Welcome to Truth Talk Live. A daily program powered by the Truth Network.
Where pop culture, current events, and theology all come together. And now, here's today's Truth Talk Live host. We're going to camp today on Truth Talk Live, and it's going to be a blast. I heard a pastor say recently, listen to this word, he says the problem of the church today is we forgot to go to camp. We just don't go to camp anymore. And he says people, the Christian life turns into a drudgery. It's not exciting.
It's not fun. You go to camp at a spiritual high. And so there are churches that actually create, even without neglecting the teaching of the word, without going deep in the worship. But they're creating almost like a camp atmosphere, where they are there to encourage you and you to enjoy it.
Is there anything wrong with that? When's the last time you went to camp? How did Christian camp change your life? So how do we do a show like this?
We go out and find a real bonafide, genuine dollar camp director. He's sitting right here in front of me. Nicholas, Patton, put your chin right on that mic, my friend. Good to have you here, buddy. Yeah, you too, Stu. Thanks for having me. I'm excited to be here and share about what camp has for all the kids this summer. I guess if you can brave the large onslaught of dozens of buses packed full of children, kids all ages that come to camp, and you put up with all them, you can handle a national radio show where no one's tugging on you, throwing stuff at you, and singing any loud songs, right? That's right, yep. We've got some cool stories.
We want to hear some of those today. But we're talking about the significance of Christian camp. We're going to invite people to support Christian camp. There's a way to send a kid to camp. But so many camps all around the country, it's, you know, spring break on the calendar right now means summer breaks next. So wherever you are, anywhere, it's going to be camp time. And why should you send your kid to a Christian camp?
And maybe someone out there has a testimony, how Christian camp has changed your life. I'm one of those kids. Nicholas, I think you're one of those kids, too. Talk about that and kind of your intro. Give us who is Nicholas Patton and how did this whole thing happen?
Yeah, so I'm Nicholas Patton. I am the executive director for YMCA campaigns here in King, North Carolina, part of the Triad area. And for me, this is like the 15th year I've worked in camp, but I grew up going to camp, Stu, and it was just an empowering experience for me to just be there, get to experience God's creation and just be one and be true to who I was at that time. And so camp is just that opportunity for kids to just come out there, they get to sing worship songs, they get to hear about different stories from the Bible and how it relates to them personally, they get to just really embrace all kinds of different people from different walks of life and be who they are.
And that's really what it is. How can we include them? How can we be inclusive of everyone, no matter where they're at in their faith journey, no matter where they're at at school or life or home, and just be who they are in that safe environment, which is so empowering. And so for me personally, that was one of those things is I got to do that as a kid, I went to camp, I got to sit there, I got to learn, I got to listen. And I came to faith at summer camp myself. And that really started my journey and my career path to where I am today to be able to provide those experiences for many kids every summer.
That's so cool. And there are so many parents out there who are planning the summer. They're thinking, where do I send the kids? Where's the safe place they can learn about God, the Bible, Jesus, they can make friends, they can get on the blob. I mean, there's a lot of fun up there, man. I'm telling you, it is a massive, massive acreage of just fun.
It's at the kind of the mountain peaks there, hanging rock area of North Carolina, a little bit cooler climate, you know, up in the, you got all kinds of neat things, sports. Talk about some of those things before you do. What did the Lord do in your life early on in camp as you take yourself there back to those little formative years of little Nicholas? And then, you know, one of our staffers asked you coming into the show today, they're like, hey, well, how did you get into it? You're like, I've always been in it. Talk about that a little bit.
Yeah. So I just kind of was brought right into it. I grew up in a church following household and my dad actually helped to run a summer camp. And so I got to get into camp because of kind of their my parents dedication to that as part of kind of his career and following. And so it was kind of just our way of life and get to be a part of that and get to kind of just experience those days as a younger kid.
And that just really set kind of my goal and vision for what I'd love to do. And there's a spiritual tenderness in these young people. I mean, the statistics are there. You know, the young people, kids, teenagers before they hit certain ages are more likely to respond to the gospel. The hearts more tender.
Talk about that, will you? Yeah. So exactly. We're all a little pliable.
Younger, the younger you are, the more open you are to new things. And it is so important to just provide that space where we're directing these kids in the right way. And that's what camp is about. We have these staff, we have these counselors who are all they want to do is just be able to serve these kids and provide those experiences for them.
