“How Do I Donate?”

Recently, a thirteen-year-old guest at Camp asked Operations Director Kevin Smith, “how do I donate?” Kevin was honestly a little surprised, but was happy to see this young member – who was on retreat with one of our owning churches — taking some initiative. Kevin directed him to the website Donate page, and the young man discretely made his gift.

Later, when processing the gift, we notice two incredible things: First, this thirteen-year-old donated $100.00 of his own money to Camp! Second, in the memo line he ear-marked the gift for “the chicken who lost his neck feathers”.

Here’s a little background to this story: Camp started raising chickens this Summer as part of our Stewardship programming. This young man visited our chickens just a few days after we introduced our youngest crop of pullets into the population with older chickens. Integrating younger birds into the flock often involves a few rough days until the “pecking order” is established, and he saw a superficial wound from rough handling between the birds. Moved with compassion, he wanted to do something to help out. Well, we’re happy to announce that now the pecking has stopped, and the bird is all healed!

We don’t always know what motivates gifts like this – and sometimes the reason is kind of surprising. But it’s good to know all of our gifts are creating an inter-generational community that responds with compassion and sacrificial stewardship. Our investment in the youth, families, and churches of New York City through Camp is inspiring more gifts that glorify God, build experiences of authentic community, advance the Gospel, and open up the serenity of Creation for all to enjoy in fellowship.