Spring Retreat Recap
By Briana McCullough
Call of Duty: Spiritual Warfare was an amazing weekend filled with fun, food, games and worship. It was definitely a faith-starting and/or renewing weekend for me and many others.
Ephesians 6:12
“For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.”
Who is God?
Friday night we started off with Josh Hallahan was telling us about our God that we serve and love. We were taught that our God is our Creator, Pursuer, and Father. God fights for us and protects us. Lastly God Forgives and Redeems us. We ended of the night with ice cream sundaes and a game of “Find Your Team’s Puzzle Pieces.”
Prayer
Saturday morning we woke up to pancakes with sausage. Chapel in the morning was about prayer. A bunch of campers acted out Acts 12 and I must say it was pretty well executed! Leah Palamaro and Dave Hallahan shared prayer testimonies they had experienced. Josh ended chapel with telling us to pray constantly and expectedly. The classes and seminars were about expressing your faith, finding your spiritual gifts, different ministries you can become involved with, making good choices with food and superheroes: our strengths and weaknesses.
That day for lunch we had my personal favorite meal: chicken patties. During the day we played “Wawa man” on the soccer field. We were also divided up into our teams and were sent out to do different obstacles like crossing the lake, going through spider webs, army crawling, blowing up and popping balloons, and an obstacle course. We had a nice dinner of spaghetti and meatballs for dinner.
Devil
Saturday night’s chapel was on the devil and how he is the enemy. We learned that the devil’s goal was to just get us to turn away from God and stop following God’s path for us. Also that the devil is the prince of this world, and is very deceiving. But that the devil also has his doom sealed for hell and will suffer. Ending the service we all laid hands on Julio and said a prayer for him and Jen as he was leaving for Haiti that night. We ended this night with playing “The Lost Platoon” and eating some funnel cake.
Holiness
Sunday morning we had bacon and french toast for breakfast. And ended with good old pretzel roll sandwiches. Our closing chapel was on Holiness. Josh explained it by saying we have to stand apart and glorify God in all things we do. nd lastly that faithfulness is also an act. We got a surprise phone call from Julio, telling us how Haiti was. Then we packed our bags, said our goodbyes and headed home.
His Story: Randy Plungis
By Randy Plungis
Delanco Camp has touched my life in so many ways. Every time I go, I feel the presence of God come into my life and renew my faith.
The first time I ever went to camp, I was in a real slump. High School was a drag, I didn’t know what God wanted for my life. I felt as though I was on the sidelines, and that life was passing me by.
Today, I look back and realize that Delanco was a turning point in my life. God really came and got a hold of me. If Delanco had never been a part of my life, I don’t know where I might be. It wasn’t just the worship or the altar calls, but it was about the love, community, and fellowship I found there.
If there was a ever a time I needed to talk to someone, there was someone there. The support I got from everyone was something I didn’t have much in my life, and I finally realized that there was more to being a Christian than just living life and being nice.
I left Delanco, not only with friends, but with a family… one that I will always remember and treasure.
Want to share what God has done in your life through Delanco Camp? E-mail it to matt.ralph@delanco.org.
His Story @ Delanco Camp: Jade
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By Jade Hunsberger
I accepted Jesus into my heart in the year 2000 at Jr. High 1 at Delanco Camp. I was too young to camp, but my parents were on staff for the week, so I attended with them. I remember kneeling at the altar in the Tabernacle one night, praying with a counselor to accept Jesus into my heart. I remember thinking at first that I didn’t feel any different. I was only eight years old.
After I had been going to Delanco for about three years, I went to a different camp for adopted children. I remember feeling alone because there weren’t any other Christian kids to talk to, and they didn’t pray before they ate meals or read devotions before bedtime. That’s when I realized that I had changed. I realized that being a Christian was not something you do for one day and then stop. I realized it wasn’t going to be easy, because not everyone shares the same beliefs as me.
When I leave Delanco to come home, I feel like I am moving to a new house. It’s like Delanco is my home because everyone there knows me and shares my beliefs. Most of my friends are from there. I have my counselors to talk to. Sometimes, permanent staff talks with me at free time about spiritual things. This summer, I served as a counselor for the first time at junior camp and got to share about faith with younger children.
At school, I do what I learned at camp by making myself available to talk with any peers who need someone to talk to, since school is an atmosphere where I can influence others. I think they look up to me and respect my faith. But, outside school, I also do what I learned at camp—I’m very careful about who I spend time with, since my goal is to live with Jesus at my side, guiding every minute of my life. This is why I prefer to be around Christians from Delanco during the school year. Some of my friends from Delanco live far away, so I have sleepovers with them to spend time with them.
