Director’s Blog

FRIDAY, June 13, 2025

8:00am: Time has flown by this week parents. We had some rain and storms move in yesterday during the mid-afternoon time period which caused us to activate our rain plan activities. The storms moved out just in time for us to enjoy Free Time on the water. Some of our boy cabins have enjoyed camping out in our new “CVP Backcountry” campsites this week! For today, we are focusing on our end of week activities which include wrapping up our Clinic skill classes, our cabin activities, and our end of week worship-bonfire service. Please pray that the rain holds off this evening so we can hold our bonfire service outside. I have often reflected on my own summer camping experience when I was a kid and have found that I still remember a large part of those summers. I look at summer camp as a signpost in a child’s memory bank and overall life experience. So much growth can happen during these weeks. My wife was reading these posts a few days ago and she commented, “I actually think that a week of camp can equivocate to 30 or more normal days in a kid’s life in terms of overall experience in impact.” I am thankful for each of these campers, and we are looking forward to maximizing our last full day with them.

Thursday, June 12, 2025

7:00am: It is another beautiful morning at camp. If your son is in Cabin B-7, they enjoyed a campout at our brand-new “CVP Backwoods” campsite-it was a lot of fun last night when I left the site. As you can see from the pictures, campers enjoyed our CVP Hoe-down last night which always proves to be a lot of fun. After a good night’s sleep, we will be off and running shortly for another full day of camp. One of our most popular cabin activities this summer as been our new mountain biking activity. With over 115 acres on this property, there are plenty of trails to explore on the bikes.

I was doing some recent reading, and a stat caught my eye related to parenting: A typical child has 6574 days in their childhood. On average, most kids only spend 3% of those days outside which is mathematically 197.22 days in today’s world. When I was growing up, I would estimate this percentage to be MUCH higher-perhaps in the 20-30% bracket. We are living in a digital age where a lot of kids and adults are spending time inside. As a parent, this convicts me and has caused me and my wife to re-think some of our parenting strategies. I share this with you to only point out how thankful I am that we get to spend a week outside with your kids.

Wednesday, June 11, 2025

11:30am: I have been doing a lot of reading on the impacts that summer camps can have on kids during their week of camp. One of the great things about camp is that we are 100% screen free and kids are constantly in nature experiencing noises, roots, woods, and elements that they are not used to. If your kids are anything like mine, they are constantly wanting to use a screen or watch a movie. If every activity got rained out up here during the week, we would still not resort to a movie. One of my camp mentors once told me, “You can have a ton of fun at camp even with playing with rocks outside when it’s raining.” A stat that has caught my eye is that 94% of camper parents agreed that camp had an impact on their child. Most parents notice a difference in their child in the days and weeks following their camp experience. I believe that a week of camp is equivalent to 15-21 days due to how much a kid experiences physically, mentally, and spiritually. Kids are experiencing new activities and skills, interpersonal relationships within the walls of their cabins, and they are interacting with college aged counselors who they look up to. They make new friends, get out of their comfort zones, they gain confidence in themselves and with leadership opportunities. They experience increased growth in their faith with a deeper understanding of the Bible and with the Gospel. In this post-Covid world, these skills are essential. In my opinion, kids and their families desperately need what a summer camp has to offer, perhaps more than ever (yes, I know I am biased :) ). Most kids do not forget their camp experience even decades after they attend a camp. Here are some tips that I would recommend to parents once their camper returns from camp:

Spend some intentional time unpacking the week with your child. Ask questions and allow them to tell you as much as they can. This will allow them to reflect and share all that they experienced. I know of families who immediately take their child out to lunch right after they leave camp so that everything is fresh on their mind.
If your child expresses a desire to attend church or a youth group, allow them this opportunity. A lot of camper’s report feeling a “spiritual high” after they return from camp. It is important for kids to continue to explore their faith in Christ with other kids during weekly worship services and youth group gatherings.

3. If you notice positive changes in your kid’s behavior or overall demeanor, make sure to champion and celebrate this. Use camp as a springboard to build them up and to keep talking about the experience even into the school year.

