Help for Young Life Leaders NOW

Over the summer I normally try to post a couple things that I learned over the previous school year. If you have anything you learned from last year that you would like to tell me about, send it my way smcgever (at) pv dot younglife dot org

Over the years I have noticed a trend with the clubs in our area, the ones that have the most cash deposits in early always bring the most people to camp. Now I don’t believe “having a lot of people at camp” is the holy grail of YL work, and in all honesty it can become an unhealthy idol in our view of our ministry. Yet, I’m sure we can all agree that wanting lots of kids to go to camp is a healthy goal for our work. On the flip side, some of our clubs only make the push to collect actual money a few days before camp. These clubs always have lower numbers of kids at camp.

This year we tried something that I’m sure many of you already do, we gave an incentive to get the deposit in early. For our YL trip we matched up to $50 of a deposit that was in by April 15^th. The deposit from the kids couldn’t be a fundraiser, it had to be actual money.

There was an important reason behind this. When you need actual money, parents usually have to get involved. So many times I’ve seen a kid be a part of several fundraisers, sometimes even earning a significant amount of money, but they don’t go to camp. Usually the culprit is they had none of their own money deposited. They liked hanging out at the fundraisers, maybe did some on their own, but they never had an actual sit-down talk with their parents to ask for the money. This happens less with junior high students since the parents are more in the loop, but this is common with high school students who may be pretty independent, until they need a few hundred dollars.

Our schools that normally bring a lot of kids to camp improved their numbers a little bit, but our schools with historically low numbers did significantly better with this approach.

Do you require a deposit by a certain date? Have you ever matched their money to incentivize signs-ups?

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Another great post from my wife Erin!…

While I’ve been the one going to camp as a leader and leaving our son with his grandparents for the week, more often over the past few years, I’ve been at home with the kids while Sean takes kids to camp. It can be a long week parenting solo…for me and for our kids who miss their daddy! Here’s some ideas to help make it through the week:

For the parent leading at camp…

• Pray for your kids daily. I mean your own children; I’m sure you will be praying for your club kids while you’re at camp And pray for your spouse, or whoever is watching them while you are away! They will all need it.
• Call when you can. I know it is hard to find time, especially in the first few days when the camp schedule is packed. Also, it’s hard to find a time and place to use your cell phone when campers aren’t around to get angry because you still have your phone. But they need to hear your voice. Also, people will ask your spouse how things are going at camp and it is great to be able to give them an update!
• If you can’t call when your kids are awake, leave a voice mail that they can listen to the next day. Our kids will listen to the messages from daddy over and over when they miss him. It helps them to feel loved, remembered, and connected.

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For anyone out there who has done a summer camp assignment, I could use your input…

Tradition at most YL camps is to have a “war room” room meeting in the morning. Usually this consists of a short devotional and prayer (10-20 minutes), then there is a review of the daily schedule and details with the assignment team, camp guest services and maybe a few more people.

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In my YL area we are going 110% on camp prep right now. One of our trips is less than two weeks away and another trip is not long after that.

Here are some popular re-posts that might help with your camp prep…

Camp unity outfits

http://ylhelp.com/2010/05/30/camp-unity-outfits/

Camp shirts

http://ylhelp.com/2010/05/01/summer-camp-shirts/

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For decades in our efforts to reach a world of kids Young Life has connected with high school kids in our traditional Young Life clubs. “In the past few decades junior high students have been reached with Wyldlife, kids with disabilities have come to love Capernaum Young Life, teen moms have found a safe haven with YoungLives, and in our commitment to reach every kid, many of us have applauded Young Life’s newest venture, Wyldlives”, says the newly appointed Western Division Wyldlives champion Troy Gray, current Area Director in Tempe, Arizona. Read the rest of this entry »

In our YL region we do a lot of weekend camps. I remember back in the day I used to haul up a few sound systems in a truck way early, talk the rental property people into the insane plans that we had, pushed play on the cassette or one of those new-fangled CD players (and you had to buy a CD with each song you wanted because “burning” CDs was years away), and there were no sound techs, you just did it yourself. All kinds of stuff. I can hear “You were LUCKY” lines beginning to be said from all the real program vets out there.

Anyway, though I’m in my third decade of doing program, we still do the same event almost every Saturday at weekend camps… Messy Games! It is a great event, I LOVE it. But there has to be some other awesome alternatives out there. I’ve seen a lot of things tried: scavenger hunts, amazing races, photo contests, tournaments of various kinds… But is there any great alternative or creative twist on messy games that anyone has seen?

If you have any comments, they would be greatly appreciated. A group of people are working together to try something new over the 5 or so weekend camps we have in the several weeks. We would love your input.

What do kids like pretty more than anything else? Pictures of themselves! Just check out Facebook… Wait it is called Face book, as in, I want to see my own face. Yes, that is the idea. Random tangent, I almost did a program skit recently that was going to be about my newest invention, “MyFace”, a new website that combines the best of both worlds, you can steal that idea if you want.

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Last summer I wrote a brief post about camp unity outfits. There were some great comments and ideas send in by you too. Thanks!

While I was on assignment last summer I tried to take a few pictures of some of the camp unity outfits I saw, so here are a few you can use and steal as needed! You can click on the pictures for larger versions. If you have ideas for this summer, leave a comment. I’m looking for an idea for my guys and we leave in a few days!

1. Old Ladies

2. White T’s with Letters

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Like many of us I am starting to look for summer camp shirts. You may have noticed the link on ylhelp about Retro Fashions. Ryan and Kylie at Retro have been active in YL for many years and have worked with our YL area to provide great shirts for all of our activities. I highly highly recommend them from my personal experience. In fact I think they have even gotten better over the years. They have a “we will beat any price” promise that I have never proven wrong. They even do artwork free of charge. Anyway, I was looking at some of their designs they have done in the past as I’m thinking of some for this year and I thought I’d pass them along for your viewing pleasure. These are some of my favorites…

PS… Check them out if you need a great design or price. http://www.fashionablyretro.com or just email RyanDurkin@FashionablyRetro.com

For those of you who have followed YLHelp for a while, you probably have seen that I have published a booklet for camp follow-up called Cabin Time Continued. It is a series of 10 Bible studies perfect for when you come home from camp. I’ve seen people use it just for normal campaigners too. In fact I’ve used it twice in the last week as a part of one of our team meeting Bible studies.

I’d like to announce a new resource I have published. It is called Live Like This. Live Like This is a study through the Sermon on the Mount. The Sermon on the Mount is a fantastic study, especially for those in campaigners since it is simply the teaching of Jesus. I’ve divided the booklet in two parts. Right now Part 1 is available and Part 2 should be done this summer. If you would like more information on either of these resources check out this page.

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