– by Andrew Douglas

These students pay to spend a whole week — seven days, 12 hours a day — studying scripture. Most of the students will dig deep into only a handful of chapters from the Gospel of Mark. It’s intellectually demanding, spiritually intense and always VERY rewarding.

Our colleagues in the campus division of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship run the events at seven camps across the country. For the third year in a row we’re hosting students from three local universities (Queens University, University of Ottawa, and Carleton University) at Big Clear Lake. This year Mark Camp is running the first week of May.

Mark Camp isn’t a whole lot different than the hosting we do almost every weekend through the fall, winter and spring. We feed our guests, make sure they’re comfortable, run activities like archery tag, and take them exploring across our 360 acres on horseback.

But Mark Camp is also special. Our four LEAD interns who have been living with us since the fall will join the students to study scripture. Every year we’ve had our LEAD interns attend ends up being a highlight for them.

Having our camp full with hungry, happy young people gets us excited for summer.