“One meaningful event I experienced with the church was the solo I had in the children’s choir. It was one of the first times I had a solo and one of the first times that I sang in front of a lot of people. I was nervous that I was going to mess up, but I just sung out to the people and it was one of the most amazing feelings I had ever felt. I felt warm inside because I new that the church members accepted me into their congregation.” – Bradley Jiang
“My baptism was a meaningful experience for me because my grandmother read my statement of faith.” – Elizabeth Smith
“It’s really beautiful when we sing the doxology at the end of worship. Because it sounds really amazing.” – Ray Greene
“Definitely my baptism.” – Micah Smith
“I love me some t-shirts! This summer I got to design a t-shirt for our youth group. This shirt isn’t just a typical comfy t-shirt, but a powerful testament to the growth in our youth group at Passport Camp.
When asked what one of the most meaningful experiences with our church has been, the first thing that came to mind was Passport Camp this last summer. Our youth group has always been close, but this year Passport camp gave us the opportunity to grow even closer!
In the months and weeks leading up to camp, some in our group had anxiety about youth to camp because of some tension between a few people – myself included! I personally worried that the best week of my summer would be filled with drama as disagreements might get out of hand with all of us staying in such close quarters. I wanted Passport to be an opportunity to grow closer together, not tear us apart!
When we first arrived at camp, all of the tension had not gone away initially, but throughout the first day, I felt that we all were beginning to be at ease and really enjoy our week. One of my favorite parts of camp was when we had our church group devotions every night where we all opened up and told about our day. It was really spiritually moving to hear stories of how God was working in all our lives that week of camp. We began to grow as a youth group and become more open and honest with one another. It was beautiful.
In addition to the serious and moving moments, we also had a TON of inside jokes at camp, which is where the T-shirts come in. After camp, Isabelle and I had the idea to design t-shirts with all of our inside jokes printed on them for our whole youth group. The idea went over well with everyone and it created an excitement between all the youth! After the shirts came in, we gave them to John as a surprise. He truly had no idea. Everyone loved the shirts and you can frequently see one of the youth wearing them around church. Now, whenever I wear that shirt, I remember my amazing youth group and all the amazing bonds we were able to make over a fabulous week of camp!” – Hannah Knight