Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Sam.
Foreign.
Hey, guys, welcome to Camp Guys podcast. Today we have Aaron from the Good News Camp in North Carolina. He's been serving there for 26 years. No, 21 years. He's been working at camp, all the way from a camper to now the executive director. Let's hear what Aaron has to say.
So, Aaron, welcome to the Camp Guys podcast. You know, we talk about everything camp, and we're so glad to have you on today. So. So, Aaron, tell us a little bit about Camp Good News in North Carolina. What do you. What do you guys do in the summer? Just tell us a little bit about the organization when it started.
[00:01:09] Speaker B: Yeah, so, yeah, we're in North Carolina. We're actually under the umbrella of Child Evangelism Fellowship.
So we are a CEF organization.
[00:01:18] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:01:19] Speaker B: But the camp actually originally started in the 60s as Maranatha under a couple named Ed and Nancy Wilcox. And.
And they passed away in the late 80s. And so for the about 10 years, the camp set vacant.
[00:01:35] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:01:36] Speaker B: And 10 years later, a couple of Dennis and Marsha Bailey had heard about this abandoned camp, and they came up and they prayed that God would give them the camp so they could do ministry.
And about two months later, somebody called and asked if they wanted to run a camp, and that's when Camp Good News started.
[00:01:50] Speaker A: So it's been going on for how many years?
[00:01:52] Speaker B: We're about. I think this is year 27 now, because it got started up in the mid-90s.
[00:01:58] Speaker A: Praise the Lord, man. That's awesome.
[00:02:00] Speaker B: So we're close to 30.
[00:02:01] Speaker A: Yeah. How long have you been there?
[00:02:03] Speaker B: So what's really cool is I actually got to grow up here as a kid. I started coming in 2005 as a camper, and then several years later, I started counseling.
This is where I got saved and I started counseling, and I became the activities director in my late teens, early 20s.
Me and my friend kind of did the activities, and then he became the director once Mr. Dennis left, who was the former director, he. And then my friend JP Left, and then God just kind of opened the door for me to step in as director. So I've been here for about 21 years now.
[00:02:39] Speaker A: Wow, man, that's awesome. And so how many kids per week do you guys allow to come. Come into your camp?
[00:02:45] Speaker B: We can. We can house up to 65 kids per week.
I think that's our max if we have the right amount of counselors.
So that's the max we can do. But we typically. Typically run between 45 and 65. Somewhere in mid to full range.
[00:03:01] Speaker A: Yeah. Is it majority scholarship based kids or do you guys charge?
[00:03:06] Speaker B: So actually it used to, we used to charge back when I actually first started coming.
And then 2008, Mr. Dennis was praying, said that felt like God put it on heart to his heart to make it free for all the kids to come so they didn't have to pay.
And so we've been, we've not charged any child to come to camp since 2008. And so we were supported by a bunch of really, really awesome people and churches and businesses.
[00:03:32] Speaker A: Wow, that's awesome, man. I've, I've, I'm dealing with a couple strategies right now, and I wonder how many camps out there listening are, are thinking about the same thing, you know, how we can impact our communities better by just opening up the floodgates.
You got the financial side that you got to deal with as well. So how do you guys make, how do you guys make sure you're on a financial target, you know, to have your summer bills paid for by allowing kids to come for free. And that might help out a lot of camps thinking about the same, you know, program, you know. So how do you guys kind of make that, make sure you hit that target financially?
[00:04:10] Speaker B: Well, we, we have a board of, we have a committee.
And so they're really helpful about like making sure we have a budget, how, what, what are we going to raise for the year. And then we all reach out and try to fundraise. We have some different programs each every other year about how we can fundraise.
Some years we, we meet what we want to get to, and some years we don't. Yeah, but I've noticed since I've been a camper and since I've worked here that, you know, we just trust God because that was the vision that Mr. Dennis had on his heart from, from the Lord was to not have to charge kids to come. And God has always provided. Yeah, we do our best to fundraise and if we don't get there somehow, we still make it through, you know?
[00:04:50] Speaker A: Yeah, I know.
[00:04:51] Speaker B: Isn't that takes care of it?