And that's that uniqueness. And so being able to kind of give that to them and just share with them in that environment, it's just it's just an immeasurable opportunity that we have that I'm so excited to provide. Just really hope that so many kids can do that no matter where they go to camp this summer. Wow.
I love it. Nicholas is with us all hour. It's an all camping hour here on Truth Talk Live. We're talking about camp, camp stories. We'll talk about some fun stuff. We'll talk about some crazy stuff. We'll talk about some of those memories that you may have. If you want to phone in, we have a nationwide toll-free number when we're live.
We'll probably play this back in all different areas and podcasts and all that, but it's 866-34-TRUTH, 866-348-7884. Your best camp experience. Maybe someone listening came to know Christ as their Savior through camp, through a camp counselor. A guy like Nicholas, a gal who may have just talked you through the gospel.
You're struggling. And it's interesting, Nicholas. You hear about this. You hear from your Sunday school teacher, from your parents, from your Christian school teacher, from other Christians. You may have heard the gospel. It's something about getting away out in the middle of nowhere, right? Where it's a bunch of canoes, water slides, and cabins, and a bunch of different smells and water sports. That there's something that the gospel kind of comes alive.
And there's also a lot of people praying for you too, huh? That's right, yep. It's that unique environment that just brings out the light and brings out God's word and just brings that opportunity for him to speak through our staff and into those campers and through those campers into each other.
Awesome. We'll talk about how you can send a kid to camp, how you can help a young person, because you guys are really trying to put this year's camp in the books. You're trying to get sponsors for kids, right? There's kids that can't afford camp, bottom line.
That's right, yep. Campaigns, part of our mission is to be able to allow any kid, no matter where they're at, to be able to provide that option to come to camp through our sponsorships and scholarships that we provide. One of the ways we do that is we're always asking for fundraising and opportunities. We're going to do some fundraising, or we could call it friend-raising, when we come back, talk more about what God's doing at campaigns. What's God doing at your camp?
If you want to phone in, 866-3-4-TRUTH. I'm Stu Everson, this is Truth Talk Live, and we're going camping all hour long. Jump in here and we're going to grab a paddle and we're going to go hiking and we're going to go biking and we're going to do all the fun stuff and shooting at the range. We'll talk more with Nicholas about campaigns specifically after this quick break.
Hang on. We're going camping all hour long on this show. It's going to be fun. It's going to be a blast. Grab a paddle, a canoe. We're going to jump on the blob. We're going to shoot some hoops.
We're going to shoot at the gun range. Nicholas Patton's our special tour guide. He's the director of YMCA campaigns. Kind of speaking on behalf of all the camps all over the country, all over the world.
Christian camp changed my life as a teenager. We're going to talk about that more. First of all, Nicholas, I asked you off the air. You're not as into health, but who in your family is? Who's the health person?
My wife, all the way. Take this to her. All right. Vine-tastic. Don't even worry about it, but she'll probably have you drinking it.
You'll probably be ordering cases of it. These are new partners, our friends at Le Bleu. I gave you some Le Bleu water.
Yep. That's our water here at Truth Network. Great folks. Christian folks that believe in what we're doing. And they're passionate about... The question is, if you're diabetic or pre-diabetic, then you're part of 136 million Americans.
That's almost half our nation's population who struggle with this awful thing. So they have created a beverage. Just read the label right here.
With no sugar, no carbs, no calories, and no artificial sweeteners. So basically it's really healthy. It is.
It looks that way. We need to take care of our bodies at the temple. And so our friends, Jerry Candy, Judy, the whole team, Kathy at Le Bleu Ultra Pure Bottle Water, they created this drink, Vine-tastic, to give people something that's good for them, but also that tastes good.
And that's why we're grateful for them. I like to drink one on the air. You're welcome to join me. I'll join you. Join me for a drink. Wow.
Okay. Here we go. But we're thankful for them.
We've given them a shout-out. And we're thankful for the blessing of health that God gives us, right? That's right. And so this is not a sales point.
This is a fact that inside each bottle is over 300 parts per million of antioxidant polyphenols. And I guarantee you when you go home and ask your wife that, she'll know, right? Just quick. The kids probably know better than you, I know. Probably.