4. As hard as it is to let them gradually grow up and gain independence, use their camp experience as a gradual step towards being more and more independent. If you are anything like me, I cherish the baby years and struggle with allowing my kids to branch out and grow up. Camp offers a way for kids to learn how to be apart from mom or dad, even if it is a struggle and hard. I do not want my kids to be 18 and not know how to launch out on their own. Parenting is one of the hardest things on the planet but oh what a joy it is.

7:55am: It is a beautiful day at Vesper Point this morning at 7:55am. We had a great time playing our famous evening activity called “Gnome Hunt” last night. Campers travel the entire campus looking for characters called, “Gnomes” and try to accumulate as many token as possible. For those who have been to camp before, it is a mix of the classic counselor hunt with some very interesting characters who are dressed up. For today, we are looking forward to another full day with our morning worship after breakfast(eggs, biscuits, sausage) followed by back-to-back cabin activities. One of our most popular activities this summer has been our new SUP(stand up paddleboards). One of our goals is to get the campers on the lake and in the water as much as possible. I know I am biased but we have one of the most beautiful waterfronts of any camp I have seen. Each cabin is assigned 2 “Boat Camps” each week where we take them out to double-tube, ride the banana boat, or to go out on our new pontoon boat. Later today, I will share some recent research with you that I have been reading up on concerning the impact that summer camps can have on kids and what role we as parents can play in that.

tUESDAY, June 10, 2025

9:30pm: Parents, our website is having technical issues with uploading photos today. We are trying to fix this issue, but I wanted to explain why there are not a lot of pictures. My apologies-I know how much each of you want to see pics of your kiddos.

12:30pm: Good afternoon parents. We awoke to a foggy, damp, and cool Vesper Point Morning. Our girls enjoyed night #1 in our girl cabins which are all equipped with AC now! For our boys, night #1 in our brand-new cabin was wonderful. The views off of the back porches of these cabins is peaceful and gorgeous. We spent the morning prepping our “CVP Backwoods” campsite which 4 lucky cabins will get to enjoy this week. Cabins will be given the opportunity (if they sign up for the activity) to camp out with their entire cabin over a campfire while sleeping in tents. A camp leadership person will be on site to ensure safety (congruent with the cabin gender). Our morning Anchor worship service was sweet this morning with Praise and Worship songs followed by our Anchor Talk. Our daily Anchor Talk is centered around our camp theme, “Wide Awake” as we seek to encourage campers to be Wide Awake for Christ in a world that is largely asleep to the Gospel. I will do my best to post more about the afternoon and everning. We are loving this age group. As I type this, we are getting ready to have chicken tacos for lunch.

Monday, June 9, 2025

9:00pm: Today has been a very good day. A steady rain fell for several hours this late afternoon and early evening which caused us to pivot our plans a bit. Campers are heading back to their cabins and getting ready to prepare for bed after a fun day. We did get to enjoy most of Free Time this afternoon before the rains started. We invested in several new paddleboards, kayaks, and canoes this Winter which campers enjoyed today. This week, we have campers from Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia, and even Wisconsin! Our staff members are from Montana, Arizona, Mississippi, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, DC, and all the other typical southeastern states—are true National mixture of people which we love. All is well this evening.

2:20pm: Happy Monday Parents! Thank you for your patience this morning as we welcomed 200 campers for Week #2. 200 campers is our full capacity, and we are so thankful to have each one of them here. Today is an historic day for Vesper Point in that we opened up our brand-new boy cabins. 12 months ago, we opened up 4 brand-new boy cabins and today we were able to open up our final 5 cabins. If your son is in B1-B5, they are in a brand-new cabin. If your son is in B6-B9, those cabins are only 1 year old! It is quite miraculous that we were able to complete this project in less than two years thanks to some generous donors and an incredible contractor. For those of you who are wondering, “What about the girls”, keep in mind that our girl cabins have been updated and expanded for over 10 years now. This current boy cabin project is to get the boys up to par with the quality of cabin that they need and deserve. I am also happy to report that we added AC/Heat to every girl cabin this Spring so that 100% of cabins have AC this summer. For those purists like me (you know…who like to rough it), I feel your pain. But as a parent myself, I am thankful that our campers can enjoy cool cabins during the hot summer. Parents, my oldest daughter is a camper this week and I am right with each of you in praying for the week and looking forward to seeing what the Lord does in the lives and hearts of these kids. I plan to share a lot with you this week on this blog—so stay tuned for updates. I will do my best to try and provide 2 updates per day, but there are some days where that may not be possible. Some of you may have noticed that we are busy building a new and expanded parking lot. This project will hopefully be ready soon so that we can offer many more parking options for our parents. We just got back from lunch and are now headed to Canteen and then Clinics.