[00:04:52] Speaker A: Isn't that just crazy? You know, there's something honestly true about just trusting God. You know, you can't be, you can't be crazy about it. I mean, you know, I'm saying you can't be like, well, we have no food in the freezer, but we're going to have a supper tonight, even though Domino's pizza. God can allow Domino's Pizza to rise up in the camp. You know what I.
But God is so right.
God loves camp ministry. Don't know. I mean, that's all I can say. I mean, he's never let us.
Never let us fail. He's never let us down. He has stopped me in my tracks a couple times because I outran him. But God is just so faithful. So what makes. What makes good camp good news unique? Why does campers say, hey, I want to go to camp there?
[00:05:36] Speaker B: Honestly, I think I believe it's our counselors.
We. We really do our best to train the counselors to love on the campers. Well, to treat them like. Like family. To treat them like the best that they absolutely can. Like Christ would treat us. I know that's true for me. When I came, I was. I was definitely not a, like, away from home kind of kid. I always wanted to be at home.
I was mama's boy, if you will.
[00:05:59] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:06:00] Speaker B: But I know, like, the first hour I was here, I was nervous. But my counselors, like, they just cared for me so well. They hung out with me. And that's why I love camp. And I know that's true of a lot of other kids that come is. And their counselors make it for them. And I think that's really true. Like, the counselors make the difference in the week.
[00:06:16] Speaker A: Yeah, I totally agree with that, man. I spoke at a Rotary Club yesterday.
[00:06:19] Speaker B: Sure.
[00:06:19] Speaker A: For. And you know, for our camp, and I had them raised her hand and almost 95% of the room raised her hand that they were impacted at a camp. And I think you're totally correct, man. When you say, you know, it's the. Is the. Is the camp staff and the counselors that make the difference. So what do you guys do? What's your special sauce? Because remember, the camp guys podcast is all about giving out resources, you know, to somebody that don't have them. So what do you think your. Your. Your camp special sauce is to make your counselors love the campers so.
[00:06:51] Speaker B: Well, I don't. I don't know if it's. There's like a. A secret sauce. I'm trying to think through what the secret sauce is, but we just try to train. Train counselors to disciple kids who will disciple others, who will disciple others, you know, like, truly do life with them. We encourage them to be. Be counselors outside of the camp season, you know, as what's appropriate. As much as appropriate, you know?
[00:07:14] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:07:14] Speaker B: To let the kids remind. Like to remind the kids, like, hey, we're. We're around. We care about you. If you need anything, please let us know. I don't. But we're just put Jesus first, man. And I'm not saying that nobody else does that. I'm just saying we don't really have a secret sauce.
We just try to do the best that we can to disciple the kids while they're here.
[00:07:32] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:07:33] Speaker B: And I think, again, I was going to go off of a unique thing about our camp, I think, is while we're, like, Christian and we're a Bible camp, I would say 60 to 70% of the kids who come are not regular church kids or have even heard about Jesus before. So we have a lot of unchurched people that come.
[00:07:51] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:07:52] Speaker B: But, you know, I think part of that is too, is parents here about, you know, they might not take their kid to church, but they hear about a free camp, at least in our situation, and they're like, oh, you know, I don't care what they teach, just let them go to camp.
[00:08:05] Speaker A: So this is a. This is a question I have because I'm. I'm starting a couple programs that are free.
[00:08:10] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:08:11] Speaker A: Do you guys. If a kid comes and makes a decision for Christ at your camp, do you guys baptize them?
[00:08:16] Speaker B: We don't. I kind of refer to refrain. Not. Not in a way that I disagree with baptism, of course. But while we do have mostly unchurched kids, a lot of our church kids come from different denominations and who are particular about their method of baptism.
[00:08:32] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:08:33] Speaker B: So we, we encourage the kids who get saved to follow up with the church if they have one, or we recommend them, their family, to a church that's close to them.
But we don't typically baptize because we're not like. We don't have, like, church groups here. They're just kids from different places.
[00:08:49] Speaker A: Yeah. And that's something I. I honestly think is a hot topic in the, in the, in the camp community because, you know, if you have a bunch of groups that come to your camp, you know, of course you don't baptize, because that's up to the group. You know, that kid's going home with the. The J. J. Oliver Baptist Church, if you will.
