As many of you know, our youth ministry had plans to attend CIY’s summer retreats for our Jr. High and High School retreats this summer. CIY has been an integral piece of our ministry over the past 3 years, and our youth were excited to go to CIY in person after having to attend a remote retreat last year. Unfortunately, both the CIY Move and Mix camps we were scheduled to go to this year were cancelled. CIY Mix did not reach the required registration numbers to run its event in Washington and CIY Move had to be cancelled due to restrictions placed upon Oregon State University, the site which hosts the camp.
Although CIY was cancelled we were (thankfully) able to get spots at Black Lake Bible Camp. Black Lake Bible Camp is a camp up in Olympia, Washington which runs Middle School and High School camps during the summer. Our youth group has a long history with Black Lake, as we attended there before we began sending students to CIY. Black Lake was the site where Wil and Liz Lampinen first met, so the connections to Black Lake are still felt in our church, even though we have not attended the camp in years. While our students will miss attending CIY this summer, I know they are excited to return to Black Lake.
Many of you might be wondering about the funds we raised for CIY at our dessert night fundraiser. That money has not gone to waste. Those funds have been transitioned to help make Black Lake possible for our students. Thanks to the generosity of our church family, we were able to cut the total cost of camp in half for our students! This makes camp possible for many students who might not have been able to attend otherwise. For everyone who donated to our camps this year, thank you for your deep generosity.
This summer might look different than we anticipated, but we fully trust that God is still in control. As we approach our summer retreats, please be praying for our students. This is far from the only change many of them have had to navigate in this past year. Pray that the retreat would happen as scheduled and that the Lord would work through our weeks at Black Lake to impact students. Although we will not be attending CIY, I know that the same God who worked in our students' hearts at CIY will be with us as we attend Black Lake this summer.