It's okay. So this is why people are getting serious about their health. They're like, what's a positive solution to diabetes?
There's all kinds of synthetics and drugs, and there's all kinds of these diet drinks that have not good things in them. And so vine-tastic.com. The science behind the vine.
You read right off the bottle. Information is available at vine-tastic.com. Information about the promo code. We'll all give you that information. The promo code that they've provided us for our listeners is TRUTH for those of you interested in learning more about it.
And for those of you interested in purchasing this product and supporting one of our good sponsors, we're thankful to them for partnering with us. And that's a big thing at camp. You've got a chef over there. I know, Robert, at campaigns, you've got to have a chef. You've got to feed a lot of these kids.
What's that like at campaigns? Talk about that. Health is important, isn't it? It is.
Yep. It is super important. And you've got to make sure that you're feeding kids. And when we've got adults there, we've got to make sure we're customizing to the adults and the dietary needs and special... Allergies.
Allergies, yep. Val told me you have a whole kind of culinary approach to that to make sure the kids are safe with that. Which, parents, is a big deal to a lot of people. You know, you eat one wrong thing, you could be toast.
It is. And cross-contamination between different allergies is definitely something that we have to be very aware of and make sure that things are cooked on separate frying pans and in separate areas and prepped and wrapped and handed to the kids so that they can make sure that they feel safe. And those parents that deal with this on a daily basis know that, hey, camp's got you. We've got your back. We've got your kids back.
And we're going to keep them safe and healthy and have all the nutrients and energy and excitement and the sugar that they need to be able to make it through the day with all that we do. So Nicholas Patton, everyone listen to me very closely. This is the kind of guy you want to hang out with. He's so much fun. He knows how to have fun. He knows how to... You want to have a game night?
Call him and his wife and the kids. And it'll be, you know, before you know it, it'll be midnight. You'll be carrying the kids out and put them in the car seats. You know, they'll be fast asleep.
But Nicholas, this is what you do. I mean, this is, you know, you've got all these weeks of camp coming up. And we've got camps all over the country.
The Lord is working through Christian camps. It's a powerful way for kids to get away from all the noise, the chaos, get away from their devices. That's a big one right there. Screenagers.
Talk about that. Yeah, screen free day and age is an amazing thing and something that's super powerful at a lot of camps is that intentionality between getting disconnected from the world, disconnected from the temptations that are out there. And how do you just enjoy the face to face conversations that you're having with your fellow friends and those people in that cabin? Yeah, it's such a need. You have counselors. So if young people, teenagers, college kids want to be a counselor at a great Christian camp, call Nicholas. Go to the, is it campaigns dot?
Campaigns dot org and you can apply on there and you can come join us even if it's just for half the summer or all summer and be a part of our mission and what we can do. And there's something big about that. Something big about a late teen kid or college kid, college age kid who literally goes to serve in this way and suddenly they realize the world didn't sit around them. Certainly they realize they got, they got 12 youngsters or eight, 10 youngsters in their cabin who come from broken homes, who come from rough situations, sometimes abusive situations, who come from poverty, who come from maybe no Christian background. And there you are as the, the only lifeline in their, in their life for four or five days. And Nicholas, it's life changing, huh? It is.
Yep. They are their parent in that time and they get to be a part of that. They get to laugh with those kids, they get to cry with those kids, they get to run and play and it's just such a cool experience for those young adults to just embrace that kind of experience for themselves. We've helped a lot of kids go to camp. I got a note before my dad died from a good buddy. Actually, it was the day of my dad's funeral, it was after he passed, who said that he never would have gone to camp if it hadn't been for Big Stu, that who sent a gift in to help him go to Christian camp.
He said it changed his life and now he serves as a leader of a major Christian camp out West and he never would have been a part of any of this if someone hadn't said. So you can help right now. I believe it's campaigns.org is the website.
That's right. Look, I'm telling you, help people go to Crossfire Camp with Jamie Johnson, the basketball camp we talk about in the summer. Help people go to campaigns, help people go to the wilds, help people go to all these wonderful camps. This guy's from the Upstate, by the way. Shout out to everyone on 96.9 FM listening and 88.3 FM. That's where he was at Greenville Camp, right? Greenville, yep. The Greenville YMCA Christian Camp there.
