I am a Christian. I have never doubted or second-guessed my religion, nor is it something that I try to hide from people out of shame. Even still, before last summer I never saw myself as the "type" to attend church camp and I definitely didn't see myself having what was undoubtedly one of the best experiences of my life there.

It was the summer before senior year when my best friend suggested that myself and another one of our friends go with her to the church camp that her church affiliated with and the idea went in one ear and out the other. I love her and I love God, but living in a strange place with judgmental bible-thumpers all week? No thank you. I knew that I had zero interest in going with her and figured that it was an empty invitation, or that she would forget that she invited me at all, but no dice. For a while I put off giving her a real answer, hoping that she would get the hint, but one thing led to another. Deposits were due and before I knew what I was signing up for, I was going to church camp. (Still not sure how she convinced me to drop $150 on something I didn't even want to do.)

Weeks flew by as they do during summer break, and the week of camp loomed closer and closer. The incredibly off-base idea that I had formed in my head of what camp would be like was actually starting to grow on me! A weeklong getaway with my two best friends, away from my parents and high school drama and with a whole new crop of boys was my junior year self's wildest dream. Little did I know, I was in for so much more.

The day finally came where everyone met up at church, loaded up the van and headed to Cullowhee, where the campground was located. After the first ten minutes of laughs, snacks and silly dubsmashes I forgot about camp entirely. When we arrived at the WNC Church of God Campground the first thing I noticed was all of the different vans from all of the different churches. The second thing I noticed was that I had absolutely zero cell service. Fast forward 10 minutes, my friends and I were assigned to different small groups and I knew that this would be a very long week. And I could not have been any more wrong.

I will spare you the gory details and get to the point that I'm here for. Church camp is like nothing else that I have ever experienced before. There are very few scenarios where you can group over 100 teenagers into one place and create a family. And somewhere between nighttime worship, concerts, community service, gagaball tournaments and snack shop trips we became exactly that. Don't get me wrong, I didn't meet any new best friends, but I became a part of a family in Christ. If anyone had told me before this experience what I was really in for, I probably would have laughed in their face. For a whole week I felt everything around me wholly and absolutely, in a way that I never have. I worshipped in a way that I never have. I served in a way that I never have. I loved in a way that I never have. I cried on, with and for these people who I had just met. I prayed over others, and was prayed for myself. I served in a community that I had never even been to. I learned that being a Christian is so much more than loving God, praising Him or following a set of rules. I learned about self-love and unconditional love and limitless love and spreading all of the love that Christ shows us each and every day.

This was far more than a religious experience, it was a spiritual experience and one that has left a lasting impression on me. I opened up to people, and I allowed myself to be changed from the inside out. For a week after I got home, when people asked how camp went I could manage about ten words before I started to cry. Just thinking of the immense and overwhelming amount of love and the presence of Christ was enough to move me and put me back in that place again. Church camp was the most alive that I have ever felt, and I know it's an experience that I will always treasure.

I want to thank my best friend for inviting me and staying on my back about going. I want to thank the NC Nazarene Youth International for holding the camp. I want to thank the college students that came and helped out for the wonderful music and fun activities. And I want to thank everyone that attended camp itself. You all have changed my life more than you know.