Mission Moments in Pictures

“Garaywa Completes 61st Summer Camping Season”

By Erica Harms

The excitement in the air was contagious. Girls of every shape, size, and color scurried here and there excitedly greeting old friends and already making new ones. Laden down with pillows, sleeping bags, and suitcases, each looked a bit bewildered as she tried to find which way to go. At every turn were friendly smiles and cheerful voices singing out, “Hi! Welcome to Camp Garaywa.”

Garaywa Camp and Conference Center, located within the Clinton city limits, has been hosting Mississippi Baptist GA (Girls in Action) and Acteens camps since 1947. Funding by the Margaret Lackey state missions offering, the Cooperative Program, the Edwina Robinson wMu Special Day offering, and a nominal camper fee allowed 1,664 girls to come through the gates this summer.

Every morning, campers rotated between several missions-oriented activities, including a share time with the missionary serving at camp that week. After lunch, camp was alive and vibrant with splashes from the pool, laughter from the ropes course, and squeals from the zipline in the woods. The evenings concluded with a special event and time of worship.

“I know what a difference camp can make in the lives of students because I know what it did for me,” said Katie Welch, 2008 assistant director.

Like Welch, both campers and staff alike have encountered the Lord inside the Garaywa gates. For eight weeks, 36 college students made Garaywa their home as they invested in the lives of the fourteen campers in their cabin each week.

“This summer was more than I could have ever asked for. It was at camp this summer that I felt God leading me into full-time career missions,” said Christa Hudson, a cabin leader from Mississippi State Univ. Hudson was one of several cabin leaders to answer that call.

“We expect God to move and work among our campers, but it’s so exciting when He begins to work among our staff,” Welch said.

This year’s theme, highlighted with Isaiah 40:30-31, was “On Your Mark, Get Set, Go!”

The goal was for campers to not only to have a positive camping experience, but to come to know the Lord in a personal way, to understand that they are uniquely created by God, and to catch a vision of what they can do in missions. As a result, nearly 40 professions of faith were made among campers this summer.

“There’s nothing for us to brag about. It was God who chose to show up and move among our cabins. We’re just blessed He chose us to be a part of it,” said Ashley Waldrep, a 2008 unit leader from Blue Mountain College.

Though Clinton may be just outside the gate, Garaywa is a world apart. Moss covered trees create an atmosphere of timeless expectation, mystery, and seclusion.

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