Nicholas, real quick before we go to this next break and then we'll come back and loop you in and those of you that can't catch the show, you can listen to the podcast later or you can catch us on Truth Affiliate that carries Truth Talk live. What is, how do people help support a kid? So someone out there is listening and saying, you know, my kids are grown, my grandkids are grown, but I want to help a kid go to camp, potentially be a part of a life-changing experience for a kid.
How do they help? Yeah, so the best way to help, go to our website, campgreenville.org and Whoa, campgreenville.org? No, campaigns.org.
Old habits die fast. I know. Which is a good one too, though.
That's a good one too? Yep, we were just talking about the Upstate. So campaigns.org and you can click the give button and read about what our donations and those funds go to and how we can sponsor these kids to come to camp. And then what you do by giving that money, it allows us to go to our partners, go to the local school systems, go to the local organizations and say, hey, we have the opportunity to provide these for your group and they'll be able to provide those kids to us and be able to put them through our experience. Where that kid isn't isolated, they are included with the rest of our campers and get that unique experience, treated like one of the other people in this day and age and just get that cool experience at camp. If they need supplies, we provide the supplies, we provide the sleeping bags, we provide all those things for them. A lot goes into this.
I mean, some kids show up, they don't have a swimsuit, they don't have shoes or they don't have the basic necessities, toothbrush. So you're looking at, and it'll come from some rough backgrounds, but they're going to get loved on, they're going to hear about Jesus, maybe for the first time at this camp and many other camps like it. Campaigns.org, friends, donate there right now. You're at 80% of your scholarship, right? So we're almost there. So many people have been generous.
Truth Network's helped out and we want to encourage everyone to go to campaigns.org. We're going to come back with Nicholas and talk more about camp and some of the really powerful stories. Maybe you have a story to share.
Don't be shy, don't worry. You can call in under a different name if you want. Maybe something crazy happened at camp. More on Truth Talk Live coming up. It helps the camp pay the bills because they got to, you know, they got to pay the plumbing. Nicholas Patton is a camp director, kind of speaking on behalf, like as a proxy for all camp directors out there who are trying to change kids' lives. At the end of the day, it's about not just making some dreams come true and not just giving a good experience and a whole lot of fun with the water sports and the super slide and the blob and all that stuff, Nicholas. But it's about kids encountering the Lord and learning about God and His Word and that God loves them so much, huh? It does.
It is. Like, everyone expects to do those fun activities when you come to camp, but it's those unique things that happen that are out of our control. That's God's control that God is able to implement through the conversations that you get to have, through embracing the creation around you every day that really speaks volumes about that camp experience.
And that was something that happened to you. I mean, when someone says to you, well, how are you qualified to talk about camp? How are you qualified to raise money to send kids to camp? How are you qualified to do all this? Tell a little bit about that.
What's your answer? It's kind of neat. I just heard it in the hallways.
Two or three folks asked you the same question coming in. Yeah, so this is my 15th summer as a career in working in camp. I grew up going to camp as a little middle schooler, knew exactly, hey, this is what I want to do. I actually got a degree in outdoor education and outdoor ministries at Monterey College and went straight into working camp full time and have kind of gone through both private camps, Bible camps, and then really diving in with the YMCA and being part of the nonprofit community of camps in this area.
Talk about wearing hats. I mean, you're kind of a pastor, you're kind of a counselor, you're kind of a chaplain, you're kind of a marketing guru, you're kind of a super fun dude who's like Mr. Gamester, Mr., you know, life of the party. You've got to do all these things. And you're also a medic. You're a babysitter. You're a chauffeur. You're a guide up those rocks.
Camp Haynes, there's some amazing trails. You've been on there. Yup. Yeah. So, yeah, it's every day.
I wear multiple different hats every day. I get to be in the office talking to parents and donors, and then I get to go out and eat lunch with the kids in the dining hall and hike on the trails or run down the hill and play archery with a group of kids and just kind of get to experience it right alongside them. And we've talked a lot about that. You're pouring Christ into your counselors, building them up in the Lord, making sure they're growing in the Word and all that, because then they've got a whole host of campers coming for the whole week, and they've got to be a spiritual. They've got to have their battery filled, right, charged, so they can be a ministry to these kids who are coming from all kinds of tough situations, maybe abusive homes, and maybe they don't have a mom and dad in the home. Maybe they're getting bullied.
