The 12th annual Brewton-area Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA) Kids Camp will take place June 26-29, from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m., at the T.R. Miller campus.

The FCA Camp is designed to help give children who have completed first through sixth grade an opportunity for a Christian camp experience that balances athletic competition and character/ integrity development with the message of Jesus Christ.

The theme for the 2017 camp is “Relentless” and is based on Hebrews 10:39: “But we do not belong to those who shrink back and are destroyed, but to those who have faith and are saved.”
The camp is staffed by high school athletes and coaches. All students will need to bring a sack lunch each day. Water will be provided.

Camp director Randy Winton described the camp as giving kids the opportunity to participate in different sports while learning about the message of Jesus Christ through all aspects of life, but it also gives teens (some of whom are former FCA Campers) the opportunity to do the right thing and pass that example on to younger kids.

“When kids are loved and encouraged and see Christ in those around them, they feel safe and enjoy the experience of FCA Camp,” Winton said. “Every kid who walks on this campus for camp should leave knowing, at the very least, that they matter and that there is a Savior who loves them deeply.”

Huddle leaders are assigned to the age groups during the week and serve as coaches to the kids. The main idea of the camp is building character and being an example.

At the end of the week, each Huddle Group recognizes someone who has exhibited those characteristics taught by the FCA with an award for being its “Camper of the Week.”  The camp ends with the much-anticipated “Wild Tiger Relay.”

Several years ago, the camp awarded the first Jim Hayes Award to the sixth grader who has been an example of the spirit of FCA and all it stands for over his/her years coming to the Brewton FCA Kids Camp.
In 1988, Hayes attended a Fellowship of Christian Athletes sports camp in Black Mountain, N.C. The T.R. Miller football player told his family and friends the camp changed his life. Just two weeks after the camp, Jim tragically killed in Destin. He was just 16 years old, the son of Dr. Bob and Ellen Hayes.

The Jim Hayes Award will be given again this year to a sixth-grade camper at the end of the camp. To be eligible for this prestigious award, a sixth grader has to have attended this camp at least three years and exemplified the pillars of being a Christian athlete and what FCA stands for. Miller Hart was the 2016 recipient of the prestigious award.

Winton said locally the camp averages 80 kids and it’s growing. The local FCA camp is run completely by volunteers who give of their time and effort, mostly older teenagers and college students as leaders.

For more information or to register for camp, contact Winton, First Baptist Church youth pastor, at the office at 867-5769 or cell at 363-0429.