Looking for something to do with your children next week? How about sending them to a sports camp. That's right, Northwest Baptist Church is offering a sports camp next week called Champs camp. Hundreds of kids from the metro will be attending. Carla Hinton, religious editor of the Oklahoman, talked about it in the paper today:


"Northwest Baptist Champs Camp offers 13 activities for local youths

By Carla Hinton
The Oklahoman

Grab a golf club, a basketball or pompom and head to Northwest Baptist Church, 3030 NW 23.


The church is offering its Champs Camp during spring break week, Monday through March 17. Thirteen sports activities -- basketball, tennis, golf, baseball, softball, track and field, football, tennis, cheerleading, bowling, martial arts, soccer and volleyball -- will be offered for children in first through sixth grades.

Josh Kitchen, Northwest's youth pastor, said the sports camp is just one of the ways the ministry connects with the surrounding community.

"I think if a church doesn't look outside its own doors, we're missing the mission," he said.

"We're to be salt and light," he said.

In the past, Kitchen said, teen and adult volunteers from the church traveled to Harlingen, Texas, to offer the sports camp to youths there during spring break. He said Northwest Baptist partnered with First Baptist Church of Harlingen and other Texas ministries to provide sports activities for up to 800 young people.

Last year, the Oklahoma City church decided to offer a similar camp for youths in its own back yard.

"We have just as big a need here at home," Kitchen said.

Response to last year's camp came flooding in through e-mails, cards and phone calls from youths and their parents who said they enjoyed the sports camp, Kitchen said.

Representatives of nearby schools, including Linwood, Madison and Hawthorne elementary schools, also had good things to say about the camp.

"This church has been such a positive influence on our community," said Lesla Tilley, principal at Madison, 3117 N Independence.

"It's wonderful that they have so many activities for the kids to do."

Kitchen said about 120 teens and 100 adults will help operate this year's Champs Camp with help from college students and coaches.

Activities will be at the church, and youths also will travel to various sports venues in the community. Some classes will be at Will Rogers Tennis Center; Jimmy Stewart Golf Course in conjunction with the First Tee Golf Program; Will Rogers Park; Taft Stadium and AMF Windsor Lanes bowling center.

Kitchen said the martial arts, track and field and golf activities are new this year, as the church responds to suggestions from previous campers.

He said most of the youths will get to participate in each sports activity, thus exposing the young people to sports they never have tried.

"You see kids in football and basketball. How many kids actually get to golf, play tennis?" Kitchen asked.

"Some of them may be excellent golfers but have not had an opportunity to play."
Young people will take home more than sports skills, he predicted.

The camp also will teach about character such as the importance of honesty, how to make good decisions and how to relate to parents.
Kitchen said each camper also will take home a camp T-shirt, medals and a special DVD showing snippets of the week's experiences at camp.

That's a great idea... mine are camping with Grandma for a few days but this sounds so fun for the kids. I'll have to check into for summer.

__________________
" You've Been Thunder Struck ! "

Hey, I'm still a kid at heart. We get Spring Break this week...I'll probably be relaxing during the days, and studying at night. I'm a night owl.

A night owl??? How about an "all" night owl?

Usually, during the week of spring break, we take the teenagers of our church to church camp for two or three days. This year, since we need to make repairs on our cabin at Falls Creek, we decided to do something different.

We are having a "working" retreat right here in the city. Wednesday, the teenagers will be doing yard work and general clean up for several of the elderly members of our church. They will be raking leaves, painting, and anything else that needs to be done.

On Thursday, we will do work around the church, sprucing things up. What makes this so neat is that we will be spending two nights in our gym. We will work during the day, and watch movies, play games, and have snacks in the evening.

I took two days off of work to be involved in this, and I believe it is going to be two days well spent.