Everything You Need to Know About Quest Camp

What is Quest Camp? Who is it for? How can I get involved? When can I register my child? Find the answers to all your questions on this episode!

Transcript

Speaker 0:00

Hey friends and neighbors, I'm your host, Courtney Hays, and this is the Silverdale Kids Podcast. Each month we chat about what's coming up in Silverdale Kids and ways you can help your child know God, love God, and treasure his word. This month I'm joined by Lauren Barnard, and we are talking all things plus camp. Welcome, Lauren.

Speaker 1 0:19

Hey, thanks. I'm so excited to be here. Great. Well, tell us a little bit about yourself. Okay. My name is Lauren, and I am our North Ooltewah Kids Director. I've been there for almost nine years now, and I am the wife to Zac and a Chattanooga native and lived here most of my life.

Speaker 0:38

Lauren has been on our kids team from the VBS days to our transition to Quest Camp, to our COVID year of family Olympics. So she has seen every iteration of what we do in the summer. So I wanted to have her here to talk to us about Quest Camp. So, Lauren, just give me an idea. What is Quest Camp and why do we do it?

Speaker 1 1:01

So, Quest Camp is honestly our very favorite week of the year. It is the most fun thing I think that we do. So it is a massive four-day-long kids camp for kids from kindergarten through fifth grade. And throughout the week, kids get to spend time worshiping, learning from God's word, and building friendships while they check out different activity tracks like sports or art or cooking, all kinds of fun activities they get to do. Okay, so when is Quest Camp this year? Quest camp is June 22nd through the 25th. And is it morning, evening? When do we do it? It is in the morning. So it's from 8:30 to 12:30.

Speaker 1:43

So we're done before we get to the hottest part of the day. That's right. And it since it's a four-day camp, we leave on a high note. So hopefully your kids are not too exhausted after they've been with us for four days. Uh so tell me again who Quest Camp is for.

Speaker 1 2:01

Yeah, so Quest Camp is for kids who have completed kindergarten through fifth graders, kids who have completed fifth grade. And then we also obviously have a lot of opportunities for volunteers. And so there's some fun things for that as well.

Speaker 2:17

So we're pretty intentional about saying it's for kids who have completed kindergarten. Talk to me a little bit about that.

Speaker 1 2:26

Yeah, absolutely. So the way we focus on our content really is because we get to write it in-house and tailor it specifically to what we think kids at Silverdale Baptist Church and in our community really need to know. And so, in order to do that really well, we want to make sure that the kids who come and attend have completed kindergarten enough to where they can begin to read and they have some knowledge about how to read the Bible. So when they're in their Bible studies, when they're in worship, we know that as we teach, as we do specific things, that it's geared just for their age level. So they really can get the most out of camp while they're with us.

Speaker 3:04

And for our kids who have completed fifth grade, they get the fantastic opportunity to not just do Quest Camp with us, but also kids who have completed fifth grade get to do Vive Camp at the end of the summer with students. So I love that it kind of gives us, gives them this high note, this experience that wraps up their time with us and then sends them into student ministry on a high note with Vive Camp. It's such a great summer for those kids who finish fifth grade.

Speaker 1 3:32

Yeah, it's like a real launching point for them. You know, they wrap up their time in kids' ministry and then they get to look on to the next set of milestones that's coming for them in student ministry.

Speaker 3:42

Okay, so you talked a little bit about how we build out our curriculum and our theme for Quest Camp in-house, right? Our team works on um writing all the Bible study content, doing all the large group content. Uh, it really is tailored specifically to kids, not only in Silverdale at Silverdale, but um in Chattanooga, what we're seeing our families and kids need. So uh tell me a little bit about what is this year's theme? How did our team land on that? And uh what can our families be looking forward to?

Speaker 1 4:17

That's one of the most fun things about camp is that we get to kind of watch the culture of our church and our kids and our community and just kind of see like, how do we feel like God is leading us to to teach our kids this summer? Like, what do we see as something that's really important that we either see that kids can learn more about or that kids are wrestling with? And so this year, as our team was talking, we really felt like that kids are really they're excited to learn about who Jesus is and about what it means to follow Jesus. But then a lot of times when we have conversations with kids in baptism meetings after they've become saved, there's kind of this question of like, okay, then what does it mean to follow Jesus? Like, what does that look like on a day-to-day level? And how do you make your faith strong? And a lot of times they kind of look at you like, um, and they don't really know what that means. And so our team was kind of talking about we were like, what if we kind of take our theme of Quest Camp and we talk about what it looks like to build your faith? And so this year, our theme is built up. And so it's a Lego theme, which is super fun, and obviously kids really enjoy Legos. And we're gonna be looking at our theme verse is in Colossians, and it's Colossians two, six and seven that says, So then just as you have received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him, being rooted and built up in him and established in the faith just as you were taught and overflowing with gratitude. And so really it's this focus of like, okay, we're gonna obviously explain what it means to follow Jesus, but then we also want kids to understand, like, hey, your faith is something that's actively growing and being built up for the rest of your lives. So, what does that look like? How do we build our faith? We're gonna be specifically studying Paul, how Saul became Paul, and then kind of seeing what his life looked like as he followed Jesus. And so really just kind of instilling that information of like, hey, salvation is something that happens, but then there's so much more to the Christian faith that we get to be a part of for the rest of our lives.