Without Jesus’ salvation, we wouldn’t go to heaven because we are sinners. We are called to lead a life of Holiness in our thoughts, our words and our actions. Delanco helps me to accomplish this in my life.
Have a testimony of what God has done in your life through Delanco Camp? E-mail it to matt.ralph@delanco.org.
Living on purpose
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By Kim Zayac
This year at Delanco, the theme for Teen II was “Living On Purpose.” We were taught throughout the week to be “rebels” for Christ, because, quite frankly, not many teens our age are doing that. We were taught to stand out in our faith, and live “on purpose” for Jesus.
We spent the week in classes that were taught by Jenny and Jon Falcone, Julio and the Rambos. Each class had a different theme. Jenny’s class was about promises and John’s was about listening. In the Rambo’s class, we were taught more about Uganda and what they would be doing to serve God in Africa. And in Julio’s class, we talked about our futures and what we thought our purpose in life was.
In Jon Falcone’s class, we had to sit and listen to the silence for ten minutes. When he asked us to do it, right away I was like, “Oh yeah, this is going to be so easy.” I was really surprised at how increadably difficult it was to just sit and listen. I was constantly thinking of something else, my mind drifting. Or something would catch my attention and I would lose focus on what I was supposed to be doing. Listening to the voice of God is a really difficult thing to do, but John told us with practice, we’d be able to do it. Now I’m looking forward to just shutting up and listening 
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Personally, I think the highlight of my week was the service on Wednesday night. Upon entering the Tabernacle, we all had to pick up a stick or a log outside and bring it in with us. I remember thinking, “What the heck?” But at the end of the service, we were told that the log was representitive of the thing in our life that held us back from giving God our all. The log stood as a symbol for the piece of your life that you weren’t willing to give up to God. Then, once we left the Tabernacle, we were supposed to go down to the fire ring and burn it. And Scott Rambo said, “Once you put something into fire, it can’t come back.” It was just a really emotional experience for me personally, and I feel like it helped me grow in my faith. Letting go of something in your life that’s holding you back can be so relieving; the pressure from it just disappers once it’s gone. And letting go and giving into God is the most awesome feeling, and I definitely felt that during the week at camp.
Teen II this year was, in my eyes, a huge success. We all had tons of fun playing the night games and in planned rec. The devotionals and services were great, Jamie Damm was an awesome speaker and I believe that every camper got something out of the week. The verse on our T-shirts for the week was 2 Corinthians 5:5, which says; “Now it is God who has made us for this very purpose and has given us the Spirit as a deposit, garunteeing what is to come.” I encourage everyone who was at camp this past week, and also those who weren’t, to live for a purpose, and to live for God.
Junior High 1 recap
Junior High 1 campers playing a game called paranoid.
By Joy Price
Wow! Junior High 1 at Delanco has got to be one of the best camps I have ever been to! I don’t think I ever got a break from all of the excitement we had going on that week.
One of the best parts of the week was our evening services. Most kids who go to Christian camp say their services are boring. But they are definitety not at Delanco! We had one of the best evangelists that week. His name is Mikey Stephens. Over the course of the week, he talked about God’s light and how it can be spread throughout the world.
We had great games over the week. My personal favorite was Pirates, were I got caught so many times my ears still hurt from jumping in the water so much. (For those of you who dont know in the game Pirates if you get caught you have to jump into Lake Agape).
We had a wide variety of activities at Delanco every morning. We would wash up, have devotions, eat breakfast, clean up and go to chapel. Then we would have lunch and free time. During free time there was always a planned activity for us to do and if you didn’t want to participate you could go swimming, boating, do arts and crafts or play volleyball and basketball.
So if you think you will ever be bored at this camp I will let you know now you never will be. If anyone really wants to decide on a camp to go to I would definitely recommend Delanco. It is one of the BEST camps around.
Do you want to write a guest blog about your experiences at camp this summer? E-mail matt.ralph@delanco.org.
Welcome to the blog for Delanco Camp, an inter-denominational Christian camp in Tabernacle, N.J. If you have questions, would like to contribute, advertise or want to share a story, memory, old photos or testimony of your time at camp, contact Blog Editor Matt Ralph at matt.ralph@delanco.org. Upcoming Events
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