“Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.” – Hebrews 13:8

I am so thankful Jesus is the same and will remain the same forever. He is unchanging and never failing.

One of the most fascinating things in youth ministry is the ever-changing culture of the students. Music, clothes, movies, humor, relationships, and expectations are moving and turning through a wheel that never stops spinning. Youth are viewing the world, and God, based on this cultural wheel which could present a problem for youth ministry organizations.

The best thing about Jesus is that He is consistent and always relevant no matter how the cultural spinning wheel is changing the perspective of the world.

Last year I decided to ask the youth attending Warm Beach Camp summer programs a question. I asked the campers to write down one question they had about God, the church, or their faith. The answers were heartbreaking, fascinating, extremely helpful, and gave me a glimpse into their world and knowledge of God based on their current environment.

I proceeded to sift through the answers and organized them by age. Out of these answers, the theme for summer of 2019 was born. After receiving very different questions from the Discover Campers (grades 4-6) and Adventure Campers (grades 7-9), I decided to make changes to the structure of the curriculum and themes.

The most commonly asked questions by Discover Campers were, “How was I created? Why was I created? Who created God?” I took this information and am intentionally crafting Discover Camp curriculum around the story of creation. We will be journeying through the book of Genesis for this age group.

The most commonly asked questions by Adventure Campers were, “How do you have faith? What is faith? If God is good, why does he let bad things happen?” As a result of these questions, the Adventure Camp theme will be “Champions of Faith.” We will learn about and meet some characters in Scripture who had big faith in the midst of crazy circumstances.

My hope and prayer for this summer is that the Lord will use these two themes to meet campers where they are in the middle of the questions they are asking. I am so excited to see how the Lord is going to move this summer through Warm Beach Summer Youth Camps.

-Sara Rodriguez
Youth Program Manager
Warm Beach Camp