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Make an impact on kids

outreach-friendship - YouthWhen you send children to Tshimakain Creek Camp, you’re giving them the opportunity to discover God’s love, their own worth, and how life can be an amazing adventure.  You’re enabling them to leave the city and see sights  they might not otherwise see.  But the real value of a week at Tshimakain Creek Camp – the reason we are asking you to sponsor as many children as you can again this year – is that, while there, they experience love, beauty, trustworthy people, and adventure for themselves.  And what they experience, they understand.  What they experience sticks with them long after camp is over.  Denny Roach, camp director, put it like this: “Experience is a rope thrown to us – something we can hold onto.”

Stories from Tshimakain Creek Camp:

  • Nick was big for his age, a bit out of shape and didn’t have much upper body strength. He faced an 11-foot wall. The goal for him and his cabin mates was to get everyone to the other side. Several of them had already made it over and were shouting back words of encouragement to Nick.  Nick shook his head.  He was too big.  They were too small.  The wall was too high.  There was no way. He was sure to fail, and then the other kids would all make fun of him. Only. . . that’s not the way it happened.  For five full minutes, the other kids encouraged Nick to try.  They reached back over the wall and grabbed his arms. His counselor gave him a leg up, and working together, the team got Nick over the wall. They got everybody over the wall.

    On the other side, Nick cried.  He just couldn’t believe he had made it.  People had helped him, and he had made it.
  • Kayla’s mother struggles with a drug addiction.  She doesn’t know her biological father. She’s had two stepdads, and she and her siblings have not always been able to live at home. In 7th and 8th grades, Kayla turned for comfort to what she saw immediately available all around her – drugs and alcohol.  She started down a path which she now views as destructive.  “I got a quarter of the way down that path, backed up and came back.”

    A big part of Kayla’s reversal involved her experience at Tshimakain Creek Camp, a ministry of the Union Gospel Mission.  She had fun, to be sure. (The garbage can game – involving cold oatmeal and chocolate syrup – was her favorite.)  But she also experienced the love of Christ and discovered a whole new path she hadn’t seen before – a path that involved hope for a bright future with quality relationships.  Kayla headed down that path with enthusiasm – meeting with leaders on a weekly basis after camp was over, pursuing new friendships, and looking for ways to give back.  This summer she’s headed to camp again, but this time to help counsel younger kids.

We’re planning to invite over 400 children from low-income communities to attend a week at Tshimakain Creek Camp for free this summer.  For only $89 per child, you can help make that possible and give children a week-long experience they can hold onto for the rest of their lives.  

If you decide to sponsor a child at camp, then there's one more thing we'd like you to do: Cut a piece of twine and wear it over the next few months to represent the rope you are throwing to a child.  Tie it on your wrist or display it in a prominent place as a way of reminding you to pray for the children and staff at camp. 

Help us build more cabins to serve more campers!
Materials and donations needed. 

Call Roy 509-953-2512 or Ken 509-258-4257 for more information.

 

When you send children to Tshimakain Creek Camp, you’re giving them the opportunity to discover God’s love, their own worth, and how life can be an amazing adventure.  You’re enabling them to leave the city and see sites they might not otherwise see.  But the real value of a week at Tshimakain Creek Camp – the reason we am asking you to sponsor as many children as you can again this year – is that, while there, they experience love, beauty, trustworthy people, and adventure for themselves.  And what they experience, they understand.  What they experience sticks with them long after camp is over.  Denny Roach, our camp director, put it like this: “Experience is a rope thrown to us – something we can hold onto.”