Summer Camp 2007 marked by riverside baptisms, agape dinner, new dining hall

Summer Camp 2007 opened with a bang as 59 high school students from the diocese gathered for "Camp Survivor." Tribes competed for points in games that tested endurance, strength and intellect. Though not as melodramatic as reality television, Camp Survivor came to a moving climax, as it culminated at the final Eucharist with two baptisms in Rough River Lake.

"It's the best senior high camp I've experienced in 42 years of doing this. And I think Ben Linder just designed an effective program," said Bishop Ted Gulick, who noted that this was his first time to do an immersion baptism in a lake in his entire ministry. Roman April, a camper from Louisville, and Abby Babbiche, a counselor who recently graduated from Centre College, were the newest baptized members into the body of Christ.


The three camp programs that followed over the next three weeks brought more than 160 youth to All Saints’ Conference Center, located outside Leitchfield in western Kentucky. The seventh and eighth graders ended a weeklong camp devoted to “Blessed are the Peacemakers” with a dance and a Fourth of July celebration. Ben Linder, along with counselors Mark Donnelly and Andrew Collins, put on a fireworks show unfortunately limited by local ordinances.

Some fifth and sixth graders ended their weeklong camp focused “CSI Leitchfield” with a talent show and a new event, an “agape meal,” during which the campers were treated to their evening snack in a candlelit Marmion Commons. The event is centered on Christian fellowship, and gives campers a time to reflect on the memories and congeal the friendships made that week.

During the final week of camp, second, third and fourth graders experienced another hallmark of the 2007 camp program: they can tell folks they were among the first diners served in All Saints’ brand new dining hall. These campers focused on how God calls us to be superheroes, and they even had special visits from Chip, the monkey, a puppet friend of the Rev. Mike Lager.

To see pictures and videos from the camp, including a video of the baptisms during Senior High camp, visit youth.episcopalky.org.