Maybe they've got some challenges with self-esteem and whatnot. So you're trying to give them the Lord, but you're trying to get all your counselors. Talk about the life of a Christian counselor, how our listeners need to be praying for them.
Yeah. So they, in all honesty, our counselors have the toughest job. Their job is harder than my job because they get to both take on the emotional but the physical demand of that cabin and that group of 10 kids with them. So pouring into them is so important for us, making sure that they have a break where they can go just decompress for a few minutes each day, but also at the start of the week, we're having a devotion for them so that they can get poured into. We're providing them those devotions daily. We're having those conversations so that they can feel like they can pour right back into these kids and share their personal stories and their personal journeys in faith.
I would just encourage you, if you know anyone that's a camp counselor, whether it be at your church, our church has a summer camp that's on site. For kids, some say it's like a daycare, but really it's a camp. They make it fun.
They do all kinds of outings. Pray for those kids. Every time I'm in there playing ball and they're getting a little staged up for the kids to come, I grab them. I say, let me pray for y'all.
Just encourage you because you're pouring into those kids. They're the front line, tip of the spear, right? And they're living life with them. Nicholas is the head counselor or the camp director of YMCA Camp Haynes here in the Piedmont area of North Carolina. Beautiful area, Sourtown Mountain up there, right? And you're hanging rock, a lot of great hiking trails, a lot of great water. You got horses up there too?
We do, yep. And big old climbing rock and all that good stuff. And so sometimes we have our camp board meetings up there. But that's a give back for me because I want to see more kids go to camp and have their life changed. And it could be a kid going to Kaneko Camp. It could be a kid going to the wilds. It could be a kid going to Ridgecrest.
It could be a kid going to Young Life Camp of Colorado. Friends, if you will help these kids get there, you may have FOMO. Well, Stu, I want to hang out with Nicholas for an hour like you get to do on the radio today. Or go to lunch with him like we did recently, you know? But I can't go to camp. Well, help someone go, right? And just let's get your mind off yourself and think about how can I change a kid's life? It's right around a thousand bucks. Talk about the details. So I write you a check for a thousand bucks.
What happens? Yeah, so we take that, we add it to our scholarship fund, and then that goes right to these kids. For us and for a lot of camps, a hundred percent of the donations go straight back into the program to provide that opportunity for that kid. And when that kid covers their tuition, it covers a sleeping bag, whatever materials they may need to make it to camp, those funds go directly to them.
And that allows us to just give them that experience and us to fill the beds and create those partnerships and also hopefully build that lasting relationship and change heart in that kid through that experience. So we're 80 percent of our goal. The total goal is what? Like 260,000. Where are we at right now? Just over 200. So we have about 54,000. So we've got about 54,000.
Someone might be able to write a check for 54K, which gets us done. All the scholarships, as many kids as we can get there. You know, think of Coach Bill McClain, who went to heaven last year, one of my dad's best friends, one of my mentors who coached and mentored me. He took busloads of kids up to camp every summer and absolutely poured into those kids. And these scholarships made that possible. These are kids that are inner city kids.
There was no way. And now these kids are serving. Some of them are camp counselors, right?
You've met some of these kids, haven't you? Val Elliott, our good buddy, right there with me and Bill. After Bill went to heaven, we talked about him on this radio show. Yeah, it's so cool to just see that transformation. That one week, those five nights of being at camp and that impact on them changed their life. It changed the trajectory of their life.
The things we hear of these kids having stories saying, yeah, you get to eat three meals a day every day and I'm not hungry anymore. Those things are so empowering to hear that they had that opportunity to come. Well, I love it and I love the fact, you know, Coach Bill tells a story about one of his kids who had a real experience.
They're pulling up to go to camp and it's mountainous, it's beautiful. And he yells, I got to get off this bus right now. I got to get off this bus right now. And Bill thought he was going to run or do something crazy or he was having a panic attack or whatnot.
He jumped off the bus, said, I just got to be in the open air. This is beautiful. All I've seen is the, you know, I guess you call it the concrete jungle or the inner city, just, you know, walls and apartments and roads.
I've never been in this beautiful mountain area. And so there's something just about that. Like, we're giving kids an opportunity to do that, Nicholas. And tell me how you've seen lives change through all this. Tell me some testimonies and some cool camp stories where you've seen, wow, it's just like, this is just like, this is it. This is why we do what we do.
