Adventure Camping
Did you know that over 50% of Jesus teaching was done in an outdoor setting? Jesus intentionally and masterfully utilized being outside to create teachable moments for his audience. Whether talking about seeds, fields, birds, flowers, or fruit, Jesus regularly captured the attention and imagination of his listeners by pointing them to the ways God’s creation speaks truth about His Kingdom.
So—did you know that Young Life Adventures models our communication with campers after Jesus’ way of teaching?
Adventure camps exist primarily for the second part of Young Life’s mission statement: “Introduce adolescents to Jesus and help them grow in their faith.” Each adventure camp differs in its programatic approach and experiences it offers campers. But what adventure camps have in common is intentional crafting of content designed to help teenagers deepen their relationships with Jesus, often by utilizing the environment or experience to point to truth about God.
Young Life Adventure camps provide the perfect next camp experience for a teenager who has attended a week of outreach camp and is ready to learn more about their new relationship with Jesus. Through smaller camp sizes, high relational impact occurs, and leaders are equipped to help their students gain greater understanding of how to live life centered on God. And through outdoor experiences, whether hiking, kayaking, surfing, or doing service projects, we intentionally create conversations and space to process the teachable moments that occur each day.
Countless examples of experiential teaching happen each week at every Adventure camp location. For example, at Adventures Baja, campers learn about following Jesus for life as they engage in service projects like building a house for a family, cooking a meal and playing with children at an orphanage, and helping with community service projects. When a camper sees a cement slab foundation, learns to swing a hammer to frame walls, and watches a house begin to take shape, conversation naturally occurs around what we build our lives upon. Just like Jesus taught about the importance of building our house (life) on the rock in Matthew 7:24-27, campers get the tangible experience of building an actual home on a firm foundation so it will last for the family whom will receive it.
When a teenager returns home from a week in Baja, they will always remember being a part of building a house, with hopes that this experience will continue to speak into the foundation of their life forever.
Whether biking on a single track trail and talking about the narrow way that leads to life, hiking up a mountain with a heavy pack and discussing what it means to give our burdens to Jesus, or simply listening to the birds and remembering that we are “worth more than many sparrows”, taking adolescents outside to encounter Jesus is woven into the fabric of adventure camping.
To learn more, check out https://adventures.younglife.org/ and consider a week at a Young Life Adventure camp next summer!