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Message from the Director

June 2008

Interns are the backbone of summer camps.  Here is how they serve every day:

This summer 20 young men and women from 3 continents and 8 states have given up their summer to work 24/7 for no pay for 8 weeks while living in some of our toughest neighborhoods.  Their morning starts at 6AM trying to beat the line for a shower, moves to camp at 8AM and finishes with options at 5PM.  They steal an hour for dinner as a staff and start back at 6PM for activities like home visits, Camp Night, or StreetLeader fun night. Back for house devotions at 9 followed by prep for the next day's camp. Then they will climb into their bunk and hope none of their three roommates snore!

This doesn't include attending a neighborhood church on Sunday followed by cell groups, community dinner and worship with a Saturday trip thrown in.  You can see why interns are young!

Five days a week for six weeks 300 kids in grades 1-8 will show up at our 5 free summer camps.  Our camp kids look forward to people who love them, to games, skits and songs, trips and speakers, to four interesting classes, two meals and afternoon options.  Our camps are excellent (come on down and find out!) and much credit goes to hard working interns committed to kids and Christ.

When camp ends what a child remembers is the intern who became their friend.  They will remember Jeff or Stephanie or Kristin who made them laugh, who challenged them to do their best, and who listened to them and showed they cared about them and their families.

It is a beautiful thing to see people from all over the world and all over our own country coming together in Wilmington, Delaware to love kids and give them an excellent summer.  The UrbanPromise summer camps have truly become powerful agents of change for our neighborhoods and one of the largest and most effective tools for sharing the good news in Wilmington.

Please consider how you can help encourage these interns in their hard work and sacrifice.  UP provides free room, board, insurance, and transportation.  All interns try to raise whatever they are able to help support these costs.  Some are quite blessed, but some, such as our Malawian interns Peter, John and Chikondi have very little opportunity.  It would be a great help and an encouragement to them if you could be their benefactor, a substitute family by offering support of $50, $100, or $200. We will have them send you their updates so you can follow their summer experience.  Thank you for your help and encouragement!