Last summer, a kid I went to church with told me about a camp he’d gone to a few times. He said it was the “highlight of his life”. He gave me the dates and all the rest of the info for the 2022 high school bootcamp, lead by Pastor Hauser. I did not previously know Pastor Hauser, and I only knew that 1 other kid. I had no idea what to expect and I was very nervous about going with a bunch of kids older than me, but I was super excited for the adventure and being away from home for a little while.
As soon as I arrived at Divine Savior in Hartford, I got to know almost all of the other high schoolers, and even became close friends with one of the counselors. This was before we even got in the cars to go to Copper Harbor. The car ride was an especially valuable bonding experience, because I was in a car for 6 hours with 5 other high schoolers who would be going to the same school as me  in the coming year, while fasting. We had a lot of time to get to know each other, and create friendships I am still a part of to this day, and will be a part of for a very long time. I am still best friends with one of the girls in that car, and I talk to her every single day. I never would have even thought to get to know her if it hadn’t been for that camp.
The camp itself was the most amazing and faith based learning opportunity I have ever had, and probably ever will have. As a soon-to-be freshman who thought the world of herself, I realized weaknesses I had, but was also provided ways to work on those weaknesses by Pastor Hauser himself, and all of the counselors. I also learned strengths I never knew I had, and even just simply learned so much about myself and my faith. Pastor took it upon himself to get to know me the very first day, and asked me such deep faith questions, he had me realizing just how lukewarm I truly was.
We were given the opportunity to pray for each other in small groups by laying hands on each others shoulders. This experience gave me so much happiness and such a strong feeling of being loved by both the people around me and my Lord Jesus Christ, that I started crying. It was such a new feeling to be seen and taken seriously for my faith by people my age.
We also were given the opportunity to do a bigger group Bible study, where I read the same passages I have heard since I started Sunday school, but I got to look at it from a completely different and more personal angle.
We were also given the option during hikes to just sit in an isolated area and either pray, journal, or even just sit there and take it all in. I tried all three during the trip, and have a stronger faith because of it.
I talked with Pastor Hauser 1-on-1 the 3rd night, and we had to have spent an hour and a half just talking. I have never been able to talk about my faith so openly before, because feelings aren’t something my family or previous friends spend a lot of time focusing on. I have never felt so seen and heard before. Pastor showed me how to read the Psalms, how to pray in a way that doesn’t seem one sided, and told me things I still repeat to myself on a daily basis. I cried so hard that night simply because I was hurting in ways I didn’t want to acknowledge from the past year, and Pastor helped me find ways to get through it by leaning on my faith instead of my own strength and understanding.
The last experience(of many) I am going to share was something we did towards the end of the trip. We spent at least 6 hours going around the campfire, having everybody say at least one positive thing about each person in the group. We spent so much time doing this that we had to end after midnight and do the rest of the people in the morning. Never have I ever heard so many compliments at one time. It made me realize that people appreciate things about myself that I previously saw as flaws. I was also able to realize just how important these people were to me, even though I’d only know most of them for 4 days. Most of the older kids were like siblings to me by the end of the week, and I bonded so well with all of the kids, I am still in contact with about 90% of them.
I came home from this camp wishing it had been twice as long, but also feeling closer to God than I have ever felt before. I told my parents as soon as I saw them that if the trip the coming year was on the same day as a family reunion or a vacation, that I would rather go to bootcamp. Every memory related to Bootcamp is so important to me, as I was coming out of a stage of very depressive and self deprecating habits prior to attending. Through this camp, I was taught to pray, how to lean on faith instead of my own strength, and so many other valuable lessons, but also given a list of over 20 people who I realized would love to talk if I ever needed it. I still struggle with a lot of things, but the difference between my struggles now and my struggles before Bootcamp, is that now I know 100% who I truly am to God, and now I don’t have to go through anything alone, I have all of the people from camp, and Pastor Hauser especially. I could never be where I am in my faith today if it hadn’t been for Bootcamp.