Tag: Alumni Stories

How God Uses Camp to REJUVENATE Our Spirits

Posted on by Katlyn Kincaid
Eagle Lake is a place where someone can experience God’s intimate love through genuine friendships, discipline in the Word and prayer, and selfless serving. And it’s all possible because Jesus died and rose again for our sin, and the people there know and live in this. 

I first discovered this truth the summer after I graduated from high school. Emotionally exhausted and ready for a fresh start after senior year, I ran away to Eagle Lake. I had lived the last few years seeking fulfillment and love from my church leaders and friends, but kept coming out empty and hurt. Although I didn’t realized it at the time, I was seeking God’s love through works and through the approval of man. The more discouraged in my faith I grew, the more I just wanted to get away. Thus, as plans for a summer at Eagle Lake fell in to place, I grew more and more excited.
Face painting fun
life-long friendships
Trash Days
Parking Lot Duty

Serving on Eagle Lake Crew exceeded my expectations.I quickly formed sincere friendships. My counselors provided constant accountability for disciplined time in the Word, and my leaders and the peers walking alongside me daily encouraged me to seek JESUS first. Waking up at 5am, cleaning toilets and sleeping on plastic mattresses with a dirt floor may sound terrible, but it created a full reliance on and desire for those sweet early mornings with Jesus.
The fellowship on Crew was also instrumental to my growth that summer. I had never experienced such a tight knit community working together to better each other in the gospel and strengthen each other to willingly serve. My heart began to overflow with precious love from Jesus for the people around me. I slowly realized that this had always been in my life, but had become fogged near the end of high school. I resolved to continue to allow Jesus’ love to permeate my feelings for the people around me when I returned home.
Buddies
Cross Hike
Cross hike
Banquet Night Finery
God taught me through my summer as a crew camper to dwell in the word of Christ, serve willingly in humility, and to listen to and love others better. I need and still try to get daily time in the Word and time to study the Bible. And my husband and I pursue godly community who encourage us and whom we can encourage in return.
 Leaving camp was hard, but I started praying that God would allow me to live a Gospel-centered life. My summer at camp set a beautiful foundation for my soul to remember the importance of God’s Word and genuine community so that I can do so.
By Meredith, former Crew camper and counselor
Crew Staff Picture

How God Uses Camp to REDEEM Our Stories

Posted on by Katlyn Kincaid

Eagle Lake is my safe place, the place that builds me up and gives me a booster shot to live in the real world until I can come back.

My parents divorced when I was in 6th grade. It was an incredibly difficult time. Life was crazy and painful and I just wanted to escape. That’s when I first encountered Eagle Lake. It became my safe haven; a place that protected me from the hard and painful back home.

Crazy night fun

Banquet night fun

My relationship with my dad became especially difficult after the divorce. It was during another week of camp at Eagle Lake a different summer that I had an amazing breakthrough. During a time of worship one night, I realized that my dad is human and will continue to disappoint me. But I also realized that God is my true Father, and because He is God, He will never disappoint me and will always be there for me.

Being a camper helped me realize that, even though I may want to live life alone, I can’t. But God is always there for me, and there are other amazing people out there who want to live life alongside me.

I knew I’d be a camper until they told me I couldn’t be a camper any more. And then I’d be a counselor until they told me I couldn’t do that anymore. So last year I joined the Eagle Lake staff as a counselor. During orientation, they told us that a lot of times, God puts campers in our lives who have similar stories, and it was really cool to see how God orchestrated this in my life, too.

Camp friends are the best friends

Banquet Night

During one of the free times, I had the opportunity to hang out with a camper who wasn’t even mine.  His counselor came to me and asked me to talk to him since he knew we had similar stories.  I had seen the camper before this week; in fact, it was his third week here this summer.  The camper paid for himself and came up to camp to escape his family.  It was heartbreaking that he was going through such difficult times, but so incredibly inspiring that even at such a young age he was turning to God and searching for Him during these difficult times instead of seeking fulfillment and escape in other ways.

Sometimes it’s hard to remember that I wasn’t the only person to walk through the types of trials I experienced. It was extremely difficult to hear that someone else was experiencing the same pain as I had. However, through this camper God showed me that I could be useful in demonstrating that God was still working in my life and carrying me through the lingering pain of those early hardships.  It was unforgettable to be able to talk to this camper and share in his pain and troubles and assure him that he is not alone in this journey. I feel honored to have met him and connected with him.

That week he memorized eighty verses and received the Eagle Award.  It was so special to meet someone with such a strong yearning for God who is willing to make sacrifices to seek Him even in the hard times.  God is so good and He blows me away that He would place me and that camper in each others’ lives so that we could impact one another.

