Winter Camp + YL75 Celebration

We’re back into the swing of things here in Belgium. After Christmas, our schedule was non-stop between our high school Winter Camp and the Young Life 75th Celebration conference in Orlando.

Winter Camp this year was held at an Army post in Germany. Club Beyond worked very hard to make this camp an engaging, Christ-centered experience, and we think it succeeded with flying colors. One student even mentioned that this was his favorite Club Beyond camp he had EVER been to—including the snowboarding/skiing camps that Club Beyond hosted in the past!

We brought two students from Brussels, a freshman boy and freshman girl, and we loved getting to spend the whole week with them. At camp, we went rock climbing, bowling, competed in field games, played archery tag, had an all-camp dodgeball game, and so many more activities it would take the rest of the post to write about.

Club Beyond did an amazing job pulling this camp off despite its many challenges. Our two students had a wonderful time, and we have been able to dig deeper in our relationships with them thanks to the focused time we were able to spend with them at camp. 

A few days after we returned from Winter Camp, we flew to Orlando, Florida to attend the Young Life Celebration, the all-staff conference that occurs once every four years. Over 5,000 Young Life staff members were present at this conference, and Young Life went all out since this year marks the ministry’s 75th anniversary. 

We enjoyed getting to see our stateside Young Life staff friends and reconnecting with stateside Young Life Military/Club Beyond staff. The Young Life Military/Club Beyond branch of the ministry is small in comparison to the other branches of Young Life, so we were honored to be highlighted during one of the general sessions. A military kid, Devon, gave her testimony and shared her experience with Club Beyond, which warmed our hearts to the core.