All My Best Memories are at Camp Koinonia

All my best memories are at Camp Koinonia.

I was a quiet kid.  Life felt heavy in ways I didn’t have words for yet.  I held back.  I protected myself.  I stayed small and I felt insignificant.

But something changed when I came to camp.

At Camp Koinonia, I felt free.

Summer meant the smell of warm pine and dusty roads.  It meant Cabin 3, always my favorite cabin, where I felt like I belonged.  At Kids Camp it meant learning about God’s love.  It meant crafts in the Crystal Pavilion, hayrides through the woods, catching salamanders by the pond, tie-dye shirts dripping in color, and sticky fingers from s’mores by the fire. 

It meant laughter.  It meant being a kid.

As I grew, so did my world at camp.
Junior camp brought a full week of adventure! I grew in faith and learned about grace.  Campfires under the stars, singing “roll me over the ocean” as loud as I could.  Swimming in the big pond, and a “fancy” spaghetti dinner on the last night.  At junior high camp, I hiked to the top of a ridge and saw for miles.  I dove off of the floating dock, stayed up late whispering with friends, had my first crush and went to my first dance. 

We played “capture the flag” and “round-the-table” ping pong and told ghost stories before falling asleep with our flashlights on… just in case!  One night, I slept in the meadow under a sky full of meteors, waking to dew on my sleeping bag and full of wonder for the world so much bigger and more beautiful than I had ever imagined.  I learned to appreciate and steward the natural world.

At camp, I lived in friendship. In community. In joy.

By the time I was 12, I didn’t want to leave.  I learned to serve others.  I became a junior counselor, helping younger campers experience the same magic.  As I got older, I spent more and more time at camp.  Sometimes as a camper, sometimes as staff.  By 13, my summers belonged entirely to Koinonia. 

I became the babysitter for staff kids, and I loved it.

We spent hours exploring and digging in the dirt, collecting perfect sticks and rocks, building homes for salamanders, poking anthills, tossing anything we could find into the pond just to watch the splash.  We wandered the woods, had picnics in the meadow, and searched for kittens under the porch.  We found adventure everywhere.

And somewhere along the way, I realized: this is what I want my life to be.

Then I turned 15, and everything changed.

I experienced a trauma that shattered my sense of safety.  My world became uncertain and terrifying.  I wasn’t okay.  Nothing felt okay.  And I couldn’t imagine that anything ever would be again.

And then… camp happened.

That summer, Camp Koinonia became more than a place of fun memories.
It became a place of refuge.

There, I was met with compassion.  With grace.  With safety.

No one tried to fix me or rush me.  They simply welcomed me fully, gently, into a space that felt set apart from the pain I carried.  At camp, I experienced something I desperately needed: normal moments of laughter, routine, and belonging.

At camp, I could breathe again.

I found respite and release.  I found peace in this set apart place.

Why This Matters

Camp Koinonia isn’t just a place where kids make memories, though they do, and those memories last a lifetime.

It’s a place where people experience God’s love for them.

It’s a place where kids find freedom.
Where they discover who they are.
Where they are surrounded by people who see them, care for them, and walk with them, especially when life is hard. 

For some kids, camp is the highlight of their summer.

For others… it's the place that helps them heal.

Your Support Makes This Possible

Every child who steps onto the grounds of Camp Koinonia carries a story.

Some come for fun.
Some come for friendship.
And some come carrying burdens no child should have to bear.

Your support helps create a place where every one of them can find joy, belonging, and hope.

Because sometimes, one week at camp…
can change the entire trajectory of a life.

It did for me.