to learn about their faith and grow their relationship with God,” sophomore Ali Ibañez said. “It’s just a great community, and I recommend the people that haven’t gone to camp should definitely go.”
Jim Rayburn, the founder of Young Life, started the camping experience as a significant part of the program by setting up several Colorado ranches during the early makings of Young Life. With all 33 camps across the world, the organization strives for a consistent experience, clean environment, and quality food.
“I would say the relationships I made with other people were really significant to my life, and I got to know people through God which is not something you get to do often,” Ibanez said. “Also, just getting to spend your weekend or week away from your usual environment and spending it in an area that’s solely based on growing your relationship with God is very life-changing, and I just remember coming back home and literally just being so on fire for God after camp.”
In 1953, Young Life became international, and, since then, has have been successful in growth. Within the camps, there are some specifically for families, kids with special needs, and there are opportunities for adults to visit and enjoy camp as an “adult guest.”
“A really cool piece of Young Life is that staff who are doing ministry in their area throughout the year goes and makes ministry for others [outside their area],” Young Life Four Points area director Marissa Ruiz said. “We all go on camp trips but then we also go serve and make camp happen for other people. It’s really fun to live with other people for a month.”
The camp isn’t something supported by from government funding, and each location is funded differently. Sometimes, the land can come from a donor, which is someone who owned land and decided to give it to the organization. Every single location has a group of staff who live there year-long and allow the camp to function.
“I feel like specifically for Vandegrift that Young Life camping culture has really been built over the past six years,” Ruiz said. “What I mean by that is years ago, seven to eight years before we became our own area, there were a couple of people who would go on camp trips, but really over the past six years, we’ve built this culture behind camping where there’s a lot of tradition from Vandegrift, and people are expecting the next camp trip, and that’s kind of kinda why we’ve built it a year-round camp experience.”
CAs of currently, students are offered a variety of camps. Underclassmen are able to go to “Polar bear,” a weekend at Lone Hollow Ranch; Vanderpool, TX; and Crooked Creek, a week-long camp in Fraser, CO. Upperclassmen are able to attend Wilderness Ranch for a six-day backpacking adventure in the San Juan Mountains of southwest Colorado and “Ski Trip,” a four-day camp where you stay at Crooked Creek.
“Something I took home from this trip was a refreshed mind as well as an accomplished soul,” sophomore Ryce Jacobs said. “I went home from this trip with almost a clean start, and I feel like this is due to the minimal phone contact and more real conversations.”
Over 18,000 people are considered a part of the Young Life committee. Volunteering plays a major part of how Young Life is created, and there are several key roles to it, including area director, the person who organizes the area’s Young Life group. Ruiz is assigned to work at camp during a month of summer to partake as camp director, speaker, or someone who oversees the work crew. Work crew is a volunteering opportunity, aimed towards high schoolers who want to be a part of creating the “life changing” experience for a month at camp.
“It was truly so eye-opening and just a new experience. There was a night where everyone was able to stand up and share their testimony, not like a big scene, but just to share their story,.” Cuthbert said. “I can’t remember word for word, but there was a few amazing testimonies, just kids who came to that camp, who have never once been to church, never once even knew what God was, and that week itself changed them. I think that was a great thing to hear and knowing that them coming on that camp trip changed their life.”