Talk about that, will you? Yeah, there's so many. It's hard to pinpoint, Stu, but it's, there's just so many cool opportunities of these kids that just get to come to camp. And it's like you said, they've literally come to the bottom of the mountain and they've stepped off and like, wow, I've never seen a mountain.
I've never made it from the flat lands all the way to a spot of this and been able to take that in and jump in the pool and be able to experience the pool and the lake and swim in the lake and get on a boat. And so those just stories of the I've never, I've never, I've never is something that we get to say, now you have, now you can't. They say, oh, I'm too scared to do this. And they get to conquer that challenge. They get to conquer those fears and be able to say, I did that. I was able to do that this summer. I go back and tell that story and be able to say, hey, I learned about this.
I saw this in that. That's just so empowering to hear. You know, it's almost surreal to see a kid learn how to swim for the first time. To see a kid pull back the string on a bow and arrow. And hit that target. Hit the target, shoot a gun, go hiking, do things, climb this big mountain wall, do all kinds of crazy stuff. Zipline across the lake. Yep, s'mores, everything. This is camping. But talk about what it's like, Nicholas, and you may think of an actual testimony or just in general, to lead a kid to Jesus who's like, hey, I'm ready to accept Christ as my Savior.
I've been hearing about this. That's the one, you know, part of my life that's just not complete. I just don't have the Lord, which is all of our life, honestly. Talk about that, the power of that when you see the gospel take hold of someone.
Yeah, it's just so awe-inspiring because when you sit there and you have this kid who has listened to one of our staff just talk and share about the Word of God and share about the values there and the story. And then they start asking you questions. You know that wheels are beginning to spin. You know they're thinking about it.
They're trying to apply it to their life, apply it to their family situation. And you're like, all right, we got it, we got it. And so having that conversation, sitting them down and just letting them take that part and take that first step, but you just being able to guide them through that process and say, hey, this is what it's about. This is what God has done for you. And this is what we're going to do. And let's sit here and let's pray about it together.
And you make this decision on your own. And that process with these kids and sitting there listening to them and sharing your faith journey and sharing that is so just, it's immeasurable of what God can do through campus. I love it. We'll talk more about that, some more testimonies. You're going to tell us your craziest horror, funny, nutty story from camp when we come back?
Okay, I know you've got a couple of them. We may take a caller to Nicholas Patton YMCA Campaigns. You want to send a kid to campus? What's the website real quick? campaigns.org.
campaigns.org. We'll do more on that when we come back and some really cool stories after this. Hang on. I'll open with a quote.
I'll close with a quote I opened with. The problem with the church today is we don't go to camp anymore. It's said by a pastor, and he wasn't saying that to dumb down church, to make it, you know, entertaining, over entertaining, right? And to bring in just a whole bunch of pop culture mishmash. The point of his statement was that at camp there's something about getting away and enjoying your time with the Lord, with people.
And Nicholas Patton, that's exactly what you're doing at campaigns, huh? That is, yep. It's just being out in God's creation every day. And these kids, they're hearing about the Lord. They're seeing the handiwork of the Lord.
There's all kinds of testimonies and stories. And all hour long we've been beating the drum to say, hey, how would you like to change a kid's life forever? You know, help them go to camp. It's right around a thousand bucks if you have ten bucks, a hundred bucks.
If you have fifty thousand bucks and you want to finish the scholarship program, we're at eighty percent of the goal, which is, I think, what did you say, two hundred and fifty thousand or so? Yep. Yeah. Every little bit counts as we kind of provide those opportunities for these kids in need.
They would not otherwise be able to go to camp at all. So Nicholas, you've kind of raised your family at camp. The children, your wife, talk about that.
Yeah. So camp is just part of our life. So I've got a four and a six year old kid and we just love being a part of that camp story. My daughter got to go to camp for the first time last summer and got to really experience it and see it through her lens and see just her accomplishments and independence that she grew in those experiences is just crazy to see in that. And to watch both my kids know that, yeah, mom and dad are here, but we've got a hundred other parents that are here every summer and that they get to bond with.
They walk into the dining hall and they just leave us to go give hugs to the counselors and the staff because they are their parents. And it's part of raising our kids in a supportive Christ following community is important for us. And it's just that part of camp that you really get to invest in.
