Big Sandy Church of God held its annual Family Camp from July 14th through the 18th in Beaver Creek State Park. Members gathered at the Lions Campground to camp together and hang out in the outdoors together. Though many chose to stay in tents or RVs for several days, plenty of families and individuals came for an afternoon or just to participate in the outdoor worship service in the park on Sunday Morning.
Rebecca Wiehe, who grew up in the Church of God, began organizing the annual camping trip three years ago. As she explains it, the event itself was originally well-attended with lots of variety of learning opportunities as well as recreation and chances to enjoy fellowship with others from the church. "Family camp started when I was little as the Church of God Vacation Bible School. We would go up to Beaver Creek Park and camp as a church family for a weekend. There would be structured events in the morning for kids which involved games, bible lesson, crafts, music, and snacks. Then the afternoon would be free time to play and visit in God's beautiful creation. There would be worship each evening, and we would end on Sunday with church service in the park. It started as a church camp and eventually evolved into a large event."
Over the years, the church discontinued the annual VBS camping trip, but the impact it made on Rebecca and others stayed with them far into the future. "Some of my favorite childhood memories are of time we spent playing and learning at camp! As our church has grown and we have a building full of kiddos, I wanted to create memories for these kids as well. I truly think there is nothing more wonderful and educational than being in nature and seeing/playing in God's creation. Then you add learning about His goodness, greatness, and majesty when you can see it all around, it touches your spirit in an eternal manner. The bonds it also creates as a church family are lasting as you learn about our Savior together."
After three years of establishing the basic organizational elements and learning what works well and what doesn't, Rebecca plans on expanding the annual retreat to include more and more spiritual elements, with the ultimate goal being the implementation of a VBS program as a part of the experience. "Next year, I hope to start including a worship service each evening with a biblical teaching. I started small by just having us camp together as a church family because it was a new thing for most of our church members, and we had lots of little kids. Now that we are more comfortable with camping together and the kiddos are older, I want to add in the biblical teaching and then possibly in 2 years have the VBS part added in for the kiddos." In the past couple of years, Family Camp has included teaching and crafts for kids, as well as family-oriented games, like the scavenger hunt that took place Saturday evening this year.
The Church of God Movement (Anderson, Indiana) has a long tradition of camp retreats and activities that rises out of its founding during camp revival meetings of the 1880s. The movement emphasizes the importance of uniting over our common faith in Jesus, rather than dividing over less central doctrinal matters or overly-restrictive ideas about membership. It is common for Church of God churches to hold their own annual camp meetings, with state and regional groups hosting larger camp gatherings to fellowship, worship, and learn. The Montana State Church of God Family Camp will take place in eastern Montana in August. This year, Big Sandy native Jeramie Erie will be speaking at one of the camp worship services.
For Big Sandy, Rebecca has a clear idea about where she wants the Family Camp to go in the future: "I'm not sure I want to add anything. More Jesus. More Bible lessons. More fellowship. More relationship building. I don't think you can go wrong if you add more Jesus. My desire was to restart something from my childhood so that memories could be created. I've done that and I am excited to see where the Lord will take it from here."
