|
A week of camp is five days. Four mornings, four nights, a handful of campfires, some swimming, a lot of laughter, and probably some very tired kids by the end of it. On paper, a week doesn’t sound like very long. But for a kid, a week at camp can be a pretty big deal. It might be the first time they sleep away from home without their family nearby. It might be the first time they have to figure out where they fit in with a group of kids they didn’t know before they arrived, or the first time they try something they’re pretty sure they can’t do. It might even be the first time they have a conversation about faith that doesn’t sound like a Sunday school lesson.  Most importantly, it might be the first time they realize they can be nervous about something, try it anyway, and come out the other side thinking, I did that. That’s part of what makes camp so meaningful. Camp gives kids room to practice being independent, making friends, trying new things, asking questions, taking care of themselves and one another, and discovering what it means to be brave, known, and part of a community. Kids don’t always get a lot of space to do these things. So much of their lives is structured around school, activities, schedules, transportation, homework, screens, and the adults who help make it all happen. Camp gives them a different kind of space. They wake up in a cabin with other kids, walk to breakfast, make their beds, figure out which activity comes next, cheer each other on, sit around a campfire, spend time outside, and make their way through the ordinary challenges of living together. They talk, laugh, get annoyed with each other, and figure it out. For a little while, they get to live in community. And throughout it all, there are adults who are paying attention. Cabin leaders learn their names. Staff notice when someone is sitting alone. Someone listens when they have a question. Someone reminds them that they are loved by God exactly as they are. We play games with everyone involved and even though on the surface the games are fun, we know that amidst the game relationships are being formed. We schedule all-camp games like Bonkers because the excitement of being chased by a Bonker thrills a child to be active, talkative, and engaged. When they get “caught,” it also allows a “medic” to simulate care for them and reinforce the foundation of camp being a safe place for all campers.
Then there are the moments no one can schedule. Maybe it’s the moment a kid jumps into the lake even though they were nervous. Maybe it’s the bunkmate who becomes a best friend by the second day, the conversation on the walk back from an activity, or the song around the campfire that everyone somehow knows. Maybe it’s a quiet moment outside as the sun goes down, when a kid realizes that this place feels a little bit like home. You can’t put those moments neatly on an itinerary. That’s kind of the point. Camp creates enough space for them to happen. A week is enough to matter. A week at camp doesn’t have to transform a kid’s entire life. Sometimes the most important thing is simply giving them a place to practice becoming who they are. A place where they can try something new and discover they are capable of more than they thought. A place where they can be silly, ask big questions, experience faith through community and creation, and find people who know their name. A place where they belong. So what can happen in a week? More than you might think. And sometimes, a week is just the beginning. Summer registration opens soon.
0 Comments
Kayla came to Serve Boldly ready to serve. She didn’t expect how much she would take home with her.
During her time serving alongside the Madison and Milwaukee teams, Kayla met new people, built friendships, grew in her faith, and experienced the kind of everyday moments that can turn a service trip into something much more — from serving alongside neighbors to cheering at a Madison Mallards game or exploring a city with new friends. “I’m so thankful for opportunities like this that allow me to connect, laugh, and enjoy new experiences together,” Kayla shared. That’s the thing about Serve Boldly. The service matters, but so do the relationships that grow around it. You show up to serve a neighbor, and somewhere along the way, you find yourself welcomed into a community, seeing your faith in a new way and wondering where God is calling you. Kayla’s own story is a pretty beautiful example of how one invitation can open the door to something we never expected. Her Serve Boldly journey began with an invitation from Ellie, a coworker at the school where Kayla was working and a longtime Serve Boldly alum whose story stretches back to Shores of St. Andrew. That invitation brought Kayla to Serve Boldly - and into a community of people she may never have met otherwise. While serving with Serve Boldly this summer, Kayla built relationships with congregation groups and individuals from across the program, and she learned about a new vocational opportunity - one that would become the beginning of her next chapter. This fall, Kayla stepped into a new community and joined the fourth-grade team at St. James Public School; she is already well on her way, looking forward to a school year filled with learning, laughter, and new adventures. And she carries a little bit of Serve Boldly with her. An invitation from Ellie. A summer spent serving alongside others. Conversations and relationships that opened an unexpected door. Each became part of the path that led Kayla to where she is today. Because sometimes faith takes us somewhere we never expected. Sometimes one invitation leads to another. And sometimes the people we meet along the way become part of where God is leading us next.  Summer calendars fill up quickly. Between sports, vacations, camps, family commitments, and everything else competing for young people’s time, finding space for a weeklong service experience can feel like a challenge.
