2022 Southwestern Union Leadership Camp Invests in Youth

ATHENS, TEX. – Every year, the Southwestern Union hosts a leadership camp for the academies in our territory. This year was the first in-person camp held since 2019 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The purpose of Leadership Camp is to help our student leaders become more efficient leaders on their own respective campuses. It is sponsored by the Southwestern Union education and youth and young adult departments.

This year, the theme was “Identify, Equip, Release.” We wanted the students to identify themselves as followers of Jesus and, at the same time, as leaders on their own campus. We wanted to equip them with some of the tools needed to be Christian leaders and then to release them to lead others and share Jesus on their campus and throughout their lives.

We had close to 200 people present including both students and sponsors, representing 11 academies at Lone Star Ranch in Athens, Tex., on Sept. 15-18. The programming was planned and led by Helvis Moody, Southwestern Union director of youth and young adults.

Student Association officers, led by Christian Tarbox, and spiritual life and development officers, led by Kyle Barrow, from Southwestern Adventist University led out in breakout sessions and were also some of the worship speakers. These Southwestern students were very engaging and were much appreciated by the academy students.

Other speakers included Helvis Moody, Carl Ming, Southwest Region Conference youth director, and Justin Yang, Texas Conference young adult ministries director. They all gave us a clearer picture of Jesus and how He will make us better leaders for Him if we allow Him to.

When the students were not in meetings, they had the opportunity to participate in recreational opportunities including basketball, volleyball, swimming, canoeing and horseback riding.

Every school should be proud of their student leaders for how they represented their school! The overall tone of the weekend was very spiritual and positive. Music, skits and dramatic monologues, presented by the students, made us feel the presence of Jesus. The food and fellowship were great and everyone left better equipped and ready to share Jesus with their classmates. We look forward to next year’s Leadership Camp and investing in the future youth leaders of our academies. 

By Mike Furr

Director of Secondary Education