My Five Camps
When I was 11 years old, I met the Lord in Costa Rica's Camp Roblealto. My camp counselor, still a teenager herself, was Shelley Sabean Young. She took the little flock that was put in her charge for those few days and discipled us for a full year, meeting once a week.
My teenage years at youth group, came under the care of other LAM missionaries. Each and every year we went camping four times, twice to the icy-cold mountain Camp La Cumbre and twice to hot and rainy Callejones beach. In these two wildly beautiful but intrinsically different places I
learned to walk with the Lord, delved deeply into the Bible alongside mentors and peers, made lifelong friendships, played lots of games and laughed and cried a lot. The years in youth group and these dozens of campout experiences are an integral part of who I am.
I have been a missionary now for 15 years, serving with Christ for the City International. The Lord has brought me full circle. I am back in an LAM related camping ministry: Camp Kikomar on the Gulf Coast in Mexico, my birth country.
Camp Kikomar has taken time to come to fruition.
It was conceived in the heart and mind of LAM missionary and evangelist Juan M. Isais when he visited the area in 1966. Its beautiful beach with placid waves, coconut trees and canals among mangroves, make it a tropical paradise hard to equal.
Years later, Camp Kikotén was founded by Juan in the mountains near Mexico City. It was in Kikotén that that my ministry partner, Mirna Sotomayor, began working with Lisa Anderson, now director of training for Christian Camping International Latin America.
In 1995, when Juan finally bought the property that is now Kikomar,
Mirna was one of the first people he took down to see it. Before he died, he challenged us with the vision of Christian camping. So in 2006 when our previous assignment ended, we naturally turned toward Kikomar as the next step in ministry, when the Lord opened the doors in April 2007.
My teenage years at youth group, came under the care of other LAM missionaries. Each and every year we went camping four times, twice to the icy-cold mountain Camp La Cumbre and twice to hot and rainy Callejones beach. In these two wildly beautiful but intrinsically different places I
learned to walk with the Lord, delved deeply into the Bible alongside mentors and peers, made lifelong friendships, played lots of games and laughed and cried a lot. The years in youth group and these dozens of campout experiences are an integral part of who I am.I have been a missionary now for 15 years, serving with Christ for the City International. The Lord has brought me full circle. I am back in an LAM related camping ministry: Camp Kikomar on the Gulf Coast in Mexico, my birth country.
Camp Kikomar has taken time to come to fruition.
It was conceived in the heart and mind of LAM missionary and evangelist Juan M. Isais when he visited the area in 1966. Its beautiful beach with placid waves, coconut trees and canals among mangroves, make it a tropical paradise hard to equal.Years later, Camp Kikotén was founded by Juan in the mountains near Mexico City. It was in Kikotén that that my ministry partner, Mirna Sotomayor, began working with Lisa Anderson, now director of training for Christian Camping International Latin America.
In 1995, when Juan finally bought the property that is now Kikomar,
Mirna was one of the first people he took down to see it. Before he died, he challenged us with the vision of Christian camping. So in 2006 when our previous assignment ended, we naturally turned toward Kikomar as the next step in ministry, when the Lord opened the doors in April 2007.By Diana Garrett del Río
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