And yet, you still want youth to have opportunities to build relationships, try new things, serve their neighbors, and become more aware of God’s presence in their lives and the world around them. That’s where a half-week with Serve Boldly can be a great fit. Shorter doesn’t have to mean less meaningful. A half-week offers a full Serve Boldly experience in a more manageable timeframe. Youth are introduced to a new community, meet neighbors, serve alongside local organizations, worship, and grow in faith together — all without requiring a full week on the calendar. For congregations without a strong culture of overnight or summer experiences, a half-week can also be a natural place to begin. And for middle school youth in particular, it can be a meaningful first step into service and travel experiences. A first step toward independence For younger youth, a summer service trip can bring a lot of new experiences all at once: being away from home, sleeping in a shared space, navigating a busy schedule, serving in a new way, making their own sandwich each day, and learning what it means to live in community with their peers. A half-week gives youth an opportunity to practice those skills in a shorter, more approachable experience. They build confidence and independence while learning the rhythm of service, travel, and community life. They begin to discover what it feels like to serve alongside others and to pay attention to the people and places around them. And that first experience can create excitement and confidence for longer service experiences as they move into high school. More than a service trip At Serve Boldly, the goal isn’t simply to complete a certain number of service projects. Youth serve alongside local organizations and neighbors, but they also worship, reflect, build relationships, explore their community, and practice noticing where God is already at work. That’s what makes a half-week meaningful. It isn’t simply a shorter version of a longer trip. It’s an opportunity for young people to experience service and community in a way that fits their age, their schedules, and their congregation. If a full week feels like too much right now, a half-week might be exactly the place to start. Explore Serve Boldly and find an experience that fits your group. If you’ve ever thought, ‘Our middle schoolers aren’t quite ready for a service trip…’ we’d encourage you to think again! Middle School youth are curious, energetic, and often more capable than we give them credit for. They are ready to serve. They’re ready to meet new people, try new things, and contribute in a meaningful way. Are they also going to forget where they put their water bottle, need reminders to put on deodorant, and have very strong opinions about who sleeps next to whom? Probably. That’s part of the adventure. An overnight service trip brings a lot of newness all at once - being away from home, meeting new people, sleeping on an air mattress in a room full of people, perhaps even having to make their own sandwich for the first time, all while figuring out how to live together in Christian community.  That’s exactly why we love the half-week Serve Boldly experience for middle school youth. It’s long enough to dig into meaningful service, build relationships, laugh a lot, and begin seeing God at work in unexpected places. It’s also short enough that when everyone is tired, the laundry is starting to smell, and you’ve answered “What are we doing next?” for the 28th time, you’re already nearing the finish line. A half-week doesn’t have to mean a smaller experience. It means creating an experience intentionally designed for where youth are developmentally. They get to discover:
And maybe most importantly: I want to do this again. That last one matters. A lot. Erica Mathews, Faith Formation Director at Vinje Lutheran Church in Willmar, Minnesota, shares: I believe these shorter experiences are a great way to introduce middle school youth to mission work and get them excited to keep serving as they grow. This age group is ready to step into volunteering, participate in devotions, and take ownership in leading worship. However, too much newness at once can be a lot. It’s much easier for our middle school youth to embrace new experiences when they are part of a shorter week. We love using a half-week experience to introduce mission trips. It gives youth the opportunity to experience the incredible growth, service, community, and faith development without feeling overwhelmed. It also helps build excitement and confidence for a full-week mission trip when they reach high school. A half-week Serve Boldly experience isn’t simply a shortened trip - it’s an intentional first step, giving youth an opportunity to love boldly, grow in faith, build confidence, and discover that they already have gifts they can use to serve their neighbors right now! And who knows? A few years from now, when those same youth are packing for their full-week high school service trip, they may just be the ones reaching out into their peer groups and extending the invitation by saying: “I’ve done this before. Let’s go.” For a lot of young people, camp begins with being a camper. You show up, unpack your sleeping bag, meet your cabinmates, learn the songs, play the games, ask questions, laugh a lot, and eventually go home. Then, maybe a year later, you come back and do it all again. But somewhere along the way, something can change. You start noticing the people who make camp happen. You wonder what it would be like to lead a cabin, help lead worship, or be the person welcoming a nervous camper on their first day. That’s part of the idea behind Community Guides, a program created to invite high school youth to experience the “other side” of camp. The program began in 2023, giving high schoolers a chance to step into leadership, shadow summer staff, and see what it means to help create the camp experience they’ve known as campers. Over the past four years, the program has continued to grow and the impact is beginning to show up in other ways, too. In fact, two members of this past summer’s staff started their own camp journey as Community Guides. From camper to leader...and maybe future staff At Green Lake Bible Camp, Program Director Samantha Johnson saw a great example of what this can look like during Grandparent & Grandchild Camp. One family had cousins ranging in age from 5 to 17. The 17-year-old spent some of the week shadowing a cabin leader during faith formation time, helping with the younger campers. Green Lake Bible Camp Staff also intentionally included her in leading activities and participating in pieces of worship. She got a glimpse of what happens behind the scenes and discovered that she really liked being part of it. The following week, she came back to volunteer during Camp Joy. And now, she has expressed interest in working at camp next summer. That kind of progression is exactly