This was the 14th year at the beautiful Ironwood Springs Christian Ranch near Stewartville, Minnesota. A total of 150 of us—64 preteens and mini dorm campers, 27 teens and 49 adults—enjoyed four days of living, playing and working together God’s way. God blessed the camp with His protection as well as beautiful weather.

Our goal was to enrich the children’s lives by giving them opportunities to build relationships with other children who share common beliefs, experience a variety of challenging activities and deepen their relationship with God by getting to know more about their loving Father through daily Christian living and music classes. The theme of this year’s camp was “Love is…” (focusing on 1 Corinthians 13) and that God is love. The theme was emphasized throughout the day in activities and in their evening wrap-up dorm time. The campers enjoyed the new Jelly video and easily learned the song, which they performed at the closing day program. They were also delighted by a few surprise visits from Jelly at their afternoon activities and the evening carnival.

Camp Ironwood is a family camp with many parents bringing their young children, preteens and teens and spending four days together in a loving and nurturing family environment. This year we had a wonderful group of teens who served as assistant counselors and activity assistants, as well as big brothers and big sisters to the campers. Adult staff enjoyed the opportunities to interact with their children during the day. It was a fun-filled four days with a variety of activities including horseback riding, swimming, arts and crafts, field games, climbing wall, archery, creek walk, team challenge, campus improvement, sling shot and mini farm. Evening activities included a sing-a-long/campfire, carnival, treasure hunt, tractor rides and novelty olympics.

We praise God and thank Him for another successful year at Camp Ironwood!

The dates for next year’s Preteen Camp Ironwood will be July 17-20. Campers, teens and parents who would like to work as staff are welcome to join us for the 15th annual United Youth Camp Ironwood experience.

The friendships, camaraderie, nurturing family environment and living, working and playing together according to God’s laws, is an experience that those who attended Camp Ironwood this summer will not soon forget.