Speaker 6:21

Man, it's it's such a blessing to be able to be a part of a church that really can leverage those opportunities by creating our own content and making sure that our families have what they need in the moment. Um, as we as we do have those baptism conversations and see that that's consistently a theme, as man, I want to follow Jesus, but I don't know how. And Paul is such a fantastic person to look at for that genuine life change and just an all-out commitment to be everything that God called him to be and do everything that God called him to do. Uh, so if I want to be a part of Quest Camp, what do I do? And as an adult, if I want to be a part of Quest Camp, what do I do? What are what opportunities are there for me? And um, how do I get plugged in?

Speaker 1 7:19

We have hundreds of people who are adults and students who make Quest Camp happen. And so it really is just as fun for the adults as I think it is for the kids. And so if you're interested in serving, you can go to silverdalebc.com slash kids and you can register to serve at camp. Um, and there are multiple opportunities really of ways that you can plug in. Some of those being we have different activity tracks, which are different activities that kids get to kind of choose to do throughout the week. And so with those activity tracks, we always need some extra hands to help whoever is leading those tracks and leading them well. And so an activity track helper is a great option. Another really great option is being a classroom leader. And basically, a classroom leader is someone who takes kids uh to their different activities all throughout the day. And so it's some adults who get to really be a part of building relationships with kids throughout the week. They have the same set of kids that they spend every day with, and they just really get to build relationships, hang out with them, take them to and from all their activities and just participate and having fun with them and having some gospel conversations along the way. And then we also have amazing students who serve with us at camp. And so there's always opportunities for students who are in sixth through 12th grade to also serve with us at camp. And we love having them there too.

Speaker 8:45

I love that there is an opportunity to serve no matter what your skill set is. If you love building relationships, but you're like, I don't want to teach a thing, that classroom leader position is for you. Uh, we will train you in how to have those gospel conversations. We'll give you a little guide that goes with your name tag for how to spark those conversations with kids, uh, but you don't have to worry about preparing a lesson or doing anything like that. For our our friends who are like, man, I love to teach a thing. I love to help a kid understand a thing or do a thing. Those activity track leaders and helpers are fantastic. And the activities that we're able to offer because of the gifts of the people who attend our church. I mean, we've we've got multiple Lego tracks this year. We have a million different sports. Uh, we've got uh storybook adventures and drumming and I mean, just all kinds of wild things that people in our church said, man, I have that gift and I'd love to share it with others. It is really cool to get to see the body of Christ come together to put Quest Camp on. Uh so if you're interested in that and you're listening, again, silverdalebc.com/slash kids, you can click on the volunteer registration for Quest Camp and we will gladly plug you in so you can have the best weekend week of your life at Quest Camp. Um, what about if I want my kid to come? Because I really want my kid to come. So when does registration open? What does that look like? Yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 1 10:23

So registration opens on April the 1st. So here in just a few short days. And so you can go on our website again, silverdellbc.com slash kids, and you can click to register your kids to come to camp.

Speaker 10:36

We are planning on having our biggest camp ever, uh, which means it will take 500 volunteers to make that happen. And we plan on having 960 spots for kids this year. Um, every year we end up having a wait list. We do everything we can to try to get those kids in. Our team really wanted to prioritize this year, trying to make as much room for kids to attend as possible. As our church has grown, as Chattanooga has grown and continues to grow rapidly, we want as many kids as possible to get to come and hear the gospel and choose to follow Jesus. So don't just sign your kids up, talk to your neighbors, talk to their friends, get them to sign up for camp because we want to see lives changed forever at Quest Camp. So one last time, silverdalebc.com/slash kids is where you can sign up to volunteer, where on April 1st you'll be able to sign up your kid to attend. And we really hope that in some way, shape, or form you get plugged in with Quest Camp, whether it is praying for us in the weeks before or the week of, or coming and serving, or sending your kid. We are really excited about all God is gonna do at Quest Camp. So, Lauren, thanks so much for being here on the Silverdale Kids Podcast. We're so grateful for you and your ministry at North Utawa and to all Silverdale kids. And families, come back next month for a conversation with Heather Perkins where we're gonna talk about having gospel conversations in your home. We believe that great things happen when children know God, love God, and treasure his word. Thanks for joining us.

Speaker 1 12:18

Bye, everybody.