But the individuals, you know, how do we know they're ever going to even get connected to a church and would baptize B. Would baptism kind of spark.
Spark in their life of going through that, you know, outward.
[00:09:23] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:09:24] Speaker A: Outward commitment of an inward commitment, if you will.
We know baptism doesn't get you to heaven, but, you know, it's a symbol.
So, you know, I know that's, you know, if we if we had 10. If we had 10 camps on the phone right now, we would probably get seven different answers, you know, of what we do.
So. Yeah, that's, that's good to know. Anything else unique about your camp?
[00:09:46] Speaker B: No, not, not necessarily, I guess. I mean, we're. We're kind of a small little camp nestled away, interestingly enough. You know, we don't. We're not super big in the community like you'd think more people would heard about us, but we're pretty small. But that's okay because, I mean, we believe that God brings who he would bring, and we do our part to promote and to share about it.
You know, we just trust God to again, bring in whoever he. He would. He would have come to hear. Hear the good news.
[00:10:12] Speaker A: Yeah, that's awesome, man.
[00:10:13] Speaker B: That's. That's what I would say.
[00:10:14] Speaker A: So what. So we talked about what makes your camp unique. So let's talk about some hurdles. What are some of your biggest hurdles that you deal with day to day or, you know, every year this seems to pop up. What's some, what's some hurdles that you, your, Your camp struggles with?
[00:10:31] Speaker B: Well, I mean, I guess one would. Would be the finances. It's just because again, the nature of our camp and what we, how we. We don't charge that. That can make it a little difficult sometimes.
But as we've gone through the years, I mean, you know, we've seen God work in so many ways and I could, I could share stories literally for, for hours about how God has provided.
[00:10:51] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:10:51] Speaker B: But that still is like something we have to trust God on and lean on him for is the, the finances. That would be one of the difficult. Apart from, of course, the regular ministry of the camp and working with the kids.
In that sense, I would just say that we, Again, it's just, it's the hurdle of teaching kids who aren't regular church or.
Because, you know, it's. It's kind of easy if you get in the mindset of, oh, these are church kids and they kind of get the, some of the ideas, it's a little easier to teach them. But we're teaching a lot of kids who don't really ever hear this stuff.
[00:11:22] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:11:23] Speaker B: And so trying to figure out the best way to teach them to their, their age group, because we have, we have a 7 to 16 age range with seven different weeks.
[00:11:32] Speaker A: Right.
[00:11:33] Speaker B: So for me personally, I guess I'm just not like a naturally gifted speaker.
So it's something I, I guess was one of my hurdles personally.
[00:11:43] Speaker A: Do you Have a curriculum that, you know, since you are teaching to predominantly non church kids, do you have a curriculum that you kind of repeat every year or do you come up with something new every single year?
[00:11:53] Speaker B: We have a new theme every single year. But.
So like last summer was the seven Seas and we did like a pirate theme, but the seven Cs were the seven seasons of the Bible. So we did creation, corruption, Catastrophe, confusion, Christ, cross and consummation.
[00:12:12] Speaker A: Hey, that's good right there.
[00:12:13] Speaker B: It was pretty like simple laid out there. Yeah, that, that comes from answers in Genesis. That's where we got that. I don't know if you've ever heard of them.
[00:12:20] Speaker A: Yeah, I have. I mean, whenever you start, they provide.
[00:12:22] Speaker B: A lot of that.
[00:12:23] Speaker A: So when you start teaching consummation now you're getting serious.
Love that word.
[00:12:29] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, that's.
Yeah, that's. It's a little harder for the team weeks, but yeah.
[00:12:35] Speaker A: Let's talk about your ages. So do you run 6 through 16 year olds all in one week or you divide them up?
[00:12:43] Speaker B: No. So we have, so we have a week, a day camp for seven to ten year old boys and girls and then the other six weeks are overnight and we do all the boys weeks first and we separate them by teens, 10 to 12 year olds and then 7 and 9 year olds. So boys go first and then the girls weeks all come in. And we did the same, the same layout because we're just not big enough to hold all the ages at once.
