It’s now June, and as the weather has warmed up, life at camp has really ramped up, as well! Since we last wrote, we have had several groups stay with us, and it all has made us so excited for summer! Read on below to hear about our work and some of the people who have visited Camp des Cimes recently.

Ten2 project

For those of you who don’t know, Trenton and I are missionaries through an organization called Greater Europe Mission (or GEM for short). GEM owns Camp des Cimes and also has many great outreach opportunities throughout Europe. One of the ministries they host is called the Ten2 Project. This program allows young college-age adults to spend their summer as missionaries in Europe alongside some of GEM’s existing ministries. Each year, the Ten2 group starts out their summer at Camp des Cimes as they learn, prepare, and train for their summer service. This means that we were able to host the Ten2 participants and their leaders in a group of almost 100 people for 10 days! It was refreshing and energizing to have so much life back at camp after some slower early spring months. As they prepared for their own missions, they also helped us here at camp to prepare our facilities for summer camps. They had work projects such as rebuilding a crumbling retainer wall, clearing brush and weeds from the camp grounds, cleaning all of our building windows, starting to rebuild some outdoor stairs, and helping with general cleanup around camp. See the pictures below of them in action! With Trenton being in charge of the camp grounds, he led one of the groups of Ten2 participants in their project cleaning up the grounds. I was in the kitchen the whole time cooking alongside some of our other camp staff. I have not had much experience cooking for big groups, so this was definitely a learning experience! It was so much fun to be in the kitchen and helping to feed so many. The Ten2ers are now spread all over Europe (including three great girls who are serving here at camp this summer!), so please join us in praying for them all and that their summers can be impactful for them and those around them.

GEM men’s retreat

Shortly after Ten2, GEM also hosted a men’s retreat at camp for their missionaries. This group was much smaller but was still able to enjoy what camp has to offer. They got to spend time with other men living similar experiences of being missionaries in Europe and were able to have several devotional and worship sessions. Our camp team served them meals and provided the daily cleaning while they were here. Trenton was a little more hands on during this week. He got to lead the men on a hike and on a via ferrata climbing route and went mountain biking with one of the participants, too (pictures below). We pray that this small retreat was restorative and that the men were able to go home with renewed energy to serve out their missions on the day-to-day.

week-end prépa

Every year before our summer camps, we have what we call a “week-end préparatoire,” or “week-end prépa” for short. This is a weekend where we invite our French counselors to come and prepare for the English camps in the summer. We just hosted this group last week, and it was a such a rich time together! It was great to be able to plan out some of the daily activities and the flow of our English camps, but the primary focus of this time is to bond as a team and deepen our relationships before the summer when everything is a bit more hectic. Most of our counselors have been coming for years, so this is a fun reunion among friends, but it was great to hear about what has recently been going on in everyone’s lives, what God has been teaching them lately, and how we can all be praying for each other. Typically, our American/native English speaking counselors are in charge of the games and activities during the camps and bringing the fun American energy. The French counselors are more in charge of camper well-being and the spiritual side of things, since they share a language and are able to go deeper in their conversations with campers. With this as their main goal, the week-end prépa was good because we can now to go into the summer united and prepared to share the Gospel with campers.

prayer requests

With our camp sessions fast approaching, we would love for you to be praying with us! Summer is the most fun time of year for us, but it’s also the most physically and emotionally tiring. Please pray that we are able to stay in good health and maintain energy to help make the camps as good as possible for all of our campers. This is also our first summer as long-term staff, so pray that we are able to balance being counselors with our new roles of groundskeeping for Trenton and invoicing for Hailey. Please pray for the camps themselves as well! We always pray for our incoming counselors; that God is preparing them to work well together and share more of who God is with campers. We pray for the campers; that God can be softening their hearts leading up to camp, that those who are not believers have open hearts to receive the Gospel, and that those who are already believers can be strengthened and encouraged in their faith. Below are the camps we offer and the dates of each one. We so appreciate your thoughts and prayers during each session!

• Young Adult English Camp, June 28th – July 7th
• Youth English Camp, July 10th – 24th
• Kids English Camp, July 26th – August 1st
• Family Camp I, August 4th – 14th
• Family Camp II, August 15th – 25th