A family with three adopted teenage Chinese sons. A mom with four daughters and no money as her husband is divorcing her. Foster parents without spare cash to send their foster son, who was just baptized on Easter. All of these are families at the Rainier Valley church with teenagers they’d like to send on our students’ summer camp at the Malibu Club—but with no cash, the kids won’t be able to go. Give today to give a kid a one-in-a-lifetime chance to hear about Jesus at one of the most remarkable places in the world.
Mars Hill Church is holding its first ever student camp: We’ve rented the epic Malibu Club in Canada. We’ve got 233 students whose camp fees are fully paid for, too. Many of them are from our Rainier Valley church, which is in the nation’s most ethnically diverse ZIP code and that meets on the property of the amazing Seattle’s Union Gospel Mission on the same site as a women’s home where children can live with their mom. Most of these children don’t have a dad, and their moms are coming out of very tragic life circumstances but meeting Jesus and on the road to healthy living.
If you are able to help sponsor some of these inner-city students to join us we’d really appreciate it. We are already sponsoring many students, but have room for another 50 low-income students if the money comes in by this Sunday, June 10. We need $25,000 total, $500 per student, and any amount is appreciated. Give here.
Here are some of the stories from church leaders and families of the kids you’d be helping:
Most of the students we encounter on a Tuesday Night at Mars Hill Students would love to attend camp this summer. The excitement you see on a student’s face when they realize camp is a possibility is priceless. But their enthusiasm is short-lived when they realize the hurdles that they will soon face while trying to attend. Simple tasks such as filling out forms, getting a photo ID, as well as a certified copy of a birth certificate, are huge hurdles. But the cost is the largest hurdle of them all.
- He is growing up in a single-parent home. His mom is working as much as she can just to keep a roof over her family’s head. With gangs, drugs, and so many other negative influences around him, he is in a position that would be very easy for him to become another student from Rainier Valley to drop out of school, join a gang, and get involved with drugs. In that last couple of months, he has been attending Mars Hill Students in Rainier Valley and has shown much interest in attending our first ever summer camp. Because of the lack of funds in his life, like so many other students in the Rainier Valley, he will not have the chance to attend something that could change the course of his life.
- She would love more then anything to attend camp this summer, but when she was told the cost, her interest soon faded. She knew all too well that her parents could not afford to send her to camp. For the last three to four years, her home has been a trailer. In her early years of high school, she grew tired of living in a trailer and tried to venture out on her own. One bad decision after another led her to the realization that she was not going to succeed. She knew that if she didn’t turn things around she wouldn’t even be able to complete high school. So she buckled down, moved back into the trailer, and worked hard the last two years and will be graduating on June 9.
- “I am a single mother of four daughters, who are very precious. I need this camp for them to have fun and seek Jesus and heal. My husband dumped us in Maryland after six months and took off with another woman! I am in the midst of going through a tragic divorce. It is beyond devastating! He has virtually spent our life savings and everything is tied up in the courts. I vow to bless future campers. I just need help now.”
- “He came to live with us last September and is currently our foster son. The Lord has done a great work in him and he has since accepted Jesus as his Lord and Savior and was baptized this last Easter. As much as we love him, we are not in a position to afford any of this camp as we continue to spend a higher amount than what we are reimbursed on and his current activities. We have high hopes to redeem some of his childhood and set him up for success before he is reunited with family down the road. We do not know how long he will be with us but would just love for him to have the opportunity to go to a camp like this as he may not get this kind of opportunity again. Everything is in “limbo” except for his faith in Jesus—who is his ROCK . We have contacted the social worker, who is busy trying to get approval for him to enter Canada, as the state has the say all in this, and we have no power over that. If we can get him sponsored, this would be a huge blessing and then we would just have to wait and see what God does on the state’s end to make it all happen.”
- “We are a family of eight with five adopted Chinese children, three of whom are teenage boys. We have been attending Mars Hill since 2006 and have adopted these three boys in recent years. We have, until recently, had employment instability, which has left us financially distressed. We will be financially stable soon, but this Malibu opportunity has come at a time when we will not be able to fund for the three boys. Two have accepted Christ and the older is considering. They have all just attended their first Mars Hill Students event and are looking forward to attending on a regular basis. They also, as of late, have begun volunteering for cleanup and maintenance at the West Seattle church. We make this awkward request knowing that this will have a lifelong impact and hope to fund and even donate for similar events in the future. Thank you for considering our request.”
- “We lost our home caring for mother suffering from Parkinson’s disease and I cut back my work hours to spend time with [my daughter] because she is suicidal. Just don’t have extra money, family of four.”
- “I do not have the money, we are living paycheck to paycheck and do not have any extra to do this on our own. [My daughter] has been running away and struggling with school. She was recently baptized on Easter but we are still struggling to make things work at home with her. She doesn’t want to do much lately but she did express interest in going to this camp, and I really want her to experience being around other teens who love Jesus.”
- “I would love my teenage son and nephew to experience this amazing opportunity! Unfortunately I am unable to pay for them. I am a single mother with three kids and my grandson. I would hate for my son and nephew to miss out on this because I do not have the funds available right now to send them. This would be such a HUGE blessing to both of them, to all of us.”
