Sports Camp at Caraballo
This summer, the Park School campus hosted the fifth annual Sports Camp, drawing about 200 kids, teenagers, and young adults from the community in Caraballo and surrounding areas. The camp is divided into two weeks: the first for children ages 10–15, and the second for youth 16 and older.
Each afternoon begins with worship and a devotional, each day led by different staff members and community leaders. These devotions brought biblical messages centered on this year’s camp theme: “Chosen for a Purpose.” Over the course of the week, youth learned from chosen topics: My Identity in Christ, Gifts and Calling, The Story of my Life, Walking by Faith, and Community and Purpose.
This year, the camp introduced small groups after each devotional. Team leaders guided their groups through questions and activities designed to help students think more deeply about what they had heard from God’s word. These conversations created space for honesty and openness, allowing participants to wrestle with questions of faith in a safe environment.
Leaders reported that the small groups opened the door for many deeper and more intimate conversations about the Bible and about God. Over the years, several participants have even given their lives to Christ at camp, and this year showed even greater opportunities for seeds of faith to take root.
Then, of course, came volleyball, basketball, soccer, and tons of games! The week ended with team competitions, MVP awards, and special recognitions like “Most Humble” and “Most Participatory.”
One of the most powerful parts of the camp is the way it reaches young people who might never otherwise hear the Gospel. Many of the participants come from other schools or have graduated out of Park School, many who are young adults not currently attending church and wouldn’t consider themselves Christians. Yet, year after year, they keep coming back—for the sports, the friendships, and the trust they have built with the school.
Some of the youth have been attending since the first camp in 2019. Today, they are young adults with jobs and even families of their own, but still make the effort to return each summer and be at the camp—proof of the lasting impact the ministry has had in their lives.
This year, Park welcomed a 22-member Go Team from West Side Presbyterian Church to join in running the camp activities.The church—longtime partners of KADR—spent their mornings refreshing the campus with paint, including hand-lettering our ministry’s core values on the school’s stairwell. And in the afternoons, they joined in on the devotions and sports activities.
Visiting teams like West Side bring living examples of servant leadership. Children see older students and adults choosing to invest their time, energy, and joy into others. Their presence was a blessing, showing participants that they are part of a much larger family of faith that stretches far beyond Caraballo.
One team member reflected, “Serving others for God doesn’t make it harder to get up and do it again tomorrow—it makes it easier.”
Another noticed, “Worship here isn’t about how it looks—it’s pure joy, with kids singing at the top of their lungs because they depend on God.”
The Caraballo Sports Camp continues to be more than just a week of games. It is a place where young people discover their worth, encounter the love of Christ, and leave with a renewed sense of purpose.
As one staff member reflected: “The best part of camp is seeing kids hear the Word of God—many for the first time. Even those who don’t go to church are still hearing truth, still experiencing worship, and still being reminded that they are loved by God.”
