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Church Camp 2025 – another great success! Fr. Andrew Smith wanted me to pass on to you that he is very appreciative of how our mission community rallied around the St. Eugene Youth Camp. We sent two great men to be counselors, Ryan Buckner and Christopher Curry and helped with stipends for the counselors by donating over $1000.00. THANK YOU AGAIN!!

We had a record number of camper this year – 96! Bringing the total number of people involved to 145. Counselors and adult support staff took time off of work and made a sacrifice to be with the campers for 6 days! They do this because they are committed to providing our Orthodox Youth a great experience. For many of the kids, this is their only opportunity to socialize with other Orthodox Youth outside their own parish.

The campers experienced morning prayers and vespers daily. On Thursday we had a glorious celebration of the Divine Liturgy with beautiful music. We had Christian education, swimming, field games, arts and crafts and of course wonderful food even though it was during the Apostles Fast. I am so glad Ryan and Christopher got to meet other clergy and experience music different than what we sing in our mission. Many of our campers suffer from low emotional and intelligential abilities as do most youth in our country. Camp is the one place where they can’t be on their phones, are forced to deal with other people and given an opportunity to experience our beautiful faith with other young Orthodox people. An invaluable week! Whatever “fairy dust” we can sprinkle on our kids is a plus. Our campers learned that they are capable of making Christ present in their lives and in the lives of others.