From the mountains to the coast, N.C. Baptists saw God work in powerful ways in the lives of campers this past summer.

Nearly 12,000 campers attended one of several camps offered through the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina at Caraway, Mundo Vista, Fort Caswell, Truett and elsewhere over the course of the summer. Many of those attendees made life-changing decisions that will extend far beyond the summer and into eternity.

Collectively, 11,986 attended an N.C. Baptist summer camp offering this summer. Of those, 467 trusted Christ for salvation, 1,608 rededicated their lives to Him and 529 answered a call to ministry.

Following are summaries and highlights of the various N.C. Baptist summer camp activities from 2025.

BeDoTell at Fort Caswell

More than 7,900 middle and high school students attended one of the nine weeklong camps over the course of the summer at the Fort Caswell Coastal Retreat Center on Oak Island sponsored by BeDoTell, the student ministry of the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina.

The camp theme was “Remain” based on John 15:4-5. The passage describes Jesus as a vine and His followers as branches and underscores the need to abide in Jesus in order to bear fruit. Through worship gatherings, personal quiet times, small group study, church group reflections and more, campers learned what it meant to remain in Jesus, remain in God’s love and remain in the Holy Spirit.

“It’s been great to see how the students have responded to the gospel,” said Daniel Rose, student ministry strategist with the Baptist state convention. “Salvation is a one-time moment of moving from death to life, producing fruit is about being connected to Jesus and abiding in HIm deeply. Fruit is not produced on our own, but fruit is produced because the Spirit of God lives in us and transforms us into His character.”

Over the course of the summer, 282 campers at BeDoTell trusted Christ as Savior, more than 1,500 made a rededication of their life to Christ, and another 467 responded to a call to ministry.

“God always shows up,” said Merrie Johnson, the longtime N.C. Baptist student ministry strategist who announced at the beginning of the summer that she would be retiring at the end of 2025.

Johnson has led the state convention’s student ministry for 25 years, and the summer included about 175 of Johnson’s former staffers and their families who returned to Caswell for a special reunion weekend in her honor.

“That was huge for me,” Johnson said. “They knew I was going to be retiring, and they just wanted to come say thank you. They got to share what God had been doing in their lives and how being on staff with BeDoTell helped them understand what it really meant to grow in their faith. There are so many that are living it out and loving every minute of it.”

Caraway Camp

Caraway Camp, located near Asheboro in central North Carolina, hosted a variety of camp activities over the summer. They included children’s camps for church groups, camps for boys and girls, and retreats for fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, and grandparents and grandchildren. In addition, Caraway hosted leadership camp programs for high school students and also partnered with Woman’s Missionary Union of North Carolina for a camp for international children and youth held at Camp Mundo Vista.

Collectively, more than 1,900 people attended camp offerings at Caraway this summer, which included 118 salvation, four rededications and four calls to ministry.

Mark Moore, children’s program director at Caraway, said he was excited to see how God moved in the lives of camp attendees this summer and used Caraway’s staff members in that process. “We had some great conversations with chaperones about how God used the stories of our staff to reach the students, specifically when they would share their testimonies,” Moore said.

As a former camper at Caraway himself, Moore said camp still plays a significant role in the spiritual development of attendees.

“Even though our generations are changing, our culture is changing and our technology is changing, camp is still vital, and camp is still useful,” Moore said.

Truett Camp

Truett Camp, located in Hayesville in western North Carolina, held eight primary camps this summer, which included two boys’ camps, two girls’ camps, three youth camps and one children’s camp.

Collectively, Truett saw 584 people attend camp, and one-third of all attendees made some type of spiritual decision at camp, which included 49 salvations, 90 rededications and 58 calls to ministry.

“I was blown away that we had a third of our participants make a decision for Jesus,” said Truett Camp Director Phillip Yarborough. “That was a huge ‘Wow.’”

This summer’s camp theme at Truett was “All In” based on Philippians 1:21, which says “For me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.” Campers engaged in local missions projects during camp to promote N.C. Baptists’ “ServeNC” emphasis that took place in early August.

“It gave them a taste of something they could do in their own community,” Yarborough said.

In addition to campers hearing the gospel through times of worship, Bible study and devotions, campers were also trained in how to share the gospel and their testimonies with others.

“Everybody latched onto that theme of ‘All In,’” Yarborough said. “They understood it and were excited about taking it home and being all in on the gospel, all in on God’s Word and all in on my faith. It was exciting to see students take hold of that and want to go back home and transform their communities with the gospel.”

Deep Impact

Over the course of the summer, N.C. Baptists on Mission offered a number of pre-packaged missions opportunities for children and students known as Deep Impact camps. Attendees of Deep Impact learn what it means to live on mission for Jesus through missions service projects while also participating in worship services, Bible studies, devotions and recreational activities. Collectively, nearly 1,100 children and youth participated in Deep Impact and 18 made a decision to follow Christ through their participation.

Deep Impact Students had 809 participants serve over the course of 10 weeks in a variety of locations in North Carolina and an additional two weeks in Puerto Rico. Participants completed 92 different mission projects across the state and in Puerto Rico during the summer. Projects included construction, landscaping, serving in nursing homes, providing meals and snacks to first responders, conducting Vacation Bible Schools (VBS), and more. 

“One of the most popular sites this past summer was our two weeks in Hendersonville,” said Dollie Noa, children and family missions mobilization coordinator for N.C. Baptists on Mission. “Helene has been heavy on the minds of many — including students — wanting to know what they can do to help. We had a variety of projects in that area that not only worked on home repairs and property clean-up, but meeting other needs as well.”

Deep Impact Kids had 279 participants at seven locations across North Carolina. Participants completed a total of 39 mission projects similar to Deep Impact Students, yet on a smaller scale with more age-appropriate activities. Noa said some of the more popular projects with Deep Impact Kids are the nursing home ministry and the agricultural projects at the Shelby Mission Camp.

Happiness Retreats

Over the course of the summer, N.C. Baptists also sponsored multiple Happiness Retreats for individuals with special needs. One camp was held at Truett Conference Center and Camp in June, and three camps were held at Caraway Conference Center and Camp in July.

Collectively, 416 people attended this summer’s Happiness Retreats, with 338 campers and chaperones, along with 34 staff members, attending the three offerings at Caraway, in addition to another 44 attendees at Truett.

Each session included VBS-styled programming that included fun classes and activities, crafts, worship, fellowship and more around the theme of “Magnified: Discovering the Bigness of God in the Smallest of Things,” inspired by Psalm 34:3.