what Community Guides can make possible: camper → leader → staff. It doesn’t happen overnight, and it doesn’t happen for every young person. But giving them an opportunity to try on leadership can help them begin to imagine themselves in a new role. “How do I become a Community Guide?” That question is already coming up at Shores of St. Andrew. Program Director Per has noticed a growing interest even among middle school campers beginning to see themselves as future cabin leaders. “There’s a lot of positive internal growth happening with middle school campers wanting to be cabin leaders,” Per shared. By Weeks 6, 7, and 8 this summer, there was a noticeable energy around the idea. Campers were asking questions about how they could become Community Guides the following summer. That may seem like a small thing: a middle schooler asking how to get a leadership role a couple of years from now. But it’s actually a pretty big deal. It means they’re beginning to see themselves as someone who belongs on the other side of the camp experience. Building a pipeline of leaders For Community Guides, it's a chance to step up, help out, try something new, and start figuring out what kind of role they might want to play at camp. Figuring this type of thing out for themselves in a safe, supportive environment is one really important step. They get to practice leadership while still having the support of experienced staff. They get to see the work that goes into creating a safe, welcoming, faith-filled camp community. And they begin to understand that camp isn’t just for them, but something they can help create for someone else. For the younger campers watching them, that matters, too. When a middle schooler sees a high schooler leading an activity, helping with worship, or working alongside the counselors, it becomes easier to imagine themselves doing the same thing someday. That’s how a camp community grows. A camper becomes a Community Guide. A Community Guide gets more experience as a leader. That leader becomes a staff member. And a new generation of campers gets to experience the same sense of belonging that started it all. The goal isn’t simply to get more people working at camp. It’s to help young people discover that they have a place here and that someday, they might be the ones creating that place for someone else.  I’ve noticed a pattern over the years, as quilts and items have been dropped off. As armfuls of quilts and wagon loads of Silent Auction baskets are brought into the office at Green Lake Bible Camp, just about every person asks “well, have you gotten enough quilts in?”
It’s such a funny question. First of all, where else does that question make sense? What does “enough quilts” mean to any other community? This question isn’t just about checking in on our progress towards preparing for the big Quilt Auction day or simply inquiring about the number of quilts to admire or asking how long the auction will last under the tent by the lake. It’s about hope. The question is about what we can hope for the Quilt Auction’s outcomes. It’s about what the Quilt Auction will bring to future generations of campers, participants and guests. It’s about hope for how many more people will get to experience lakeside campfires, the joy of a new friendship, serving alongside their neighbor, and the life-changing love of Jesus at the water’s edge, because of you and your support of the Quilt Auction. The Quilt Auction comes together one stitch, one row, one quilt at a time. One bid becomes thousands of bids. A legacy of generosity has been built over the last 42 years, based on fabric, thread, bids and hope. Over the past 41 years, over 7,100 quilts and items have been donated to the Quilt Auction and over $2.2 million has been raised to support our summer camp and day camp programming, service opportunities, retreat ministry, and so much more. This event has grown and changed over time to meet the needs of our ministry and our big goals, but the intention has remained the same: making opportunities for people to experience the life-changing love of Jesus possible, through our shared generosity and care. There is often a second question that follows after the first: “what else do you need? More volunteers?” And when schedules don’t align just right, the response is always “keep me in mind for next year!” The willingness to help and contribute is heartwarming and astonishing, and a sign that we truly are all in this together. This event is made special by the belief that we are all accomplishing these big goals together, little by little, stitch by stitch, as God’s big community. Thank you for giving us such hope through the Quilt Auction and for being part of this story. Looking for more than just a place to stay? Here are meaningful, memory-making ways you could use our spaces with your friends, family, coworkers, or church community. With Friends
With Family
With Church Groups
 With Work or Community Groups
Creative & Purposeful Gatherings
Whether you come for planning, prayer, play, or simply presence, we would be honored to host your people with care and intention. When you bring your group to Water’s Edge Ministries, you’re not simply reserving a building. You’re stepping into a ministry of hospitality. Sharing our spaces has never been about logistics or filling a calendar. It’s about welcoming your people with intention and care — and carrying the magic of camp beyond a single week or season.  Whether you’re planning a quilting retreat, youth gathering, family reunion, church council retreat, staff planning day, or time away with friends, we are here to host you. Some groups arrive with a clearly defined faith-centered purpose. Others come seeking rest, connection, or deeper meaning. You don’t have to look a certain way to belong here. What we promise is this: your group will be welcomed with faithfulness — rooted in our mission, shaped by our values, and grounded in a Christ-centered spirit of hospitality. In a time when fewer people enter traditional faith spaces, we believe hospitality itself can be an invitation. When you gather here, space opens for the Holy Spirit to move — sometimes quietly, sometimes unexpectedly. We trust that God meets people in community and creation: in shared meals and meaningful conversations, in singing and story, in prayer and play, in laughter and still moments by the lake. We prepare the ground with care so that your time here can be intentional and life-giving. God does the forming.  We regularly host groups in the Chrysalis House and Medayto Lodge at Green Lake Bible Camp, and The Village and The Cottages at Shores of St. Andrew. During the late spring through early fall seasons, we also welcome groups to gather at Camp House, offering a more seasonal retreat experience. Each space offers its own rhythm, from cozy retreat-style lodging to lakeside community settings, all grounded in intentional hospitality.
