By Megan Young
Associate Editor
The calendar may have turned the page to fall, but this summer is one many who attended Camp Garaywa will never forget. During eight weeks of camps, Garaywa hosted 949 campers with the help of 30 cabin leaders, resulting in four professions of faith and one rededication.
One of those professions of faith came from Shameria Kelly, a student camper and member of Arise Church in Clinton.
Kelly attends Garaywa every summer. “She loves this place,” said Anna Irwin, fellow Arise Church member and a Garaywa ministry assistant.
Garaywa provides a place for children and youth to learn more about Jesus and missions while participating in a variety of activities, including swimming, morning devotions, a ropes course, Bible study, crafts, worship, missionary visits and recreation. That fun, relaxed atmosphere helps campers open up in a way they might not at home.
“The Shameria I know at church can be quiet, can be reserved,” said Irwin. “But Shameria at camp is a whole different person. She’s comfortable here. This is her element right here, for sure. It is so fun to see that.”
On the last night of camp this summer, the student campers were separated from the younger campers for an intentional time aimed at digging deeper into the Bible. One of Kelly’s cabin leaders, Maggie Smith, helped remind the students of their true identity in Christ.
“We talked about how the world will say many things about you, but none of them are true,” said Smith, a second-year cabin leader from Harmony Church in Crystal Springs. “And so we took a mirror and wrote things that the Bible says are true, and it was a permanent marker, so no erasing it.”
During the Bible study, Kelly and another one of her cabin mates accepted Jesus as their savior. Irwin ran into her just after and could immediately discern a difference in her demeanor.
“It wasn’t just the emotion of the night, because that can happen easily,” said Irwin. “But it was like, you just knew by her body language, by just the way she reacted — this was like a legit decision. It wasn’t, ‘I’m here at camp, so I’ll make this kind of decision.’”
Irwin and the other members of Arise Church continue to see the fruit of that decision as Kelly’s relationship with Jesus has grown and developed since camp. Her fondness for Garaywa even led her to request to be baptized in the camp’s pool.
Arise Church, which meets at the YMCA in Clinton, typically baptizes its members in the pool there, so leaders fully supported her request by holding their Sunday worship service at Garaywa on Sept. 21 — the last day of summer, fittingly.
Following the service, the entire Arise Church family watched as Kelly was baptized by her father at the very place she came to know Jesus.
It was a moment that Kelly’s cabin leader, Smith, did not want to miss. She traveled back from Crystal Springs just for the occasion.
“One thing about this job is that it’s very hard and sometimes you worry that what you’re doing doesn’t matter and it doesn’t count,” said Smith. “But whenever you get to see the fruit of your job, it is awesome.”
Garaywa cabin leaders make an eternal impact on campers every summer. Applications for summer staff open in October. For questions about summer staff, email Hannah Counts, program director, at hcounts@garaywa.org.
Garaywa is supported by gifts to the Margaret Lackey State Offering. For more information, visit the offering’s website.
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