Five Days, Generations of Impact: Eli’s Eagle Lake Story

When Eli first showed up to Eagle Lake Camps as an 11-year-old, he had no idea one week at camp would shape his faith for years to come.

Having grown up as a pastor’s kid in Wyoming, Eli was familiar with faith and who Jesus was. However, the instant he arrived at Eagle Lake, he fell in love not just with camp, but with the Lord in a new way. Through friendships with his counselor and intentional time in God’s Word, he experienced firsthand how deeply a week at camp could impact a child’s life.

“It was the first time I really started developing a personal relationship with God,” Eli remembers. “I believed in God before, but learning how to study my Bible and develop a personal relationship on my own with God — that will forever be a part of my story.”

Eli continued to develop as a camper over the years, and in high school, he returned to camp for multiple summers to work on Crew, Eagle Lake’s 5-week high school volunteer service program. By the time Eli got to college, it was a no-brainer to come back — this time as a counselor.

From Camper to Counselor

Eli wanted to offer campers the same kind of investment that had shaped him years earlier. In the summer of 2025, that opportunity finally came.

Eli’s first summer on staff was with Eagle Lake’s traveling day camps, journeying across Colorado, Kansas, Missouri, and Nebraska. These week-long day camps partner with local churches to bring Eagle Lake to kids, right where they live.

As he built relationships with campers throughout the summer, he quickly discovered just how much God could do in five days.

“People had told me this, but I didn’t truly believe it till I saw it: how impactful we can be for these kids in just five days at camp,” Eli says. “I had multiple boys hugging me, crying at the end of the week, and telling me they were going to miss me. I had only known them for a few days!”

Throughout his summer on staff, Eli got to play a role in multiple kids coming to Christ, including campers Matt* and Justin*.

Eli met Matt while serving at a day camp in the Kansas City area. Eli could tell that Matt was going through a hard time. Matt’s parents weren’t Christians; he was only at camp because of his believing grandma, who picked him up and dropped him off every day.

“From day one, this kid had a lot on his mind,” Eli recalls. “I could tell he was longing for something, and he was so ready. There’s no other way to explain it other than God was already at work in his heart.”

After a couple of days at camp, Eli was walking campers through the Bridge to Life illustration, asking the boys where they thought they were on the bridge: on the side opposite to Christ, walking towards Him, or standing with Him. When Eli met with Matt later that week, he saw that Matt had put himself in the middle of the bridge.

“I remember saying, ‘I see you are in the middle, but what if I told you that you had to be on one side or the other? You are walking towards God — would you want to take that final step of faith?” Eli says. “And he said ‘yes’ like it wasn’t even a question.”

The rest of the week, Matt was like a different kid — so excited about his faith — and Eli could see that he had a new heart. On the last day of camp, campers are given a business card with the Bridge illustration on it, and they are encouraged to write down the name of someone they want to share the illustration and the gospel with on the card. Matt passionately wrote down the name of his mom.

When Eli told Matt’s grandma about what had happened that week, she started crying with gratitude, saying that it was a surprise that Matt’s mom had even allowed him to attend camp that week. In that moment, Eli caught a glimpse of how one child’s decision to follow Christ could ripple through an entire family.

A couple of weeks later in Nebraska, Eli met another camper named Justin, who is on the autism spectrum. Every day, Justin’s mom told Eli how much her son was enjoying camp — but Justin hadn’t yet committed to believing in Christ. When he drew where he was standing in the Bridge illustration, he wasn’t even touching the cross.

“When I asked him about it, he told me, ‘I’ve heard the story all my life, but I don’t know if it’s real. It just doesn’t make sense to me,’” Eli remembers.

Eli continued to befriend Justin throughout the week, sharing more about the gospel and Jesus. On the last day of camp, Eli sat down with Justin again to ask if he had thought about his faith any more. To Eli’s surprise, Justin’s response was immediate: “I’m ready now.”

The week of camp had helped Justin understand the gospel in a new way, and after praying to accept Christ, he was all in. Instantly, with a big smile on his face, he wanted to go tell the other boys what had happened. Together, Justin and Eli sat down with another camper, who also decided to follow Christ. Then they prayed with a third boy. 

Within 15 minutes of Justin coming to Christ, he was sharing the gospel with his whole group.

A Part of Something Bigger

For Eli, these stories are just a small part of the bigger picture: Eagle Lake is making a difference not only in campers’ lives, but in the lives of their friends, families, and future generations.

“I saw lives transform, personalities change throughout five days — all because they accepted Christ,” Eli says. “It’s not only kids. Like with Matt, it’s affecting generations older and younger. I’ve never been a part of something that is more unexplainable. Now that I’ve started sharing the gospel with these kids, I never want to stop.”

This past summer, Eli was back at Eagle Lake’s day camps serving as a program coach (PC), discipling Eagle Lake counselors and staff. Nearly a decade after arriving as an 11-year-old camper, Eli now spends his summers equipping counselors to invest in the next generation — the same way others once invested in him.

“Eagle Lake opened my eyes to how sovereign God is, all the ways He’s working in counselors’ and campers’ lives,” Eli explains. “Every single staff person at camp is discipled by somebody, and they are discipling kids, and there’s this huge chain of discipleship that can go on forever. It’s so beautiful to be a part of something that is so much bigger than me.”

*Names changed for privacy.