Oklahoma City church offers youth camps at sister ministries

Julie Robinson, St. Luke's director of missions, said the church started planning the camp in March as a way to help their smaller sister churches in innercity neighborhoods.

Wendi Neal, Hillcrest Fuente de Vita's pastor, said she was excited when St. Luke's members told her they wanted to offer a camp at her church, 5801 S Pennsylvania. She said the church is a congregation blended from two churches — one English-speaking and one Spanish-speaking — that merged in 2006. She said the church offers bilingual worship and Sunday attendance is about 50 people.

Robinson and St. Luke's volunteer Cathy Busey, said St. Luke's members wanted to do something to help their sister churches whose resources for activities like youth camps might be limited.

“We found out what some of the needs are in the community as far as after-school care and music and art opportunities,” Robinson said.

Busey said, “Partnering with them helps bolster them up, plus the churches need to be centers of the communities they're in.”

At Hillcrest Fuente de Vita, the campers were divided by age into “wild thing” creature categories like the Pockles and the Zooloos. Busey said the free camp was designed for children in pre-K through fifth grade. The camp organizers said about 85 children attended all or a portion of the camp. The camp ran from 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. and aftercare was provided until 6 p.m. Children were offered breakfast, lunch and snacks throughout the day filled with art and music sessions, many of them led by artists and musicians affiliated with the Oklahoma Arts Council. Busey said St. Luke's volunteers visited throughout the camp to read to the campers to promote literacy.