by Liz Killebrew, Jim and Tia Gray

Christ the Saviour Anglican Church, Alexandria VA, sponsored its fifth summer youth camp, Camp Turtlepond, in the mountains of North Carolina in late June. This year’s theme: Come Away a While and Rest, focused on God’s loving call and desire for us to rest in Him, especially relevant after hectic scholastic years for all our teens.

Mornings at camp began with morning prayer and Bible reading. Afternoons were spent climbing up to fantastic vistas of the North Carolina and Georgia mountains, swimming and sliding down waterfalls. Evenings found us around the campfire with s’mores and further Bible discussions.

Camp Turtlepond began as a brainstorm in 2020, when COVID shut down other diocesan camps our youth group had planned on. What began as a three-day camp has expanded, by popular demand of the teens themselves, to five days. Youth who have moved away from the area flew back this summer specifically to attend Camp Turtlepond!

Liz Killebrew, Jim and Tia Gray are youth leaders at Christ the Saviour Anglican in Alexandria, VA.