I love it. This is Truth Talk Live and Truth Talk. I'm Stu Epperson, your host today with our special guest, Nicholas Batten.
He's the director. Speaking on behalf of all camp directors everywhere, you guys are like my heroes. What you all put up with, what you go through, the tough phone calls, the tough situations. I mean, sometimes you've got to send a kid home.
You have no, you know, there's, they're, they're, they're way out of line and there's, you know, there's just no remedial. There's, there's also beautiful stories of redemption. I know you, you were thinking of a story off the air. Maybe you want to share about a kid, a life changing at camp.
You want to share anything that comes to your mind or something, something bizarre out there going on? Yeah, it's just a lot of times when we see these kids at camp, like this past summer, one of our counselors came to us about one of the kids that all of a sudden she just saw her sitting out on the bench crying and just went to go sit down next to her and say, hey, what's going on? And we realized that the kid was crying because the clothes that she had that she came to camp were covered in mace.
And it was something that we didn't realize until we talked to this kid and that gave us the opportunity to say, hey, let's go clean these clothes. Let's get you new stuff through this scholarship campaign, through these opportunities and say, now we're going to change your trajectory of life through the next five days of being able to pour into you and share what God can do, what your new friends at camp can be and who we can be for you in this life through that week experience. The trauma will come from you, you read between the lines. Someone's got mace all over their clothes. They're, they're, they're fighting for their life at home. The home's a battle. Everything's a battle. Every, every issue is an argument.
You got abusive situations, maybe being raised by, you know, aunt and uncle or something, or grandma and grandpa. And they come to camp and then, then they might, Nicholas, you and your counselors might be the only Jesus they ever meet or the only Bible they ever read, right? Yeah, that is.
Wow. So campaigns.org is the website if you want to send a kid to camp, help send a kid to camp. Anywhere in the country, any Christian, big C Christian campus sharing the gospel that's loving on those kids, get in, get a part of it. We're here to beat that drum, aren't we, Nicholas?
That's right, yep. And he just came from a wonderful camp in Greenville, South Carolina, 96.9 FM up there in the Greenville YMCA camp there. And now he's here in North Carolina and there's camps all over the country that are wonderful from, my wife went to Hume Lake camp in California, changed her life. Powerful speakers there, giving the gospel and, and loving on kids and creating a wonderful experience. We got a caller on the line, actually a couple callers, we got Val on the line. This is a special guy right here. This was your predecessor.
He used to be the head of campaigns. Let's put Val on the line, Grayson, and let's say hello. Hello to him. Val, good to talk to you, my friend.
God bless you. Hey, Val. Okay, we got him on line two. Okay, let's go to, let's see here if we can click on this here. All right, there he is.
Hey, man. Okay, let's go to, we'll get Val back on. We'll go in the meantime to Mike, caller in Dayton, Ohio. Mike, you're on Truth Talk Live.
Welcome, sir. Okay, we're having a little phone system problem. I'm not going to begin to imagine what Mike's going to say. It's always good when, when our callers, we have wonderful callers and listeners in Dayton on 106.5 FM, Nicholas. But I know what Val's going to say, and we'll get him patched in as soon as we get these phones working.
Grayson is in there working hard to get that restored. The question is, Nicholas, what do you say to people that just joined us, maybe haven't heard the whole thing, the importance of folks supporting these kids going to camp? Why is that so important and how can they do it? Yeah, so importance, it is such a unique experience to send these kids for one week, for two weeks, for however long to camp, just give that unique experience to come play, to come zip line, to rock climb, to hike, to canoe, to kayak, to shoot archery. Just learn those new experiences that a lot of kids don't ever get to do unless they come to camp. And to do that, you just go to our camp website, campaigns.org, and you can register your kid.
You can sponsor some other kid, or you can just give, and we'll be able to use those funds to get these kids to camp this summer. Now, anyone listening from Ohio to Utah, whoever's listening, can become a camp counselor, correct? There's ways to be a counselor too, huh? Yep. Wonderful. Hey, Stu, along the line. Mike, real quick, your thoughts on Christian camp, how important it is, buddy, go ahead.
