Making Camping in Canada Possible

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When we began working to establish Young Life in Toronto almost three years ago, I  learned that Ontario Young Life areas took their summer camp trips to Saranac Village in the Adirondack Mountains of New York State.  It's an amazing place, and only a six hour drive away.  But it does require a border crossing.

Once I started meeting people in Toronto, I realized that I was going to encounter a strategic problem. I met so many people who have come to Canada from other parts of the world and who do not yet have the necessary visa paperwork to travel to the U.S. I knew that as soon as I started meeting teenagers, I was going to meet plenty who were not going to be able to go to Saranac Village. I knew I had a problem, but I had no hint of a solution. It was prohibitively expensive to plan to take entire groups of kids across the country to RockRidge Canyon in the interior of British Columbia.

“It’s prohibitively expensive” is essentially what the Ontario Regional Director answered when a Young Life National Board member asked him last fall why we don’t bring our busloads of kids and leaders from Ontario to our Canadian camp? What happened next is astonishing: The Board member asked, “What if it wasn’t [prohibitively expensive]?” The end result of that conversation is that a generous donor pledged to pay for the flights for all Ontario kids and leaders to attend RockRidge Canyon for the next 5 years.

Although I don’t think that my strategic problem in Toronto was in anyone’s mind during that conversation, I’m certain it was in God’s mind! This extraordinarily generous pledge from this donor means meant we can take kids from Toronto to RockRidge Canyon for the same price as taking them to Saranac. And they never have to leave Canada.

“Could I Go There?”

This past November, I was at a weekly lunch meeting with students at a Midtown high school.  One of the students that I know ("Leah"), noticed that I had not attended the previous week's meeting, and asked me where I had been.  I answered that I had been to our Young Life camp in British Columbia for staff training.  Leah replied

“Camp . . . British Columbia . . . Could I go there?”

I don’t know that in all my years of Young Life, I’ve had a student inquire about camp so directly. I knew that Leah had come to Canada from Nigeria less than a year prior. She must have heard about Canadian teenagers going to camp, and everyone hears about the natural beauty of B.C.

The amazing thing was when Leah asked “Could I go there?”  I was able to say enthusiastically, “Of course you can!” because we were going to RockRidge Canyon and not Saranac Village! I returned the next week with a promotional postcard with a QR code linked to our registration site. Leah took the card, immediately scanned the code, and started to fill in her registration. She approached me a few minutes later and asked if others could come also. And I was able to say “Yes!” again.

Since that conversation, five others have signed up.  All six of the girls have come to Toronto from various parts of Africa in the last few years.  Frankly, I don’t actually know if they are, or are not, able to travel to the U.S. The great thing is that I don’t need to know!  The answer is just, "Yes, you can come!"

We have built friendships with each of the girls coming to camp (many have volunteered with our WyldLife ministry), and I'm excited to see how their camp experience and their involvement with Young Life helps them make their way in the world and discover all that God has for them through Jesus.

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