Intern Story--Isaac

I have grown up always wanting to serve God through the avenue of missions and so I have always loved hearing stories from others serving God in missions. This being the case, my first interactions with Camp of the Woods were through stories. I am from the same church as the Kane family, so I remember hearing them, after they would return from serving at Camp in the summers, share stories at church about their experiences.

Isaac at COTW in 2017

After graduating college in 2015, I spent the next couple of years working but knew that God wanted to me to pursue opportunities to serve Him in a missional context and so I as I was thinking and praying about what that would look like, God brought Camp of the Woods to mind and then provided the opportunity for me to come and serve on summer staff for two weeks during the summer of 2017. At the end of those two weeks, I knew that there was something special about Camp of the Woods and returned home knowing I wanted to return for a longer period of time.

During the next several months, through prayer and with conversations with people here at camp and back home, God confirmed the desire I had to return to Camp of the Woods. I knew it was a place where I could serve, learn, and grow in wisdom and knowledge about how to practically do ministry but also be challenged and gain more maturity in my faith. So I applied and was accepted into camps internship program and now have been serving here at Camp since May of this last year.

Isaac leading games, Summer 2018

As an intern, I have been given many opportunities to work and serve in a lot of various roles here at Camp and in the community. From cooking and serving in the kitchen, to working on various maintenance projects and daily upkeep of the camp facilities, to leading games, to being a cabin leader, to helping plan and lead events and programming, as well as being able to become involved in ministry with my local church.

Through my internship, I have been able to do a lot of learning and growing. God has definitely over this time has given me a deeper understanding of His Gospel and the importance of living it daily and letting influence every aspect of my life and daily realizing that everything that I am doing, whether big or small, reflects Him and is for His glory. Also, as someone who tends to prefers to work behind-the-scenes, this internship has allowed me to be challenged and has given me opportunities to learn and grow in my leadership abilities, whether that is in leading games, work projects, or groups. And I have been able to learn practical hands on skills when it comes to maintenance, such as how to properly load and keep woodstoves in working order as just one example.

Mailing newsletters, event invitations, and Christmas cards is always a group effort!

I am so grateful for the opportunity that God has provided for me to be part of His ministry here at Camp of the Woods and serve as an intern over this last (almost) year. I am excited to see what He has in store for these future months here at Camp!