A Guest Post by Ashley Havemeier, Mission Staff & Capernaum Team Leader for Northeast Grand Rapids Young Life
This Summer, Northeast Grand Rapids Capernaum experienced camp in a whole new way. We attended Capernaum Discipleship Camp held at Hope College. We spent four days together learning, serving, singing, dancing, and living the college dorm life.
Our friends with diverse abilities were reminded that they have value and gifts to share with others. They served their neighbors by bagging popcorn for Kids Food Basket and creating sick bags for a local shelter in Holland. Our friends participated in teamwork to accomplish hard things. They also worked individually and created hand-written notes for the sick.
Not only did our friends grow in the ways they physically can serve others, but they also grew spiritually as they learned about the 7 Vertical Habits. Our Capernaum friends learned that it is okay and important to ask God, “Why?”, to ask Him for help, to thank Him, to love Him, and to say, “I’m sorry.” Our friends practiced doing all of these habits and more throughout the week and during cabin time.
One of the most impactful pieces of this trip was the inclusion into the “typical” lifestyle of an 18-20-something-year-old. Our friends stayed in the dorms of Hope College. They ate at the cafeteria. They put on their backpacks and walked from building to building, classroom to classroom. Walking into our friends’ dorm rooms at night and seeing a group of girls piled onto two bunks, laughing, and sharing snacks was such a beautiful picture of inclusion in a lifestyle that many of us take for granted.
Our friends are valuable, they are worthy, they are able, and they have so many gifts to share. Discipleship camp encompassed all these things.
DID YOU KNOW?
>> Capernaum is an outreach and discipleship ministry of Young Life that reaches friends in middle and high school with diverse abilities.
>> In the Western Great Lakes Region, you can find Capernaum ministries in the following areas: Eastern Ottawa, Greater Holland, Central Grand Rapids, Northeast Grand Rapids, Southwest Grand Rapids, Portage, and Southwest Michigan. For more information, contact Regional Capernaum Coordinator, Sara Webb.
>> You can FOLLOW Capernaum Young Life in the Western Great Lakes Region on Facebook or Instagram.
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