[00:13:08] Speaker A: Yeah. So day camps, 7 to 10 year old boys and girls and then overnight. Give those ages one more time.
[00:13:15] Speaker B: Yeah, the first week is 13 to 16, the second week is 10 to 12, and the third week is 7 to 9.
And then we start over with the girls and do the same age range each three weeks.
[00:13:29] Speaker A: That's a nice little strategy right there. I mean, so you're putting all guys together. That's semi close to the same age. All girls together. So you, you cut out a couple things that you have to worry about when you do that.
[00:13:40] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, well, that's. We had, we used to do, we used to do one of the, one of the weeks for each age group that was guys and girls. And it just kind of started getting more difficult as the years went on. So we, we separated out all the weeks and just added weeks of camp because we used to only have four, I believe.
[00:13:58] Speaker A: Yeah, that's a great idea. So here's the magic question. You know, I don't know how many podcasts you listen to here on the camp guys but we've been talking about, you know, what does camp look like in 10 years? You know, how can we trend up to make sure that in 10 years our camps are strong? So here's the magic question to you, Aaron. What do you think?
Doesn't matter what Jay Oliver thinks. What do you think camp is going to look like in 10 years?
You know, is. Is everything still going to be strong? You know, we're going to be hologramming, you know, campers into our. Our cabins, you know, for the experience that's being very fun for the week. Yeah, that. I think that's. I'm just being facetious, really, honestly. But honestly, what do you think about what does. What does camp look like in 10 years for? In your mind, man?
[00:14:47] Speaker B: I've wondered about that because, like, I already see the.
The. We have the amount of kids who just can't make it multiple days without their. Their screens.
[00:14:56] Speaker A: Oh, yeah.
[00:14:56] Speaker B: And they. They quote, unquote, get homesick. They go home because their home. Because their screen time.
Some of that.
I don't know. I feel like kids don't. And also, I'm not saying all kids. A lot of kids just don't seem like they enjoy being outdoors anymore. I used to play outside all the time.
Like, can't get these kids away from phones. At least what I've noticed. Which is, again, depends on how you're raised, I suppose.
I think that's going to be a challenge next 10 years, seeing how to, like, continue.
Continue with, you know, out without the. Mainly the screens here at camp, kind of what kids are coming in. But honestly, I'm not really worried about that so much. I truly believe, like, you know, camp's still going to be a thing as long as your camps are. In my camp, we're keeping the Lord Jesus Christ first. And I think kind of what I said earlier, he'll bring who he wants to bring. And I think that should be a praise for us. Like, hey, we had this amount of kids this year.
[00:15:51] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:15:52] Speaker B: And we got to teach them about Jesus. So.
[00:15:54] Speaker A: I agree. I agree.
[00:15:56] Speaker B: That's kind of where my. My heart is there. I mean, I want to. I want to camp to continue to grow. And, you know, I'll do my part to what I can to make it grow, but I just gotta remind myself, even when it gets hard, like, I just got to trust the Lord for the rest.
[00:16:10] Speaker A: Yeah.
And talk about, you know, because at.
[00:16:12] Speaker B: The end of the day, he's the one that Sovereign ever.
[00:16:13] Speaker A: Yeah, you're right, man. And talk about, you Know, camp. The camps are going to become even. Here's the positive thing. I think about the next 10 years. I see camps as being a niche that you can't get anywhere else. So instead of us becoming a senior, Senior senior citizens type thing, we're going to become the place where you can get outside, you know, So I think it's going to be a. A marketing tool for us to be. To say, hey, you can do these things here. You're not used to doing these things because you're stuck on a screen somewhere. And so I think it's going to be a. A positive that's going to help us, not hurt us. I think it's going to be a positive thing. Do you, right now, do you take. Do you have a no cell phone policy right now at your camp?
[00:16:56] Speaker B: We do. I had too much issues with it last year before last, so we actually, we had. We didn't have cell phones. We kind of let them have it in the cabins for a couple years and then just too many problems. So I decided to take that rule away again. And it. I think it works better. I know some kids don't like it and they leave early, which I really hate, but for the ones who, you know, don't really care that much, they end up having a better time because they're not distracted by their phones.
