One camper, Keisha, had been arrested 30 times for fighting. As her counselor asked for forgiveness, Keisha thought, “Chrisy’s a mess, and so am I. If God can forgive her, maybe He can do the same for me.” A year later, Keisha gave her life to Christ.

Another girl, Faith, who had just tried to fight another girl in her cabin, was shocked by Chrisy’s sudden transformation from meltdown to peace after praying. She told Chrisy and the other counselor, “Do you think God could do that to me too?” They explained the gospel to her, and she gave her life to Christ right there.

Last August, at Chrisy’s wedding, Keisha and Faith were two of the four flower girls in the wedding party who are now following Jesus as a direct result of their Warm Beach Camp experience. Their stories are a picture of how the Lord is changing lives through the partnership of our YFC ministry and the Camp. It’s a picture of transformed lives deserving of the perfect caption: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” (2 Corinthians 5:17).

This past summer we brought 70 middle-schoolers from the Hilltop area of Tacoma to Warm Beach Camp. Most of these young teens were on the same path of destruction, violence, and hopelessness as Keisha and Faith had traveled. During their week at WBC, 60 of the 70 youth made declarations to either recommit, or commit their lives to Christ for the first time.

Heaven rejoices when a new name is written in the Book of Life. But I know we will also be rejoicing in a couple of years when we have more stories like Keisha and Faith’s.