The SFC International office is just getting home from our annual trip to help staff the Liberty Mountain Snowflex Centre with two weeks of ski and snowboard camps in Lynchburg, Virginia. “Snowboarding and skiing in Virginia in July? Is that even possible?” you might ask. If you’re not familiar with it, their first-in-the-nation “dry” slope is pretty impressive. It gives riders a close to snow experience at any temperature. Check out this video of some of our friends riding the surface last year.
These weeks are always one of the highlights of our summer. The camps give us a great opportunity to share the Gospel in word and deed with around two hundred campers and spend some time getting to know SFC leaders from around the continent (who get to staff the camp with us), not to mention how much fun we have goofing around on our boards for two weeks.
Every night of camp our staff encouraged their campers to attend an optional bible study time in the Gospel of John lead by a different staff member each night. We would read a selection of the text and someone would share a story from their life that applies. Then the campers would break into groups and have a time to discuss and apply it to their own lives. Our story tellers included:
Nate Jenkins – who gave his life to Christ at this camp 2 years ago and is now pursuing the dream of becoming a pastor.
Michael Anwar – one of our counselors that has overcome the challenges of being born with Cerebral Palsy. Check out Michael’s talk.
Andy Finch – former professional snowboarder, olympic athlete, and all around amazing guy.
These brief times of opening up God’s word leads to Christ-centered conversations throughout the rest of the day and sets the tone for the whole week. This year there were a handful of campers that came to know Christ as the Lord of their lives for the first time. Similarly, a few staff members were sure to let us know about the profound impact the camps had on their lives as well. We LOVE to hear this kind of news.
This year of camps was a huge blessing and encouragement to the staff in our SFC office. When we work all season long sometimes the fruit of our efforts is difficult to see, but these two weeks of camps give us a condensed opportunity to rejoice in what God has been doing in and through the ski and snowboard culture the last few years.
