Hi Summer Festival Community,
We thought we would take a minute to reflect on what has been a very strange week.
First, the elephant in the room. There have been a number of reported cases of COVID-19 following the middle school week. Right now, eight people have tested positive. Five staff, two counselors, and one visitor. Seven out of eight were fully vaccinated. At this point, the cases range from asymptomatic to mild cold. That’s a real silver lining. Friends who were at middle school camp, if you haven’t been tested yet, we’d encourage you to do so-even if you’ve been vaccinated.
Second, when we signed up to do camp in 2021 we knew we couldn’t do it risk-free. We all did our best to follow guidelines in order to run camp as safely as possible, and the fact that people might get sick was always a risk. COVID-19 is a beast and continues to find new ways to wreak havoc and chaos into the world. We think part of living through a pandemic is being gracious with each other. We all did our best, but a small percentage of people have since tested positive. That is just the way it happens sometimes. We have taken the response to this very seriously and have tried to keep you and everyone else at camp informed of the process in the past few days. The health and safety of our campers and volunteers has always been and will always be our number one priority.
Third, and also very important – It was a really great summer. We were blessed with the opportunity to share the Good News of Jesus with teenagers desperate to hear some Good News this year! We’re sure we’ll be hearing about the impact of the weeks of camp this summer for years to come. For that, we’re grateful to be co-laborers with you and Jesus on what was Summer Festival 2021.
Here are a few of the things we’ll remember about this special summer of camp
-
All of the smiles and laughs on campers’ faces from opening bit to farewell lunch.
-
Grown adults dressed as pokemon hiding in the arboretum to bring a video game to life.
-
The feeling of being in the club room and finally worshiping together.
-
The one, the only-Pizza Rat.
-
Creating space where students poured their hearts out in dorm time.
-
Trying to tag campers in Pizza Express and realizing that very few of us are in camper-tagging shape. Laughing anyways as we got scored on like crazy.
-
The price is the right dance done on game show night.
-
All of the fun (and bizarre) Master Classes.
-
The crazy skits and videos made for entertainment night. We are still not sure if birds are real or if the pizza mascots eat salad or not.
-
Two awesome dance parties, to just have fun dancing it out with our friends.
-
The powerful last night messages and the ways in which students took steps in their faith journey.
God truly blessed us with an awesome summer!
One request — will you join us in praying for:
-
A speedy recovery for our team members who are feeling symptoms.
-
That no one else who was at SFC gets sick
-
An end to the devastation and loss of the pandemic
-
For God’s wisdom and protection over the SFC board and leadership team as they discern how to help the organization navigate this.
Two final thoughts. One – If you were at middle school camp, love your neighbor by wearing a mask until you get tested, and if it comes back positive, isolate. Two – The virus doesn’t win in the end- God does.
With so much love – your leadership team,
Tony, Brynn, and Seth.
Recent Comments