YL Capernaum Everywhere

Jim Branch has written many great books that have been used in campaigner groups and leadership meetings.  There have been hundreds, if not thousands, of kids who have gone through them while serving on work crew or summer staff. It was exciting to hear that Micaela Otal took the time to create a booklet of Jim Branch’s book Beginnings to do with some of her Capernaum friends during campaigners!  She took time to include definitions of words that could be new or challenging, as well as included scripture and questions!  Huge thanks to Micaela for sharing it with us! You can just print the booklet out for each person in your campaigner group and you’re off and ready! Enjoy!

Thank you for this story YL Capernaum Phoenix! What a beautiful picture of meeting your friends where they are, so that the Gospel can take hold and transform! When I first met Claire, it wasn’t immediately evident to me that she has an intellectual disability. You see, Claire, like so many of our friends, has intellectual challenges that have a huge impact on her day to day life, yet are unseen by the naked eye. People see her and expect a typically functioning young woman in the midst of adolescence. What they don’t realize is processing, understanding and relationships come much more slowly for Claire. Even with the loving support of a Christian family that was active in the church, Claire struggled to believe that the woman, that God made her to be, was good enough. This led to some risky behaviors in high school aimed at feeling loved, resulting in low self-esteem and a deep longing and pain to be accepted by her peers and the world around her. Claire began coming to Capernaum c

Thank you, Kelly McGill, YL Tustin, for this great reflection!  Thank you for creating new  opportunities for your friends to experience camp in creative and thoughtful ways! This summer with YL Tustin (California) Capernaum, we grew in all kinds of exciting ways! We teamed up with a nearby Capernaum area to create a local space where our Capernaum friends that cannot attend week-long camp at Lost Canyon could be known, loved, and hear/experience the Gospel.  This summer, Beach Cities and Tustin Capernaum put on our first ever day camp! We had 50 Capernaum friends that joined in the fun. While planning day camp, we thought that this would be an incredible opportunity to invite some of our Capernaum friends to be a part of our day camp Leadership Team. We had two of them, Cole and John serving on our Program. Cole and John loved having the opportunity to lead our Capernaum friends, make them laugh, and serve Jesus in a new and exciting way. John told us that he cannot wait to be o

Ellie spent her time on Summer Staff serving in the snack bar! She dove into friendships, found deep joy in serving campers every day and loved growing in her relationship with Jesus throughout the month. Ellie has a desire to continue growing as a leader, encourages people around her to love others well and longs for kids with disabilities to know Jesus more!