Hundreds of kids go to camp every year while they're on break from school, and My Church Winnipeg is gearing up for a full summer with eight weeks of My Kids Day Camp. 

"We run seven weeks that are for kids ages five through 12 and our final week is a junior high week which is for students entering Grade 6 to entering Grade 9. Every week is a different theme, we make sure that every week has its own feel with lots of different activities," Family Pastor, Rose-Ann Weiss says.

Some of the themes are Animal Crossing, Spy Academy, The Great Olympics, Kingdom Quest, Prehistoric Park, Under the Sea, and Game Show Mania.

Weiss says that some kids come every week, so mixing up the themes is important to help keep them having fun. 

She says that there are a lot of different activities that kids will get to do at My Kids Day Camp. "The mornings, we do VBS [Vacation Bible School], we think it's so important that kids learn about Jesus, so we do worship, learning, and crafts all the normal VBS activities. Our afternoons are big activities. We do scavenger hunts, water wars, big games, a field trip every week to different places around Winnipeg." 

As the first-time day camp director, Lucas Redmann says he is most looking forward to Prehistoric Park, because of the field trip booked that week. "We're going to the zoo that week which is the best field trip there could be." 

Redmann says he is excited to get to know the kids and meet the new children. "I am most looking forward to meeting the new kids. Every year we have so many new kids that we haven't met yet, just connecting with them and getting to know them is what I'm looking forward to most." 

Camp at My Church Winnipeg isn't just for the campers coming through the doors each day, but an opportunity for the leaders to grow too. "We believe that our opportunity in running day camps is also to pour into our staff and to develop leaders with excellence. We make sure they have training. We just completed 16 hours of in-house training with our leaders to prepare them the best we can. They also all need to have their abuse prevention training and basic first-aid."

Weiss knows the importance of camp. "It's a great opportunity for kids to be in community, that means being with other kids and leaders who are pouring into them and teaching them about Jesus. There's kids who come who are brand new to Canada and have never heard about Jesus. There's also kids who have heard about Jesus and we want to see them deepen their faith."

Redmann adds, "Spending time with other kids their age and also to connect with the church, especially for some of them that it's their first time being introduced to Jesus," something that he is looking forward to. "You don't know what their past has been or what their background is. We've seen some really cool transformations in kids, many kids have given their lives to God."   

The full schedule for My Kids Day Camp can be found here. Camp runs Monday to Friday from 8:30 a.m.- 4:30 p.m.