Wednesday Words-Jennifer Quinn – Crosstalk Ministries Day Camps

Welcome to a new series of Wednesday Words, Guest Blogposts! Sorry it is on a Thursday but we had a weensy problem with the photos and we all know pictures are VERY important! In the coming months you will be treated to a variety of perspectives on the world of Day Camps and we are sure you will enjoy each one. Today you will meet Jennifer Quinn, a longtime colleague and bonafide “Day Camps Groupie”
And now-over to Jen….

Day Camp and I go back a long way. When I was fifteen, my folks sent me to Senior Youth Camp, and yes, there I met our Jesus. I had been to church and I knew
the Lord’s prayer and so at a tender age, my heart had grasped that I had a Father in heaven. That year at camp there was reference many times to the truth that Jesus was the way to the Father. I figured I had best get to know this Jesus because I wanted to know the Father even more. His kingdom had come. In later years, a lady who prayed for me said that the Lord showed her that I had had a dramatic conversion. At first I was about to correct her when I felt a check in my spirit to wait. I went home and prayed about it. In my limited understanding, a dramatic conversion was when someone came from a wild life of drugs or was healed of a fatal disease and so on. I was a stable child from a stable, loving home. The Lord showed me that what was dramatic was on the inside. Every fibre of my being was surrendered and dedicated to my Father, the King when I met Jesus. Then the refining started and quite frankly is still ongoing.

The winter following camp, I fell skiing and wrecked my knee. There was much debate in the medical field as to whether or not I would ever walk properly again, not to mention run or ski. From my perspective, my life stopped. From His perspective, my walk in the Kingdom took off. A couple years later, Day Camp was short a member and my parents caught wind of it. Who I was in Him did not show much at that point, but I was accepted. My world took on new meaning as my Jesus showed me the Kingdom. I adored my bible and still do. It contained the mysteries and answers to life, and it was and still is my lifeline. In those days we ran the programme as today from 10-3 and went back to our billets, supped and also returned a few nights a week for evening youth meetings. It was there I was given my first chance to speak. I still giggle inside because I was told not to say my age because I was younger than some of the teens. There was a hush in the room as I shared what Jesus had just shown me in His word. Parents trickled in and quietly joined the spellbound group. It was then I began to realise how powerful what Jesus had to say was and how He longed for every soul to know how much He loved them. I was smitten.

For a couple of summers I was on team, delighting in what Jesus was showing me. I loved the children and knew what we carried to them was not only introducing them to eternal life but to the Source of it as well. My studies and numerous knee surgeries drew me away from Day Camp for a few years at this point but as soon as those were done, we were back at counselling at Senior Youth Camp and Craig and I developed a huge Sunday school in our little town, running it week to week just like Day Camp. Each summer we hosted a Day Camp as well. Our favourite actor of all time, in the plays, was hands down, Howard Holloway, a staunch (and extremely fun) supporter of Day Camp. A day came when this was not accepted at our local church and lo and behold, the local schools began contacting me, so the torch burned on. We ran Day Camp, what is now locally called Promised Church, in three schools, with attendance ranging from a handful of children to eighty children per school, per week.

The day came again when the provincial government changed the Charter from saying that all children had the right to Protestant and Catholic instruction to the right to religious instruction and the doors of the school were closed. I want to declare that the Lord’s purposes always stand, just wait for it! Our home became our base. Our new addition and surrounding property was a perfect venue for backyard Day Camp. Some of the technological advances were lost in this setting however the vast training prior to all that has given us extremely creative ways to continue. My whole family and dear, dear friends have all been on board for ten or so years for this inundation of life from team members to children to helpers to even overnight campers who live too far away to travel each day. We are so blessed. I love Day Camps, I love Valerie and I love our Lord Jesus for the great, great privilege and honour of bringing the gospel of Love to this generation.