Outreach America's
Wilderness Experience
Wilderness Experience
Wilderness Experience
for boys ages 12-15
for boys ages 12-15
for boys ages 12-15
June 10-14, 2024
Our Overview
Our Approach
Our Experience
Our Impact
Overview
Overview
The Wilderness Program is a different beast when compared to most camps in the country.
It's brimming with fictional scenario games demanding critical thinking and teamwork. These teens are consistently challenged and pushed to better themselves and overcome fear or reservations.
Reality is, the Wilderness Program isn't for everyone. We like to think any camper that comes through can gain so much from it, but it's challenging in the most entertaining way possible. There's a determined mindset that works its way into everything. They press on one another to get to the next goal, the next win.
Every activity has a purpose. We use the good and the bad, the wins and the losses, to teach from. There's always a character trait to bolster. We magnify integrity and perseverance. We operate under the banner of teamwork. We instill lessons that will last a lifetime.
It's Wilderness and it's awesome.
Approach
Approach
We build boys.
It's our deepest passion. Through the challenging and competitive nature of a camp experience we're able to pull out value in every single camper. Boys deeply desire to be validated. We train our staff to seek for those opportunities. The cabin environment is such a wonderful catalyst for this. It's a tribe. We often use the metaphor of a chain. Each boy in a link in the chain of that cabin. They all provide value to the whole in one way or another. The task is finding that special quality and using it as a self-image booster shot.
More importantly we want your camper to come home with an identity that's not based on their abilities, what someone said about them, their grades, or dashing looks. We want every camper to root their core self in the truth of Christ's view of them. The foundation that never changes. Never fails. Never relents. When the storms of life come, and they will, they need a ship that can weather those seas. They'll strike out, get criticism, fail a test, and get old. The only constant is Christ.
Experience
Experience
Camp is thrill on a sugar high. Sometimes the whole staff feels like the week of activities is just one long hype train. We do some really cool stuff. It's out of the box, occasionally dramatic, and ridiculously fun. They'll play insane group games, sling paintballs for hours, and stay up late swapping stories around the fire.
It's a lot to take in. It can be exhausting. Especially when you add in a week with temps in the 90's. We hydrate and sunscreen campers religiously to ease the days. After the post-camp stories subside on the route home, fully expect for your camper to hibernate for a day or two.
Spiritually it can be strenuous as well. The teens are dealing with so much that the culture is throwing at them. Many campers are coming in with all sorts of baggage from school, home, and extracurriculars. Camp can give them some reprieve, but more importantly it can begin a process of working through those issues. We encourage you to be mindful and sensitive to that. It may provide opportunities that weren't previously there. It may strengthen something in their soul. There are real, lifetime decisions made.
We're nitrous to the tank. You're the gas that keeps them moving.
Impact
Impact
We don't hide it. Our deepest desire and intention is for your camper to encounter Christ in a real and transformative way. We generally have sessions every morning and evening. Our model is a slow build to Thursday. We acknowledge change doesn't happen overnight. Our program facilitates that with strong faith-based messages throughout the week, training and discipling your young man into a greater knowledge and deeper love of his Creator.
We're eternity minded. We're in the kingdom building business and camp provides a unique place to plant those seeds. Occasionally we're asked why we don't do coed camps. There's many reasons, but foremost it's the distraction. With the freedom for boys to simply be themselves, we get an inner focus, almost stoic at times, that wouldn't be there if they were trying to impress someone across the meeting room aisle the entire week. They can be vulnerable and broken if called for. They can let God work in their lives.
Be praying for your camper. Ask for discomfort, challenge, struggle followed by victory and overcoming. Pray for soft hearts and sound minds. Pray for the New Man. Most of all, pray for the Spirit to move in a mighty, unmistakable way in their life.
Wilderness Cost and Details
$400
$400
per camper
5 days and 4 nights of an unparalleled life adventure
5 days and 4 nights of an
unparalleled life adventure
All-inclusive activities, zero additional costs
All-inclusive activities,
zero additional costs
Full buffet menu for every meal
Full buffet menu for
every meal
Lodging, educational material, and extra swag included
Lodging, educational
material, and extra swag
included
WILDERNESS FAQs
WILDERNESS FAQs
WILDERNESS FAQs
Are there discounts available?
What if my camper can't swim?
What is check-in like?
Can my camper pick his own bunk?
Can I request a roommate for my camper?
What is the Awards Ceremony and will my camper recieve an award?
What about cell phones, tablets, or other devices?
Should they bring paintball equipment?