Tales from Camp Joshua NC, Part One

What a busy few weeks it’s been! Besides all of the excitement at the legislature, NCRTL was pleased to host its first Camp Joshua July 19th-21^st, and we are finally able to tell you all about it! 

Camp Joshua was such a success, and so much fun for everyone involved! The weekend kicked off on Friday night, when the campers arrived, settled in, and got to know each other at dinner. Then they played a game of “Pro-Life Jeopardy,” which led right into their first workshop, Abortion 101. Afterwards, we had a long group discussion about abortion and fetal development. The students asked such thoughtful questions!

Some of the prize-winning posters!

Although we’d only been there for a few hours, after our discussion we were all ready for a little bit of fun. Commence the poster contest! The teens really blew us away with their enthusiasm and made more posters than we anticipated. Although it made our classroom look great when they were all hung up, it also made judging much harder, too! We gave out numerous prizes for the winning posters of categories like “Most Artistic” and “Best Message.”

On Saturday, the real work began. Because Camp Joshua is only a 48 hour weekend camp, the students have a lot to learn in a short period of time. They all did a fabulous job of staying alert, paying attention, and asking questions. We couldn’t ask for a better group! The main focus of the morning was the art of pro-life persuasion and how to effectively convey the pro-life message. Speaker Sarah Zagorski, from Louisiana Right to Life, explained how to address the questions from their most basic root: Is the unborn a living human person or not? She also shared her moving personal story about her troubled childhood in an abusive home and her eventual adoption into a loving family. She reminded students that we all have a personal story that we can use to win hearts for the pro-life cause, but it must be supplemented with sound knowledge about the life issues.

Having been equipped with the facts and tools for effective dialogue, the students took to the stage. Each team performed a skit showing off their understanding of the material they had learned. Practice is the key to mastery of a concept, and we are confident that these students have it down! One team focused on a dramatic presentation of a conversation about life outside of an abortion facility, while the other team took a more comedic approach and staged a scene at “Planned Pizzahood.” Needless to say, everyone was impressed with them both!

Team 2: Their "Planned Pizzahood" skit 
had us all giggling.

Team 1: The scarf represented this young woman's
shame and uncertainty due to her unplanned pregnancy.

We were all excited by our first Camp Joshua’s great start! As you can see, it was a busy weekend and one blog post just won’t do it justice. Click here to read Part Two, and visit our Facebook page to see more pictures from our camp!