[00:17:23] Speaker A: Yeah, I agree.
I agree.
Well, if. What else you think you got? Any more things that you think camp might look like in 10 years or things we might struggle with if it.
[00:17:33] Speaker B: Comes to Christian camp? I think, I think at least my experience, I think that we're gonna struggle to help for kids to know where things are in the Bible. I think I've just noticed since my time as a camper till now, like, of course, still majority unchurched, but even used to unchurched kids knew where certain things were in the Bible. Just. Just how it was.
[00:17:54] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:17:55] Speaker B: But I've noticed the last couple years kids have become less knowledgeable about the Bible, even the church ones. Yeah, in some ways. So I think it's just gonna be a challenge for us to. To grow in. I think it's a good challenge because we get that chance or that week or however long to teach them and to help them see God's word for what it is and to know it.
[00:18:17] Speaker A: So you just met. You just jarred my mind here. So. But basically what you're saying is on, we may need to order some Bibles. I mean, how many kids are coming to camp without Bibles, you know, so if they don't have a Bible in hand, you know.
You know, don't have, they don't have a Bible at home. Or Maybe they got 15 copies at home and they never use it. But yeah, they don't bring it to camp where they fall in love with the Bible, you know, then they can't really start that relationship out. You know what I mean?
[00:18:44] Speaker B: Yeah.
We have this one group company, I believe they're called the Kids Bibles. Kids with a Z.
And they, they usually send multiple Bibles per year for us and we end up handing those out to kids who don't have any.
So that's, that's a helpful resource source. I'm pretty sure that's the name Kids Kid Z and then Bible. Kids Bible.
[00:19:09] Speaker A: Is it a full version of the Bible or is it just New Testament?
[00:19:13] Speaker B: No, it's full. It does come, it comes mostly in the NIRV or the niv.
So I know there's also some particulars about that and depending on where you're.
[00:19:22] Speaker A: At, that is a great resource.
[00:19:24] Speaker B: But that's what they send us.
[00:19:25] Speaker A: And so, yeah, because it doesn't matter what it looks like. It don't have to be cow hide, leather bound, you know, to get the word of God in kids hands, we just need to, yeah, we need to light that fire.
[00:19:36] Speaker B: Ours have, ours have a cartoon cover. So it's a little more kid friendly.
[00:19:43] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:19:43] Speaker B: For our younger kids especially.
[00:19:44] Speaker A: That's awesome, man. Well, Aaron, God bless you, man. It sounds like you, you gotta, you have a lot of passion to you and God is definitely, you know, being faithful to your camp. And I pray man, you can reach thousands of kids where you are and the night sparks in their hearts for Jesus and all the camp guys listening out there, y' all pray for Aaron as they go into the, the season in 152 days. Uh, actually 150, uh, 1 days, uh, camp starts for all of us. That's June 1st, is 151 days from now.
Uh, so we all got to get fired up. Aaron, thank you for joining the camp guys podcast today. And I, I, I really appreciate you and your wisdom.
[00:20:24] Speaker B: Thank you guys for having me praying for all of you. Appreciate you guys.
[00:20:27] Speaker A: All right, God, God bless you. Bye Bye.
Man, that was awesome talking to Aaron today and just seeing how God's being faithful and in his ministry and just realizing how faithful God is in all of our ministries. So today, why don't you be faithful and, and do what you're supposed to do for, for Jesus and your camp and move it forward. Let's trend up.
Kind of been our theme in this season of the Camp Guys podcast is trend up. So if you're not doing what you're supposed to do, trend up. Come on, let's go. Because we got camp coming right around the corner and we got to get ready to to reach as many kids for with the Gospel of Jesus Christ as possible. Remember, if you want to be on the Camp Guys podcast, make sure you click a button and contact us. You can always go to CrowdersCamps.com and check out our staff page and get a hold of Noah Carter there. Or you can email Noah Noah Carter camps.com and he will schedule you a meeting to be here on the Camp Guys podcast. God bless you, Sam.