FRIDAY, June 6, 2025

Parents-We have made it Friday. The temperatures continue to rise slightly as the week has progressed, and this has made the lake feel even better. We are hoping that the forecast rain holds off so we can hold our Friday night bonfire this evening which is a great way to end the week for campers. We are announcing the winning team at lunch which includes various competitions and ways to earn points. The winning team will be treated to a special ice cream desert at lunch. For daily honor cabin (cabin cleaning), the winning boy and girl cabins will enjoy a star-gazing pizza party after the bonfire this evening. If you are a parent of Cabin B-5, we had an incredible time at our first ever CVP Backcountry Campout last night. I will post more information later this evening…we are heading to lunch now.

Thursday, June 5, 2025

10:45pm: Real quick update parents—today was a very full day. After a morning of activities and games, we surprised the kids with lunch at our beachfront (hot dogs) and they really enjoyed it. No rain today allowed us to be on the lake for most of the day. We held our evening activity on the field tonight which is always a favorite. If you have a son in B-5, they are camping out in our brand-new campsite tonight which has been a dream of mine for a long time! More tomorrow.

Happy Thursday parents. It is a beautiful day up here at camp and we are having a great week. Over the last year, I have done a lot of reading on certain camp studies that our national organization has published. Vesper Point belongs to CCCA (Christian Camping and Conference Association). Over the next two days, I want to share a few statistics with you that I hope are helpful to you as you prepare to pick up your camper on Saturday. It is also my hope to give you some tools to use to unpack with your child as you talk about their week of camp. The following stats are from a recent study I read called, “The Power of Camp Study”

In the weeks following camp, 94% of camper parents agreed that camp had an impact on their child. Parents noted things like their child being more helpful around the house, showing more self-confidence, being more interested in attending church, and engaging them more frequently in conversations about God and faith. Parents, I want to encourage each of you to allow your child to unpack the week with you and to expect them to want to talk with you about what they learned.
Campers show significant growth throughout a week of camp, on average, in areas of faith and character. Follow-up surveys show that support this data even 2-3 months after camp.
Campers reported increased abilities to make friends better, to step out of their comfort zones more, confidence in being a leader, and a desire to know Christ in a deeper way. Campers also showed an increased desire to pray more and the read the Bible more.
89% of parents surveyed identified at least one major positive change in their kids life post camp. Some of these markers include being more adventurous, engaging in more conversations, being more social, spending less time with electronics and screen time, reading the Bible more, etc.
94% of campers surveyed that they were strengthened in their faith by the last day of camp.
The survey also noted that with all of the things that changed as a result of Covid, one thing that has not changed is a kid’s need of a week of camp!
98% of parents surveyed agreed that, “Camp is a place to unplug from technology.” Most campers surveyed expressed gratitude and relief for the opportunity to unplug from technology and just the change to be outside!

For any parent that wants a link to this study, please email me at forrest@vesperpoint.org and I am happy to send it to you. I know that I am biased, but this study is such an encouragement to me and to our full-time staff. Thank you for trusting us with your camper(s).

Wednesday, June 4, 2025

10:30pm: Parents-we had a really good day today. We had our famous hamburger cookout followed by our hoe-down this evening and the kids loved it. During the hoe-down, we had a surprise heavy rainstorm which cooled things down a bit which is always nice. I will be sharing some interesting statistics with you tomorrow that I recently came across concerning the importance of kids attending a summer camp. Until then, we are all heading to bed now with what I call a “good tired” feeling after a busy yet fulfilling day.

8:10am: Good morning parents. We are waking up to another beautiful morning today at Vesper Point. We have made it to the mid-week and all is well. Wednesdays are always fun because tonight is hoe-down night. We will be having hamburgers for dinner which is always a camper favorite. We are also opening up our brand-new campsite for one lucky cabin tonight. Our fishing clinic is also taking the pontoon boat out for Clinics today which is exciting. Due to record amounts of rainfall and other delays, our 5 brand-new boy cabins should be ready to move into sometime this week. I will write more later this afternoon/evening when I have more time.