It's really important. Me and my wife both went to camp when we were younger, and me and my wife were talking while you were listening to this, and how it really changed our lives. And I told my wife one time, I said, remember the song, it only takes a spark to get a fire going? I love that one, yes. Oh, my gosh, we both kind of had teared up, and we're going to donate some money for this camp guy. Awesome.
Thank you, Mike. You are going to listen to the website, and if you want to repeat it again, my wife might want to write it down. Yeah, what's the website, Nicholas?
Great question. Campaigns.org. So Campaigns, H-A-N-E-S dot O-R-G, and there's information that will take you through kind of how to give, and how to support the kids, and kind of what all happens there, right, Nicholas? Yeah.
Fantastic. God bless you, Mike. Hey, listen, you're making a difference in a young person's life. The next generation, you know, one trip to camp could be the difference between the next generation, you know, becoming a pastor or going to prison, you know, we don't know. But this is a great, God's raised up some dear folks, and Nicholas has graciously appeared as a North Carolina camp director to speak on behalf of camp directors all over the place. In Florida, where we have great stations listening.
In Ohio, where there's camps that people may go local, but the importance is getting kids, finding a way to get them to where they can hear about Christ, and they can have a great time, and enjoy God's creation. Well, thank you, Nicholas, because I was one of those guys that almost got sent home. Oh my! I appreciate you, Nicholas, for being out there, and taking you, and listening, and teaching young hearts with Christ. And it's really, it really hit my soul here, so that's why I call me. Praise the Lord. Well, you call at the same time, man. God bless you.
Thanks for calling in. What a blessing Mike is. Nicholas, you hear those kind of testimonies.
I mean, how does it hit your heart, and how do you communicate as someone who's seen the end product? Now, you've been in camping long enough to meet kids who are serving Jesus as missionaries. They're sharing the Lord in professional jobs, programming computers, teaching. What's that like when they come back and say, Hey, Mr. Patton, you know? Yeah, no, it's so cool to kind of see them go through their couple years at camp, and then now be working at camp for and with us. It's like that trajectory of the impact their summers have made, and the impact that being on staff makes. When you're a staff member, you get ten weeks of camp in a summer. You don't just get one, and that impact just is exponential. The longer you're there, the more impactful it is, the better of a difference in light you get to see camp in.
It's transformative in every way. And you have staffers now at YMCA campaigns who I've met who were little campers at one time. And we did a little thing to honor one of the first campers at the camp recently. Remember that lunch? We're like, this guy was building the ark when this guy was going to camp. That's right, yep.
But what a blessing. And he got up and gave a passionate call. He did. I think it was his dad or granddad who was one of the very first campers. He talked about, hey, listen, this is generational. So some generational curses are broken because a kid goes and hears the gospel, and it changes their life. I was one of those kids that going to a Christian camp changed my life. I'm so grateful for all those counselors. I still remember a lot of their names. I still bump into them, and they're bigger than life. And that's how Nicholas Patton is.
If you met this guy, you would know the real deal. Nicholas, give us your challenge as we get out of here. Give us a takeaway, a challenge to everyone out there listening in all kinds of different places, in all kinds of different circumstances about praying for you and about supporting this as they're able. Yeah, I think the biggest challenge is pray for your local camps, whichever ones are in your area, whatever that may be. If it's campaigns or anywhere else, pray for that leadership team. Pray for those counselors. Pray for those kids as summer approaches, as the summer happens. And just be able to just give them what they need to just be able to push through and share God's glory through that, whether that's the funds to be able to do that, whether that's the staff that they need to do that, whether that's just the programming. Just be thinking about them because there's a lot of lives that can be changed through the camp ministry, and we just want to be thinking about them. So you can't necessarily go. You can certainly pray.
And if you're able, give whatever God puts on your heart. They're 80% of the goal. They need about $50,000 more, right? And that sends all the rest of the kids that can get capacity to go to camp for the scholarship program, right? The campaigns.
Send a kid to camp. What a wonderful program. And the website one more time, Nicholas.
Campaigns, H-A-N-E-S, dot org. All right, man. Your favorite part of camp real quick.
What is it? Come on, come on, come on. Oh, I love zip-lining, my man. He's a zipper.
Flying through the air. Yes siree, man. Oh, my soul. This guy would be fun to hang out with for a day. That's it. That's all I have to tell you right now. God bless you, my friend.
