150 Accept Christ at Upward Camps in San Diego
By Meredith Day
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Kids enjoy encouraging each other at one Upward camp.
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Upward sports camps have made a huge splash in San Diego, and, looking back, it was evident from the very beginning that this summer was going to be the culmination of years of partnership between Upward and Strategic Focus Cities.
In June, the first camp of the summer took place at San Miguel Community Church in Chula Vista. Last year, 70 kids attended San Miguel’s first Upward week, so Pastor Chuck Rheam was shooting for a few more this summer.
“We were hoping for 100,” he said.
What they got instead was a crowd of 197, and hundreds of opportunities to share the Gospel with campers throughout the week. Fourteen more camps followed suit in June and July; by the end of the summer, 1,159 kids had learned basketball, cheerleading and soccer skills from volunteer coaches, and 150 of those kids had made professions of faith in Jesus Christ.
Sharing spiritual truth with campers is foundational to Upward; coaches work throughout the week to build relationships with the kids so that they earn the right to share the Gospel. Each day, every team takes a break from sports to learn about God’s plan for their lives during a short devotional. This summer, campers learned about how God sees people, and how they’re valuable pieces of a puzzle because they were created in His image.
“He put us on Earth because we are a masterpiece,” said one of the campers at San Miguel when he recalled what he learned about Jesus while at camp.
Many kids who attend an Upward camp in San Diego may not learn about God anywhere else, said Jean Ball, a volunteer from Pennsylvania who worked with San Miguel during their camp.
“Sports helps you to reach a lot of kids that you wouldn’t reach through something like Vacation Bible School. It gets lots of kids that are interested in sports but don’t have that Christian background.”
Ball and her team from New Creation Community Church in Dover, PA, were just one of many partnering teams that helped make Upward in San Diego a reality. Later in the summer, Shoreline Baptist Church in Fountain Valley, Ca., worked with Pathways Community Church to host 172 kids at the church’s second-annual Upward camp. One of the Shoreline coaches fit in especially well with the campers: 12-year-old Olivia Ortiz coached kids in kindergarten through 3rd grade, teaching basketball skills and leading by example.
“Because she’s younger, the kids want to be like her; they relate to her,” said Dan Willard, Shoreline’s group leader. “They want to be more Christ-like, like she is.”
That kind of influence is key to what Upward is all about, said Pathways’ camp coordinator, Leslie Ratliff.
“The amount of seed planting we’re able to do is incredible.”
To read profiles of Upward volunteers and campers, go to www.visionsandiego.com. For more information about Upward Unlimited, go to www.upward.org.
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