From July 20-27, Northwest Camp hosted 118 campers and 65 staff on the beautiful Oregon coast. This was the largest Northwest teen camp in many years. The overall Christian living theme was “Leaders: People of Character.” Campers and staff were encouraged to follow the principles that make leaders and to serve in God’s Church at every opportunity. This year we had a large number of campers and staff from the Midwest. For many, it was their first opportunity to visit the Northwest or see the Pacific Ocean.

The daily Christian living themes were taught in the daily Bible classes and demonstrated throughout the day in the activities, campfire stories and dorm parent discussions.

For most of the week the sun was shining and the ocean winds calm, providing enjoyable evening campfires on the beach watching the sun set over the Pacific Ocean.

We were excited to have Victor and Bev Kubik serving on staff with us. It was their first opportunity to help at a summer camp in many years. Mr. Kubik worked as the camp videographer and photographer, while Mrs. Kubik assisted LeeAnn Luker in teaching the “Excellence in Living” classes.

Activities enjoyed by the campers included water skiing, speedaway, swimming, skim and boogie boarding on the beach, beach volleyball, archery and a kayak trip down the scenic Nehalem River. A new activity added this year was pickle ball, a game similar to tennis, but played on smaller court with plastic balls and large paddles.

God’s blessing has been evident to everyone. As one example, this summer the Camp Magruder management offered to build us our own storage building on location if we provided the building materials. The materials were purchased with funds raised by the Olympia and Tacoma congregations. This new storage shed will save us rental expense on a storage garage for years to come, plus save hours of time and travel every year to the storage facility.

Plans are well underway for Northwest Camp 2015.