Impact | Now Serving

For many people, summer 2023 represents the first real opportunity to get away in years. A majority of people surveyed said they plan to travel more this year than last. Many are making up for lost time and taking more vacations than usual – seizing the opportunity that became precious to them after years where travel was difficult if not impossible. 

But not all travel this summer will be vacations – while some families are taking more and more vacations, hundreds of youth and their leaders are going on mission trips again. Impact Mission Camps is one of those opportunities, and we are seeing students coming to four locations to this summer ready to serve. Our theme for the summer is “Now Serving,” and it sets the tone for the variety of service opportunities participants will have to serve this summer. 

Impact Mission Camps are primarily construction-based mission camps where church youth groups travel to a location, sleep on a church or school floor, and serve homeowners with repair needs, helping ensure they will be safe, warm, and dry. The ministry runs alongside disaster response, with feeding volunteers providing meals, and offering participants the chance to learn how disaster feeding runs, and sometimes help with meals as well. Our summer staff comprising young adults who are previous campers or part of Kairos ministries are exploring their own sense of call as they develop the worship and devotional experiences for campers. They don’t show up and read a script written by someone else – they actually create the experiences for campers and take ownership of the faith development components of camp. 

Participants are serving together, making new friends, learning about communities they serve, and gaining tools that will help them turn a week-long mission experience into a next step in their life of service. When they return home, the work is really just beginning. They’ll be returning to their real mission field – the place where they and their churches can serve all the time. We ask you to pray for them as they serve this summer, as they explore where God may be calling them to serve next, and as they engage their own communities when they return home. 

Learn more about Impact Mission Camps here.