Texas’ catastrophic flooding hit faith-based summer camps especially hard, and the heartbreak is sweeping across the country where similar camps mark a rite of passage and a crucial faith experience for millions of children and teens.
“Camp is such a unique experience that you just instantly empathize,” said Rachael Botting of the tragedy that struck Camp Mystic, the century-old all-girls Christian summer camp where at least 27 people were killed. A search was underway for more than 160 missing people in the area filled with youth camps as the overall death toll passed 100 on Tuesday.
Botting, a former Christian camp counselor, is a Wheaton College expert on the role camp plays in young people’s faith formation. “I do plan to send my boys to Christian summer camps. It is a nonnegotiable for us,” added the mother of three children under 4.
Generations of parents and children have felt the