If you are looking for more than a venue and a place that will care for your people, we would be honored to host you. Reach out to our office — we’d love to hear about your plans and explore how we can offer holy hospitality to help make your gathering meaningful and complete.  In the ELCA, “vocation” names the many ways God works through our lives. At Water’s Edge Ministries, we see vocation discovered not by having everything figured out, but by belonging somewhere safe enough to listen — to God, to others, and to ourselves. One of the clearest expressions of that calling is our Hospitality Associate program.
Through a partnership with Ridgewater College, young adults (like Blake, pictured left) studying plumbing, electrical work, veterinary technology, auto mechanics, nursing, cosmetology, and more live in community at Green Lake Bible Camp. In exchange for housing and meals, they offer ten hours of hospitality leadership each week — welcoming retreat guests, preparing spaces, assisting with meals, and ensuring each group feels cared for. This work is not separate from God’s call. It is ministry lived out through attentiveness, responsibility, and service. Parker Palmer writes that vocation is found where “our deep gladness meets the world’s deep need.” Drake Krupke, an electrician student and Hospitality Associate, reflected, “Being a host here is a gift. I get to work with all kinds of people, help out where needed, and grow as a person.” Guests notice that growth. Retreat evaluations consistently highlight the kindness and professionalism of these young adults, with one guest sharing, “Student hosts are AWESOME—helpful, polite, and friendly.” Hospitality Associates remind us that ministry does not only happen from pulpits or stages. It happens in kitchens, retreat centers, and everyday acts of welcome. By creating spaces where others can rest, learn, and encounter God, these young adults are not only supporting ministry — they are discovering their own. And in that discovery, the whole community is strengthened.  Faith is changing. In a world shaped by speed, screens, and do-it-yourself solutions, fewer people are finding their way into traditional faith settings. Yet the spiritual need hasn’t disappeared.
If anything, the hunger for connection, meaning, and renewal has grown. That reality places a clear and urgent question before Water’s Edge Ministries: if people aren’t entering traditional faith spaces the way they once did, how will they encounter transformative faith experiences today? Our response is grounded in what we know transforms lives. Our vision is this: we’re bringing the magic of camp to people young and old, to help people begin—and begin again—their faith journeys. For generations, camp has created something powerful. Not just activities or memories, but immersive experiences where people feel known, challenged, and supported. It’s a place where joy is shared, community forms quickly, and the life-changing love of Jesus is experienced in real and lasting ways. We believe that experience isn’t limited to a single place or season. The “magic of camp” is a way of creating environments where people belong, grow, and encounter Christ. Today, that kind of experience is needed far beyond traditional camp weeks. To live into this vision, Water’s Edge Ministries is focusing on four strategic priorities. We are building engagement for Camp, Serve Boldly, and Gatherings beyond church congregations. We are expanding our organizational mindset to reflect the full geographic reach of our ministry. We are intentionally infusing the magic of camp into all ministries, while also weaving the Serve Boldly spirit of service and accompaniment more deeply throughout all we do. Together, these priorities represent an important shift in posture. Rather than waiting for people to come to us, we are committed to meeting people where they are—on lakeshores and retreat sites, in neighborhoods and partner communities, and in both expected and unexpected places. This is a pivotal moment for faith formation. The pathways may look different than they once did, but the need for hope, belonging, and spiritual renewal remains. In many ways, Water’s Edge is “breaking camp”—not leaving it behind, but carrying its heart forward. Because wherever people experience community, purpose, and the love of Jesus, new faith journeys can begin. |
Archives
October 2026
Categories
All
|
RSS Feed