Summer Ministry
Our summer ministry is about bible practice and Christian fellowship. Our guiding tradition is to “make work worship.” James 2:26 tells us faith without works is like a body without breath. We are reminded in Micah 6:8 what the Lord requires of us; to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with our God. Our Summer Ministry hosts church youth groups on weeklong mission trips for 10-12 weeks each summer.
Our maximum capacity on camp is 50. These groups come during the months of June, July, and August to help residents of Madison County who are living day to day in this area. Work projects have ranged from painting a room and building a handicap ramp to re-roofing a house and rebuilding a bridge. In partnership with the Community Housing Coalition of Madison County, we try to pair the skill of our groups with the needs of our families.
There is a wonderful legacy created by the people of Madison County. They accept help graciously and give back to us in kind a greater sense of spirit and joy. We all leave Glory Ridge enriched by our interactions with people who know that receiving is also a manner of giving. The lessons for young people are many and varied, but the one lesson they all discover is their common human experience and spiritual connection to the broader world. They find that love has no boundaries and is the thread that binds us all; that physical poverty does not make spiritual poverty.
At Glory Ridge, communities come to camp, and in the welcome they feel, the simplicity of the facilities, the beauty of the land, and the community-centered outdoor living with few comforts and no social media, there is a heightened sense of the Holy Spirit’s movements. Where bells replace alarm clocks, meals are always shared, and every day begins and ends with a worship circle, we see souls, both young and old, thriving in in a shared rhythm of work and rest, play and worship, loud rejoicing and prayerful quiet.
Robert Payne, a long time board member and champion of the camp’s summer ministry model of outreach once explained it this way. I see in the rhythms of life on camp people experiencing a deeper, daily communion with God. Then we travel out into the county and in the outreach, in the meeting of strangers, in the hard work, in our “turning out to the world,” people meet Jesus.
The Rhythm of Things
Each day is new and brings new challenges. But new, also, are God’s mercies each and every morning. The following is a sample day at Glory Ridge during our Summer Ministry.
7:00 Wake up Bell
7:30 Circle up for Breakfast
8:00 Chores
8:30 Work Time Bell; Crews form and campers get needed tools and gear for the day
8:45 Circle up on the Ridge for a short devotional and the exhortation to MAKE WORK WORSHIP!
9:00 Groups do a final tool check, load up and head out
12:30 Work teams break for lunch at the sites
4:30 Work teams arrive back at camp.
5:00 Time to relax, shower, cool down, play games, hike to the creek, nap in a hammock…
6:30 Supper is served
7:00 Chores; Adults circle up under the big tree for a daily check-in.
8:30 Worship.
10:30 Lights out
Assembling a Mission Team
Worksite leadership (2-3 adults to lead work at each neighbor’s home) Kitchen Ministry (2-3 adults to stay back at camp and attend to meal preparation) Worship Ministry (1-2 leaders focused on planning for morning devotions & nightly worship) Truck Ministry (1-2 adults to run a “floater pick-up truck” that can haul trash from camp, haul construction debris from worksites, purchase and deliver supplies to work crews)
Some churches ask their older youth, high school seniors and college age students, to assume leadership roles on worksites, in camp chore groups, and at worship. Glory Ridge is a wonderful place to grow confident, young servant-leaders.
© 2014 Glory Ridge