* We’ve Extended the Special Needs & T-Shirt Sizes Deadline to April 30 *

GLP HIGHLIGHT: YOUTH BIBLE STUDY

The bus is parked, the rooms are assigned, bellies are full of college cafeteria goodness, and you’ve nabbed the perfect seats at Opening Celebration: You’re officially at camp. As you pass out the Passports to your students and wait with them to see which Bible Study each will be assigned, you think to yourself: Why aren’t students separated by age?

The question is as reasonable as it is common and we’re here today to answer just that. PASSPORT mixes campers together randomly in Bible Study and Choice groups intentionally for two reasons:

✚ From a practical perspective, Sr. high students help provide maturity and leadership for all groups. We have seen that conversation flows easier when this leadership is present. While we know each Bible Study Group has it’s own dynamic and over 25 years, we have found that both older & younger students are more likely to engage in mixed-age groups than when separated.

✚ As an educational & spiritual matter, we like to encourage the interaction of older and younger youth during camp. What might be given up in specifically accommodating developmental differences is more than gained back in interaction, in role modeling, and in peer leadership.

We believe that all youth, no matter the age, have something to offer. Each youth comes to camp with different life experiences, circumstances, and maturity levels. It is our belief that we can all learn something from these experiences.

By enabling a shared experience, it is our hope that we are helping to bridge the gap of hierarchy that so often exists within youth groups. In doing so, we believe students can gain important leadership skills and be challenged to interact meaningfully with youth and adults from other regions, ages, and socio-economic backgrounds. Our studies are written thoughtfully to engage minds on all levels: visually, verbally, kinesthetically, socially, and solitarily in the hopes that we encourage students to dig deeper into a biblical text.

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