A Week of Camp, a Lifelong Impact

Submitted by Thomas Slawson

It's difficult to put into just a few brief words everything that happens at our Converge Heartland high school week each year at Camp Judson.  While the students and counselors enjoy a week of fun activities, engaging chapel talks, and powerful times of worship in the beautiful setting of the Black Hills, it's what God does in the hearts of young men and women each year that is truly special.  Over the years, a precedent that has been primarily driven by the students themselves that "Things get real."  This year was no different.

On the first night of camp, after we had finished up our time of worship with the song Behold Our God (a camp favorite), a young man walked up to me and said, "That's the song where God brought me to my knees last year."  I immediately remembered our conversation from a year earlier.  We had talked on a particular night during the 2021 camp where God had moved in the hearts of many students and convicted them that they needed to get serious about their walk with him.  Now a year later, I was seeing the fruit in this young man's life as God had grown and matured him.

This young man's story wasn't unique.  As the week progressed, some of the older students shared their testimonies around the evening campfires, telling how God had worked in their hearts the year before and how he had used the week at Camp Judson to bring about true spiritual growth and change.  This transparency and openness by the older students led to a number of the younger students sharing their own struggles and desiring to be serious about their walk with the Lord.

God is using the Converge Heartland high school week at Camp Judson to make a lasting impact in the lives of young men and women.  It's evident that God uses their experiences at camp to bear fruit even after they return home.  And this is being built upon year after year as students return to Camp Judson and share what God has done in their lives.