Inaugural Captain's Camp a 'life-changing' weekend
June 18, 2009

There they were, 100-some high school athletes from all across South Carolina and Georgia, with two-by-four's covered in scribbled notes hanging over their necks, walking along the side of the road as a few strangers laughed and poked fun at them.

But for these teenagers, getting made fun of for carrying their crosses only added to an unforgettable and life-changing Captain's Camp last weekend in Spartanburg, S.C.

"We couldn't have planned it or staged it any better," FCA's area director Bill Owens said. "To get laughed at and jeered at (by strangers) for carrying their crosses, I thought, 'How perfect was that if we wanted them to experience just a little bit of what Christ went through in the last 24 hours of His life?'"

Obviously, Owens said, no human experience could ever come close to comparing to what Jesus went through when He died for us, but the goal of the first-ever FCA Captain's Camp was to train young leaders how to set a Biblical example. It was an invitation-only camp, as coaches from about 40 high schools selected a total of 119 athletes who they think will be the leaders on their respective teams next season.

The camp staff gave each kid a two-by-four at the beginning of the camp last Friday night. Those were their notepads for the weekend. What followed was an intense, 30-hour training session featuring chapels, guest speakers and fellowship (and only three hours of sleep –– from 3:30-6:30 a.m Saturday morning).

"It was neat to watch the kids," Owens said. "They were so tired when they got up and were complaining about why they could only sleep for three hours. But then they began to realize the whole purpose of it was for them to understand."

By Saturday night, when all the athletes watched the ending clip from The Passion of the Christ, it was clear to Owens that the camp was about to hit its peak.

"The video we made was great, but there's no way to explain the silence of 100-plus high school kids walking back over a half-mile, not saying a word, just thinking about the video they had just seen," Owens said. "It was just incredible."

FCA's camp theme, "Inside Out," proved to be just the right fit for developing young leaders. At the end of the camp, during open-mic time, the two words that kept coming up among the students were "life-changing."

"I think [the camp theme] was a divine choice because, really, how you develop a leader is from the inside first," Owens said. "It was just perfect, absolutely perfect."

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Video courtesy of Travis Tuten.