“When Is the Next One?”

In July, seventeen Native young people from four nations spent five days together in the Idaho mountains. For most of them, it was the first time they had ever met Native Christians from outside their own community. For two of them, it was the first time they had been on an aeroplane. It was the first youth camp Lutheran Indian Ministries has ever held.

The camp had been a hope of our pastors for years. This summer it finally happened. Young people from Winnebago, Navajo, Neah Bay and Northern Cheyenne travelled to Camp Perkins, high in the Sawtooth Mountains near Stanley, Idaho, for five days built around a single idea: God is for us.

Days ran from eight in the morning until half past nine at night. They swam in the lake, hiked, biked, kayaked, climbed the wall, shot archery, played basketball and volleyball. Pastors Ricky Jacob, Tim Norton and Ben Maxson led devotions morning and evening, and each day the young people were asked what “God is for us” meant to them — and answered in their own words.

Why a camp matters more than it sounds

Pastor Tim Norton, who serves Shepherd of the Valley Lutheran Church in Navajo, New Mexico, gave the plainest answer to why this was worth doing.

Five days of safety is not a small gift when a child is carrying what many of these children carry. And within that safety, things grew.

What grew there

Faith the young people named themselves. Pastor Ricky Jacob read the thank-you notes afterwards. One girl, Juliana, wrote about her faith growing four separate times in a single note.

Friendships between nations that had never met. Chaperones deliberately nudged the young people out of their own groups. One parent described what her children took home simply: “to know that other people, and other Natives, do love Jesus too.”

Confidence that will outlast the week. Two of the youth had never flown before. Rather than simply shepherd them through the airport, LIM's Suzette Shreffler taught them to read a boarding pass, find a flight number and a gate, and use the departure boards — then had them lead her through the terminal. Both said afterwards they could now fly somewhere on their own.

Leadership, unasked for. During an evening check-in around the campfire, one of the youngest campers noticed two adults standing just outside the circle and made sure both were brought in before the group moved on. She had already taught the other children a song.

Another camper, a shy teenager serving as a junior chaperone, was given the job of calling the younger children back across the lake. He couldn't do it at first — he kept laughing, then trying again. Suzette stayed with him until he found the volume, and told him she remembered being the same, not believing her own voice mattered.

Five days, in pictures

“When is the next one?”

That was the question the young people ended the week with. Not can we go home. When is the next one.

The pastors are already talking about 2027. And there is a straightforward reason to hope more children can come: the thing that kept some away this year was not money and it was not willingness. It was paperwork — consent forms and background checks that could not be gathered in time. Two groups of young people who wanted to be there weren't. As Pastor Tim Norton put it, “it's just sad when we have a youth gathering and not all the youth are gathered.”

That is a solvable problem, and we are solving it.