05/30/2026
A week at RFK NELA Camp is hard to explain unless you have lived it.
It is one of the few places where children who have experienced abuse, neglect, abandonment, and foster care simply get to be children again. For one week, labels disappear. Court dates, case plans, trauma histories, and difficult realities fade into the background while laughter, friendship, safety, and joy take their place.
The week begins with excitement, nervousness, and anticipation. Campers arrive carrying more than just duffel bags. Many carry fear, uncertainty, guarded hearts, and questions they may never say out loud. But from the moment they step onto camp grounds, they are met with cheers, hugs, encouragement, and people who are genuinely excited they are there.
Every camper is paired with a dedicated adult Christian counselor who spends the week beside them—swimming, laughing, cheering during games, sitting beside them during meals, and having long talks with them when hard emotions surface. For many campers, it is the first time they have experienced consistent, safe attention from an adult with no expectations attached.
The days are full. Early mornings lead into crafts, water activities, games, sweet worship, music, skits, and team competitions that quickly become treasured memories. Campers race across to the gaga pit, scream with excitement during competitions (and sometimes cry) and often laugh until they can barely breathe during evening activities such as the Rodeo Round Up where we met a real- life cowboy, gun safety and target shooting with police officers, to Everybody's birthday where every camper gets their very own cake, gets sung happy birthday to and of course opens presents!
But the most meaningful moments are often the quiet ones.
It is the hurting child who slowly begins to trust enough to smile.
The camper who finally sleeps peacefully.
The ones who ask if camp can last for another week, month, forever?
RFK NELA Camp is not just entertainment. It is intentional restoration. Every activity, every interaction, and every conversation is designed to help children experience dignity, and belonging and to point them to Christ.
The week is emotionally exhausting and deeply beautiful all at once. Volunteers leave tired, sunburned, hoarse, and overwhelmed—but also profoundly changed. Because when you spend a week watching children rediscover joy, confidence, and hope, and an understanding of Jesus, it changes you too.
We had Bible study (Barn Bash) with "Jessie" where we learned all about Jesus as the Perfect Shepherd who loves and protects us and will never leave us.
They love daily nurture group (Cowboy Corner) where they learn how to identify their feelings and strategies to regulate them. They make engine plates, blow bubbles, make magic mustaches talk about feelings and much more.
By the final day, camp no longer feels like a group of strangers. It feels like family.
The goodbye is always the hardest part. There are tears, long hugs, hope to come back next year, and the quiet heartbreak of knowing some children are returning to very difficult circumstances. Yet even in the sadness, there is hope—because for one week they were seen, celebrated, protected, loved, prayed for and taught about Jesus.
And sometimes one week of genuine love and the Good News of the Gospel can plant seeds that last a lifetime.
That is a week at RFK NELA Camp.
My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. John 10:27
