Chili Crossroads holds summer camp
Leigha Miller enjoyed decorating her cupcakes on July 30 at Chili Crossroads Bible Church’s cooking camp. Cooking camp was the second of three camps being held at the church this summer. Josie Sellers | Beacon
FRESNO – Leigha Miller couldn’t help but take a little taste of icing while decorating her cupcakes during cooking camp held at Chili Crossroads Bible Church.
“The cupcakes and games are my favorite,” said the 5-year-old.
Cooking camp, which was held July 29 – Aug. 2, was the second of three camps offered by the church.
On Tuesday, July 30, the campers participated in their own version of cupcake wars. Each of them received three cupcakes, icing and a variety of edible decorations to choose from.
While 5 ½-year-old Aria Grant had fun decorating her cupcakes, she also enjoyed making chocolate fudge and haystacks.
While many activities were held at the church, the campers also got to go on field trips. Their July 30 trip was to an organic farm where they picked cucumbers and blueberries.
“It was a chance for them to get out in nature,” said Pastor Neal Dearyan.
The first camp focused on farming and was held July 22-26 and the last one, adventure camp, will be held Aug. 5-9. Dearyan said they decided to host the camps after someone from Coshocton suggested the idea.
“As a church we are in a position where we can impact the community and this has allowed us to reach new people,” he said. “We’ve had people come from Dover, Warsaw, New Philadelphia, Plainfield, and just all over. We’ve been wowed by it.”
They tried to cap each week at 40 participants, but ended up letting people on the waiting list in. The first week had 46 participants, the second 52, and Dearyan thought they would have about the same number for the final week.
“We are already working on planning next year’s themes and possibly doing this for more weeks,” he said.
Dearyan is amazed with how people have stepped up to help run the camps.
“People from the church have really stepped up and helped make this so much more successful,” he said. “My main concern was if we would have the staff to do these and we ended up having several young moms who were delighted to help. It’s been a great bonding experience for everyone in the church. We’ve been together eight to 10 hours a day making sure the kids are having fun and that everyone is safe.”
He also hopes the campers walk away knowing that God loves them.
“We want the kids to have a good guide in life and to help them have good, clean, healthy fun,” he said.
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