"I wish we had this sooner."

I started serving at camp the summer after Grade 10. Over the years, I cut burl trees out of horse fields, washed dishes in the kitchen, led cabin devotions beneath 100-year-old maple trees, double-checked harnesses before campers zipped down the line - and got “smucked” (as you can see in the picture above). That just scratches the surface of the camp experience. If you’re trying to discover what you’re passionate about, camp gives you about a hundred different chances to find it.

It was at camp that I gave my life to Christ. I can still name the leaders who poured into me that summer, and again the next, when I returned as a volunteer. I can also tell you the names of some of the campers I had the incredible blessing of leading when they decided to follow Christ, too.

What I can’t tell you is where they are now.

What they’re doing.

Or whether they still walk with God.

Our camp, like many others, had clear boundaries for follow-up communication with campers after the summer - and rightly so! In practice, our options were pretty limited: we could send a letter in the mail, or call their house and talk to a parent first. Both are great in theory, but let’s be honest, most young people aren’t checking the mailbox or waiting by the phone anymore.

So we had six days.

Six days to build trust, plant seeds of truth, and hope God would bring someone else along to continue the work after they left. That feeling of not knowing still sits with me. I trust that God is still moving in their lives. But there’s a part of me that always wonders: what if we could’ve done more? What if we could’ve stayed connected? What if we could’ve checked in mid-year, asked about school, prayed for them, or created a safe space for them to ask questions their teachers couldn't answer?

When I think about FaithSpark, I just think: I wish we had this sooner.

Now, ministries of all kinds can continue those conversations all year long. FaithSpark makes it possible for leaders to not only share the Good News, but to keep showing up long after school starts again.

And maybe best of all? This generation of leaders won’t have to look back 10 years from now and ask, “I wonder how he's doing?”

Because they’ll know.

Because they never lost touch in the first place.