Extreme Faith Camp is a ministry that encourages discipleship in middle school campers. Ninth and 10th graders participate in the camp on prayer teams with juniors and seniors acting as the small group leaders.
Four years ago, Tim Healy, the president of Minnesota Catholic Youth Partnership, was part of a process to find a permanent home for Extreme Faith Camp. Healy visited 15 different sites, swam in six to eight different lakes and ultimately decided on a property in Trego, Wisconsin.
“God really kind of brought us back to this,” Healy said. “We looked at this property three years ago … But we’re blessed. Eighteen buildings; everything’s very usable. It just works perfectly for the camp. We’ve got a grand lodge that’s got 12-inch timbers in the rafters; it’s just spectacular. Then, the capacity, we can hold more than 300 in our dining room, we’ve got an equal space just below (where) we can do our talks, we’ve got an 80-person chapel, we’ve got a coffee/candy shop … That’s my second favorite place besides the chapel.”
Healy told “Practicing Catholic” radio show host Patrick Conley during an interview airing at 9 p.m. July 19 on Relevant Radio 1330 AM that the need for this permanent campsite came from a lack of Catholic youth camps that could house Extreme Faith Camp. In many cases, Healy said, Catholic summer camps “rely on getting the scraps” from other youth camps.
“That has worked OK, but they’ve never been able to grow,” Healy said.
The goal of Extreme Faith Camp has been to provide a space for kids to encounter the person of Jesus “within nature, within God’s creation, within relationships,” Healy said. “But also, within the sacraments of our holy Church. Kids are responding and lives are being changed. Then this goes on to be a renewal of their faith, so they come back the next year and they remember this is the place where they had the first encounter with Jesus.”
Healy said there’s plenty of potential with the property in Trego. Healy helps run the Extreme Faith Camp with his wife, Helen.
To hear about the activities kids can enjoy at Extreme Faith Camp, listen to the program, which repeats at 1 p.m. July 20 and 2 p.m. July 21.
The show also includes a talk with Tom Margevicius, the director of the Office of Worship for the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis and pastor of St. Mary, St. Henry, Immaculate Conception and Nativity, on what listeners can expect in year two of implementing Archbishop Bernard Hebda’s pastoral letter. In addition, Sister Linda Soler, the sub-prioress for St. Paul’s Monastery in St. Paul, helps listeners understand who St. Benedict is following his feast day on July 11.
Produced by Relevant Radio and the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, the program can be heard after it has aired at archspm.org/faith-and-discipleship/practicing-catholic or choose a streaming platform at Spotify for Podcasters.?
