“I was called to Wanake by God!” Quinn remembers. First, as a child and teen, his grandmother made sure he got to camp each year. “I remember being very afraid about coming to camp for the first time, and then after I was at camp for 10 minutes, the warm Wanake welcome made me feel right at home! I didn’t want to go home at the end of that week. Ten years later my cousin called to say that they needed me to become the dishwasher for the summer. I asked, ‘when should I come?’ He said ‘NOW!’ and so my work at Wanake began that day! I don’t know what I was looking for, but I knew that Wanake was a place I felt safe and at home and I was always eager to go back.”
“As a camper who did not have a church home, God made more sense to me at camp and in nature. The questions I had about the universe, creation and God’s work in the world could be asked and answered at camp. At Wanake I saw people who would not normally hang out together, work together, or even get along, working together and becoming good friends! I began to open my heart to people, who before camp I would have judged and not associated with. These are the people who I count as my closest friends today. At Wanake my mind was opened to see different perspectives as simply different, not bad.”
“One of the greatest lessons I learned at camp was about service. I learned to serve other staff members and the campers and through this service I was enriched and grew in my spiritual life. Early in my adult life I shared the priorities of the culture and it led to much suffering. I had a hole in my life that nothing of the world could fill. Later in life, when I came back to the principles I had learned at Wanake and prioritized spiritual things, my life became joyful and worth living. Wanake is my spiritual home!”
“What I appreciate most about Wanake is the power of building relationships and the conversations that campers and counselors have with each other about spiritual matters and questions about God. It is my hope that Wanake will continue to provide a place where campers (even those first-timers who are afraid to come) are safe to explore their relationship with God and find a spiritual home!”
You can make Wanake a spiritual home for campers by supporting the ministry at Wanake with your financial gift.
Your generosity to Wanake makes it possible for people of all ages and stages to find a spiritual home as they experience the love of Jesus, connect with God, grow spiritually, and explore God’s creation at Wanake. Thank you for your support of the ministry we share at Wanake - the beautiful, spiritual place among the hills.
