Christ filled the gaps: 2024 Teen Leadership Camps from the counselor perspective

In just 4 weeks, 421 kids attended PHC’s 2024 Teen Leadership Camps. As much as the students attending Camps get to learn, Camps are also a huge time of growth for the team of PHC students working as counselors. So here’s a recap of Camps from their perspective. 

The first week was Strategic Intelligence camp and the counselors got to play different roles. For example, Ryan Slemmer played an old man named Boris Kozlovsky. “He was a grumpy old war veteran who enjoyed monologuing and trying to marry off the campers to his grandchildren,” he said. For the other weeks, several camps happened simultaneously, and the counselors still had opportunities to play different characters in an event called Counselor Clue.

Each Thursday, campers took a trip to Washington D.C. to explore the monuments and museums. Poppy Brink said the D.C. trips were the highlight of her week, partially because of all the conversations she had with students. “Whether that was in the dining hall, the coffeeshop, the student lounge, the dorms, the bus ride, the museums, or the lobby, conversations with kids really brightened my day and brought so much joy,” she said. 

A highlight for many of the counselors was bonding with students and others on the counselor team. “I've formed some of the strongest friendships, and many of my coworkers are now my friends and brothers,” Josh Revoir said. “It was so encouraging to get to know them and see Christ through them.”

Ryan said that although he was friends with only a few of the counselors at the beginning, by the end of Camps he felt like he could talk forever with any of them. “Our time at Teen Leadership Camps forged incredible friendships,” he said. “I was convicted and pushed to grow in many areas by the other counselors.” 

Counselors also witnessed God working through students’ hearts. They led the wing chapels on Tuesday and Thursday evenings and the corporate chapels for the rest of the week. On Wednesdays, they performed a Screwtape Letters skit, and then campers had the opportunity to stay and pray. “It was amazing to see God use that skit in the students’ lives—to consider how seriously they were taking their faith, to consider how the enemy was constantly seeking to distract them, and to see just how great the love of God is for them,” Ryan said.

During week 1, a girl from Kailey Jones’ wing came to Christ during the prayer time after the skit. “It was amazing seeing the Lord’s work in her heart and how that impacted how she interacted with everyone,” Kailey said. “She said that she felt like a weight had been lifted off her shoulders.” The girl came to another camp during week 4, and that Wednesday night, she went around encouraging campers during prayer time.  

But Kailey also learned that she could not save anyone. “We can plant and we can water, but it’s the Lord who makes the increase. There were so many experiences where I would share the gospel or have a really good conversation with a kid, and they just went home. You don’t always see the fruits of your labor, but that doesn’t mean that the Lord didn’t use it.”

Ryan had a similar experience. He said it was an unimaginable gift to witness God change campers’ lives so many times. “But we counselors are not able to change hearts.” On the last week of Camps, a camper in his wing didn’t believe God existed or that there was any meaning to life, even though he heard the gospel many times throughout the week.  "So I will keep praying for that camper—that God would continue to water the seeds that were sown at Camps,” Ryan said.

The counselors witnessed the spiritual struggle in the lives of campers. “The enemy works slowly and gradually,” Josh said. Moments during the summer brought a keen reminder that we wrestle "against the rulers of the darkness of this world" (Eph. 6-12).  Each of us is in need of the Lord's strength when we are in a spiritual struggle. “If we acknowledge Christ Jesus as our Lord and King, He will sustain and empower us. The joy of the Lord shall be our strength and though we may stumble we shall not be slain," Josh said.

Before Camps started, Poppy worried about her abilities. “I felt as though I could not represent the gospel correctly, or wouldn't be able to connect well with campers, or even might get administrative or scheduling details messed up,” she said. Throughout Camps, she faced exhaustion. But she saw how the Lord was strong in her weakness. “He never fails to lift us up, carry our burdens, and masterfully equip us for what is ahead. His faithfulness NEVER wavers; He is our rock, our fortress, and our help,” she said. 

The last day of Camps came before they knew it. “On the last day, it was disheartening to know that it was over. The weeks had been exhilarating and exhausting but the campers that had stayed with us through it all were such a joy,” Josh said. “I'm hopeful for those campers’ lives and for the work that Christ is doing. I've seen Him move deeply and powerfully this summer.” He said that through his experience as a counselor, Christ became more real to him than ever before.

Ryan also worried about his weaknesses, but he realized that Christ filled the gaps in the counselors’ abilities.  “It did not matter that none of us were qualified for the job. God only required that we were willing to be used by him,” he said. “We were willing, and we got to watch God do amazing things with that. All of the counselors, and I hope every camper too, got a glimpse of heaven during Camps.”

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 Patrick Henry College exists to glorify God by challenging the status quo in higher education, lifting high both faith and reason within a rigorous academic environment; thereby preserving for posterity the ideals behind the "noble experiment in ordered liberty" that is the foundation of America.