Beach time

Counselor Lyfe

This is what is so amazing about Eagle Lake.  It so obvious that behind each relationship, cabin assignment, activity, and one-on-one God is working and has a plan.  At Eagle Lake we have the opportunity to see God working right in front of us, and using us in one another’s lives as we all strive to know Him more.  The camper is hoping to come back next summer to take part in the crew program and grow even closer to God.  Please be praying for this opportunity to be made possible so more people can pour into him and that he can inspire them through his testimony just as he inspired me.  Please also be praying for his continued pursuit of God as he goes through life!

And it’s so beautiful how God continued to work in my life using Eagle Lake, too. During camp, I realized how much I love youth ministry, and decided to change my major, but I wasn’t sure where to go from there. One of the full time staff, while talking to me, realized I lived in the same town as a former full-time staffer and his family. She connected us, and they’ve really taken me in! I’m going to church with them every Sunday, and am helping out with their youth group and leading a Bible study with 9th grade girls!

Eagle Lake is not a normal job where you move on to the next thing when it’s over. It becomes a part of your life.

Wolf Pack

the crosses

by Rez and Crew camper and Rez counselor alumn Carrie

How God Uses Camp to RESTORE Our Souls

Posted on by Katlyn Kincaid

When I hear the words “life story” or “testimony”, they are soon followed by my abundance of wonderful memories from Eagle Lake. My summers at camp impacted where I went to college, the people I lived with, my career aspirations, and most importantly my relationship with Him.

Let me explain…

I grew up in New Orleans, Louisiana and gave my life to the Lord at a very young age. While on a church mission trip to an orphanage in Mexico, I asked to be a part of what He was doing in that place. My parents heard about Eagle Lake from my cousins (former staff) and started sending me there when I was 9. I did three summers as a Rez camper and moved on to Excursions as I got older. Although the Lord planted seeds during these weeks at camp, nothing could have prepared me for the literal storm awaiting me in middle school.

In 2005, Hurricane Katrina wreaked havoc on the city of New Orleans. This storm displace my family, flooded my home, and shattered my faith in the existence of a loving God. Throughout middle school, I struggled with overwhelming anxiety and depression that eventually led to thoughts of suicide. My parents tried sending me to counselors and psychiatrists, but nothing could heal the wounds that stemmed from a crisis of faith.

Banquet

As a last resort, they forced me to attend the Crew program in 2008 and it was the best decision they have every made for me! God wore me down through the love of His people, the power of His word, and the healing of His Spirit. I asked Jesus back into my life during a powerful prayer night on Crew and instantly my sadness and anger melted away as hope began to rise from ashes. The good Lord redeemed my life from the pit and brought about a 2nd Corinthians 5:17 transformation.

Sean McKelvey, the crew director at the time, baptized me in the lake toward the end of the session. I went back for Crew every summer in high school, making lifelong friends and growing in my walk with God. At the end of my last year as a Crew camper in 2011, I got in the car and told my mom that I needed to go to school in Colorado. We toured a few schools and God led me to Colorado State University.

Slacklining

Horseback

Baptism

I wasn’t very faithful in my walk down the mountain for much of high school and started really getting into the party scene during that time. The identity I cultivated in that scene followed me into college and that’s basically what I did for most of my freshmen year. I accomplished just about everything I wanted to that year and I was left dead in my faith and dissatisfied by what the world had to offer. At the end of my freshmen year, I did what I had always done when I had a crisis of faith…I went back to camp. Eagle Lake welcomed me back like the prodigal son I had been, and helped plug me into a Christian community at CSU. I ended up living with Eagle Lake guys for my junior and senior year of college and am confident that we will remain lifelong friends.

Fun at Camp

Friendships

I served as a Crew counselor for the past two summers and helped create Activities Crew, a sort of counselor-in-training program for more mature high school students. As a counselor, I saw God use all of my past experiences and brokenness to His glory. I learned that God doesn’t let pain go unused, as I was able to come alongside some students dealing with anxiety and depression and others who had placed their identity in practices I once had. This past summer, I was also able to be discipled by the man who baptized me in the lake eight years earlier. God is sovereign and truly has an awesome plan!

Water Fun

Crew Staff

The work of the Lord at Eagle Lake gave me a new life. He used that place to give me lifelong friends, unforgettable lessons in discipleship, and countless laughs.

Camp changed the trajectory of my life after college also. During my first summer as a Crew counselor, God began calling me toward the nations. This January, I ship off for an 11-country, 11-month mission trip around the world called The World Race. I’m eager to apply what I’ve learned during my time at Eagle Lake during this crazy, wonderful adventure the Lord has blessed me with.

-Nick, former Rez, Excursions, and Crew camper and Rez and Crew Counselor