Tuesday, June 3, 2025

9:15pm: Parents-Today has been an awesome first full day of camp. Campers are heading back to their cabins right now getting ready for bed. I can assure you that they will sleep well tonight given how busy we have been. Temps have been very comfortable up here and we enjoyed a nice breeze as well. I wanted to share a few of our new activities this summer that we debuted today: Mountain Biking, “Pontooning” with our new pontoon boat (we also use it to pull the banana boat), several new SUP’s (Stand Up Paddleboards, several new canoes and kayaks, and a brand-new home run derby baseball field. We have also completely re-done our archery field/range with new targets and a much-improved shooting range. We also have a new menu which has been a hit. For dinner tonight, campers enjoyed meatloaf, green beans, potato wedges, rolls, and red velvet cookies for desert. For mid-day snack today we enjoyed snow-cones. I share all of these details with you because I want you to see the “nitty-gritty” details that we do each day. I also hope that it brings back some memories of your own camp experience years ago. Rest well parents, we are doing well.

7:45am: Parents, good morning and Happy Tuesday. We were so busy yesterday with our camp schedule that I was not able to post a second Monday update-my apologies for that. Yesterday was a beautiful day at camp after a month full of record rainfall. Last evening was a lot of fun and everyone is currently waking up and doing honor cabin (cabin cleaning) before breakfast which is at 8:30am. We took the campers to a newly cleared area across from the dock last night for a new activity called, “Flag Festive”. We divided the cabins into 4 teams and each team worked on a team name and a cheer. The teams each presented their cheers in front of the judges and the judges awarded 1st-4th place points. Throughout the week, teams will be given opportunities to earn points including points for honor cabin (cabin cleaning). The overall winning team will win a special dessert on Friday at lunch! After the cheers, I gave our first Anchor Talk of the week around our campfire. Our morning worship services are called “Anchor” while our evening worship services are called, “Vespers”. The word “Vespers” means evening worship, and this is how the camp got the name “Vesper Point” in the early 1960’s. On opening day, we save our Anchor Talk for the evening since we do not have morning worship on Monday’s. Anchor Talks are centered around our camp theme which is, “Wide Awake”. I spoke to the campers last night about what it looks like to be Wide Awake for Christ in a world that is largely asleep to the Gospel. Our theme verse for the summer is Romans 13:11-12. I failed to mention that we also had our first evening Vespers service after dinner last night as well. Vespers is a service where we sing worship songs and then hear the testimonies of 2 of our staff members. Vespers is held at “Vesper Point” which is a naturally formed rock amphitheater which overlooks the lake. We have been holding Vespers services at this location since the late 1950’s and it is one of the most beautiful overlooks that I have ever seen. When you pick your camper up on Saturday, you are welcome to take some time to hike to this point—you will not be sorry. I will try to send another update later this evening about today!

-Forrest Walker

CVP Director

Monday, June 2, 2025

12:00Noon: Parents, on behalf of the entire staff at Vesper Point, I want to thank you for cooperation and patience with our morning drop-off. Drop-off went well from my perspective, and I am thankful for each one of you. We have been working on Summer 2025 plans since September, and it is very rewarding for today to finally be here. I told our staff this morning in our prayer time that today is like Christmas morning or the first day of school for most of these campers and that is something that we don’t take lightly. Our staff this summer comes from the following locations: Arizona, Montana, Virginia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia, Texas (5 from this state), Washington DC, and Tennessee. Today is also an important day for my wife and I as our son is experiencing his first day of camp as a rising 3rd grader. As a parent, it is difficult to drop your child off for the first time and trust that the week will go well. My wife and I want each of you to know that we are right there with you and we understand those feelings and emotions. As I type this, we just finished the swim test (which went well) and cabins are experiencing their first Cabin Activity together as a cabin. After a pizza lunch at 12:30, cabins will head back to their cabins to finish moving in and we will jump headfirst into the normal camp schedule. Since this is the first day of the summer, I will send another update later this evening. Thank you for trusting us with your camper(s) this summer.

PS: I also wanted to let you know that due to ongoing construction projects, our new parking lot/space is not yet complete. We have had major construction delays due to the record amounts of rainfall in the month of May. If you experienced any difficulty with parking this morning, I am sorry.