Camp Doesn’t End When Camp Ends
Sometimes the best camp stories happen after campers go home.
At Camp Bob this summer, a child returned home excited about something they had experienced at camp: church. That excitement didn’t stay with one child. The rest of the family came along—and today, the family is attending church together.
It’s a small story in the middle of a very big summer. But it captures something important about why our camps exist.
We want campers to have an incredible week. We want them to make friends, try new things, laugh around a campfire and go home with memories they’ll carry for years. But ultimately, we want young people to encounter Jesus—and to continue growing in relationship with Him long after camp is over.
Sometimes we get to see what happens next. Often, we don’t, but we have faith that God is continuing a camper’s spiritual life development long after the final summer campfire has been extinguished.
Camp + Church
The Camp Bob family in the story above also reminds us that camp ministry was never meant to happen by itself.
Across our BCMB Camps this summer, churches sent campers and staff, provided speakers and volunteers, sponsored children who otherwise couldn’t afford camp, partnered in Day Camp programs, prayed for our teams and welcomed home young people when camp ended.
Camp can create a remarkable week, but discipleship doesn’t end when the bus leaves. That’s why the relationship between our camps and our churches matters so much.
And that’s also why we’re looking ahead to:
CAMP SUNDAY — January 10, 2027
We’re inviting all BCMB churches to take just a few minutes during a Sunday service to celebrate what God is doing through our camps, watch a short video and pray for the ministry ahead.
If January 10 doesn’t work for your church, another Sunday in January or early February is just fine.
We’ll have a short video and other resources ready to share well before January.
Summer 2026 by the Numbers
Across Camp Bob, Gardom Lake Bible Camp, Camp Likely, Pines Bible Camp and Stillwood Camp, thousands of campers and young leaders were part of our ministries this summer:
- 2,391 overnight campers
- 793 day campers
- 900 family campers
- 194 young people in leadership development programs
4,278 camper and leadership experiences across our five camps.
Those numbers tell us something about the size of the ministry. They don’t tell us everything about its impact.
At Gardom Lake, 1,025 campers completed end-of-week evaluations. Those campers reported 579 spiritual decisions, including 211 first-time commitments to Christ and 368 recommitments. This summer also included eight staff baptisms and one camper baptism, celebrated with their churches, families and friends.
Other camps measure spiritual growth differently. They tell us about questions asked around campfires, conversations with cabin leaders, young people discovering a desire to read Scripture, staff growing in their faith, and campers going home wanting to know more about Jesus.
Those stories are harder to put into a spreadsheet, but they are why the numbers matter.
A New Home for the Stories
You may have noticed something else has changed.
BCMB Camps has a NEW WEBSITE!
We wanted the new site to do more than explain who we are or provide information about our camps. We wanted it to become a place where we can tell the stories behind the ministry:
Stories of campers.
Stories of young leaders.
Stories of families and churches.
You’ll already find stories there about the Thiessen family, whose connection with camp now stretches across four generations, and the Martens family, whose relationship with Pines continues four generations after it began. And there will be more.
Because 4,278 camper and leadership experiences don’t just represent a number. Behind every one is a person. And behind many of those people is a story we may not hear until months, or even years, after camp ends.
We’d love for you to visit the new site and follow along.
Five Camps. One Mission. Lots of stories still to tell.
With gratitude,
Bob “Ranger” Kroeker
Executive Director
BCMB Camps