Metro East Campers take time for a snack and serious conversation at Lake Sallateeska in June.
Springfield | This week, Michael Awbrey, IBSA’s Leadership Development Director, shared news worth celebrating when he announced, IBSA Summer Camps have set a record high attendance level, and the summer camp season isn’t even finished.
“We currently have 1,095 [students] that have participated in camps this year,” Awbrey wrote in an email to IBSA staff on Tuesday (July 15). “We have surpassed our previous all-time record (1,089) set in 2019, and with a weekend camp and another full week of camp next week we will add to that record before the season is up!”
Currently, 38 professions of faith in Christ have been reported at IBSA-sponsored camps this summer. In addition to the professions of faith, 40 have indicated they wish to be baptized in their local church, 12 have expressed feeling a call to missions or ministry, and two have re-committed their life to Christ.
Fun and games for Metro East Campers at Lake Sallateeska in June.
Each summer IBSA partners with local Baptist associations to host camps for children and youth at Lake Sallateeska and Streator Baptist Camps. This year’s theme is “The Good Life,” based on Matthew 5:1-11. Awbrey explained, “Everyone is seeking a good life, but the way most seek happiness and fulfillment in life leaves them disappointed and unfulfilled. In the Beatitudes, Jesus shows us the upside-down way happiness is found.”
This year there are eight IBSA Summer Camps, plus Super Summer, and two weekends of Level Up Guy Camps scheduled. They are all hosted at IBSA’s two camp properties, except Super Summer, which was held at Hannibal-LaGrange University in Hannibal, Mo.
The two IBSA camp properties, near Pinckneyville and Streator, also host numerous camps and retreats planned by local Baptist associations and churches throughout the summer, adding to the total of young lives changed by the gospel.
Watch for a final IBSA Summer Camp report in the August 1 issue of the Illinois Baptist newspaper.