This summer God provided some excellent leadership at Camp Victory. Our intern staff was amazing. Each class was exciting and engaging and you could see from the interactions between staff and kids that the children were loved and blessed by being part of summer camp. Not only did we have some great interns but our StreetLeader staff really grew throughout the summer. The example the staff set rubbed off on the kids.
At the end of each summer we close with a camp wide celebration called All Camp Day. I typically use this as an opportunity to give my teenage staff some creative leadership opportunities to teach the kids a song or dance that they’ve created but on Monday of the last week of camp I got a real surprise from one of my 5th graders. Janera came up to me in the morning and said “Miss Bethany, I was up till 1 this morning planning steps for us to perform on all camp day. I have three so far. Can I have some time to teach some of the other kids so we can have a step team?” I told her yes and helped her find some time and space to run her practices but really she did everything. She taught 8 other kids five different step cheers and led performances in front of parents, friends, and staff two days in a row! Janera has been coming to camp for the past three summers and the hard work, creativity, and leadership that she has seen demonstrated over the years motivated her to want to help represent our camp well. I was so impressed by her initiative and really encouraged by the work God is doing in her life through the examples she sees.
By Bethany Wolstenholme, Camp Victory Director
