Just a bit over a year ago I took a trip up to the mountains of Big Bear w/ some friends (Phil & Becki Hendren) to meet some folks from Barefoot Republic, a ministry dedicated to speaking Jesus into the lives of kids by way of camps, summer camps, over night camps, and day camps. They were trying to start a summer day camp in California, and we were about to become a brand new church plant with ZERO resources, grateful to partner with people who’d help us bless our community with the love of Christ. This was a match that even ChristianMingle.com could not have better paired.
We dreamed, prayed, and worked hard to see how we could come together to bless our new community with the love of Christ. Families in Lynwood, Compton, Watts, and other surrounding neighborhoods would be given an opportunity to send their kids to our summer day camp to learn about Christ while getting into some awesome and fun activities like stomp, photography, song writing, arts & crafts, dance, drama, and even our version of “Making of the Band”. Well, God was so very gracious to us and made it happen! Here are some pictures and videos of that amazing week in which we had close to 90 kids registered and almost 40 volunteers.
For a church plant that is only 9 months old, this is unheard of! It is not because of ourselves but only by God and His providence. He sovereignly brought two groups of people together with the same heart and mind for reaching communities for Christ. Barefoot Republic is AWESOME! They are so great at what they do, RCLA has got some of the most dedicated folks I’ve ever known as some took a week’s vacation with no pay to volunteer, and lastly the Navigator interns who volunteered as our Camp Counselors for all these kids… we could never have planned it out that way, God brought all these different groups together and it was awesome to see it play out.
There was a lot of fundraising that was done by our partners to help provide scholarships for all kids to be able to come and not worry about money or costs. There was lots of last minute fundraising on RCLA’s part to help feed kids and volunteers (like days before, seriously!). The city of Lynwood had offered us free lunches for kids but logistics made it prove to be a task too difficult to deal with. So RCLA folks donated lunches and others donated funds to make it work. We thank God for His faithfulness and also for the 3 families that came to church w/ us on Sunday after camp ended. BOOYEAH!!! MIC DROP!!! That’s what it was all about… praise Jesus!
Please join us in praising Jesus for our first summer as well as praying for next summer, that it would be bigger and better for the Kingdom of God!!!
Church Planting In The Hood 