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Pack Your Bags — Summer is a great time for your growing family to break away from the in-town routine and head to camp.
By Kate Peterson
 Imagine a family vacation where endless road trips, countless hotel and campsite reservations and forgettable fast food are replaced with a single destination complete with comfortable campsites, cabins or lodge options and food that keeps you coming back for more. Add to this a lively roster of outdoor activities the whole family can enjoy and opportunities for worship and reflection with other families. Put it all together, and you have the perfect summer vacation destination: Lutheran family camp.
Some families with teens might think that they have outgrown camp, but many are finding it an ideal way to not only get away from it all but also get everyone together and build new kinds of traditions and memories. The Doursons—Mike, 55, and Martha, 54—are Thrivent Financial for Lutherans members from Cincinnati, Ohio, who started taking their three kids to family camp in 1990.
“A friend of ours told us about Camp Arcadia,” says Martha. The Doursons became regulars at this 110-acre camp on the shore of Lake Michigan, missing only one year since 1990.
Mark Burkhardt, director for Outdoor Ministry for the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), says the Christian focus of Lutheran-affiliated family camps is especially appealing to families. “In our very mobile, fast-moving world, the faith component comes into play,” says Burkhardt. “They all have recreational activities, but if you are looking for something deeper, something more meaningful, with reflection, worship and conversation, you can find it at Lutheran family camps.” As Chip May, director of Camp Arcadia, likes to say, “God doesn’t speak any louder at camp. It’s just easier to hear Him.”
While everyone in the Dourson family loves the activities at camp, it’s the Christian community that has kept them coming back to camp over the years. “I don’t know of any other place where you can have that kind of trust,” Martha says, explaining that parents who are used to knowing exactly where their kids are at every moment relax and quickly realize a level of comfort even when the kids are out of sight at camp. “It’s a magical place with Christian values of God and family,” she says.
What to Expect
There are more than 200 Lutheran camps and retreat centers in the United States, and many of them currently offer some type of family program. They represent a wide range of prices, offer accommodations ranging from rustic to modern and most boast very flexible programs.
In the past, Burkhardt says, families might have gone to camp for a week and followed a set agenda. “In the more contemporary structure, camps welcome the families and then give them some options,” Burkhardt says. “There’s a whole schedule of activities you can join, but no guilt if you don’t want to come,” he says.
This approach is particularly appealing to families with older children. “Kids these days are so busy running from here to there with their activities. Family camp gives parents and children an opportunity to spend some time as a family. At the same time, camp offers enough recreational activities to keep teenagers engaged, Burkhardt says.
At Camp Arcadia, staff members develop activities, some specifically for teens and others designed to get parents involved. “We’ll do a family game night for teens and parents. The program staff will run it. That way the parents aren’t imposing it on the kids,” says May. “The teens might not admit it, but they like to do things like this with their parents.”
Meal times are another important part of family camps—part of what gives families the feeling of relaxation and renewal that people crave when they go on a vacation. At Camp Arcadia, for example, the chaos and expense of restaurant meals is replaced by home-cooked food, served family-style. And this isn’t the camp food of your childhood. “It’s the No. 1 thing people make comments about at the end of the week—how great the food is,” says May.
Over the years, the Doursons have told so many family members and friends about camp that they regularly attend with eight or nine other families. This year, the next generation will begin taking part—Martha’s sister, along with her children and grandchildren, are planning to attend. Some day, the Doursons hope their own children will bring their kids to camp, Martha says.
And the best thing of all—at the end of the week, when it’s time to pack up the pop-up or say goodbye to lodge life, campers leave feeling motivated and inspired. At Camp Arcadia, the staff posts a parting message for their guests on a sign that hangs across the road that leads out of camp: “Go forth children of God, renewed in body, mind and spirit.” Martha says that is exactly how she and her family feel when they leave.
Kate Peterson, a writer in Granger, Indiana, covered personal finance in the Spring 2006 issue of Thrivent magazine.
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