The weather is cooling down, the days are shorter, and we’re in the midst of celebrating the birth of the Savior. It’s a great time to step back from the busyness of life to gather with friends and loved ones and ponder the grandeur of God. On the first weekend in January, as we close out the Christmas season with Epiphany, young people from around the Diocese of Central Florida will gather at Camp Wingmann in Avon Park for a couple of days to explore this very thing at Winter Camp.

Children and youth from grades 3-12 will gather Friday, Jan. 6, through Sunday, Jan. 8, for a weekend focused on the theme “So Much More.” The weekend theme verse, based on Ephesians 3:20-21, declares, “Share the good news of what God can do!” Camp Wingmann Director Joshua “JJ” Joseph hopes Winter Camp “will introduce our campers to the God who is at once massive in scale and intimately personal.”

“As humans, we can, at times, become nearsighted,” he said. “We get consumed by what is right in front of us. Our world is only as big as conversations happening on the screen in our hands. Our routines hold us captive, and we go through life on ‘repeat.'”

“This is true in our lives, and this is way truer in our faith, because sometimes we can become nearsighted in our view of God,” Joseph added. “We forget that there is a God who is eternal. We lose sight of God’s plan, missing the ‘way-more-than-we-could-possibly-imagine’ future God has for the world and for us.”

But it doesn’t have to be this way, he said. “The truth is that God, the eternal, unchanging, all-powerful, gracious, loving God makes himself known to us. We just have to want to know him.”

Joseph believes this year’s Winter Camp theme will help kids discover this truth. “Our hope is that everyone will be captured by the grandeur of God and his love for them and motivated by his perfect plan for their lives,” he said.

Campers will participate in four specific talks that explore different aspects of the theme through the weekend, morning and evening prayer, a worship night and nightly devotions with their counselors. The sessions will be both priest and peer-led, with The Rev. Wes Shields from St. Augustine of Canterbury, Vero Beach; The Rev. Kevin Bartle from St. Mary of the Angels, Orlando; and past camp counselors David Fox, Genesis Amber and Riley Grodzinski leading the program.

“Our Winter Camps are unique,” Joseph said. “We try to embrace all the elements of winter and the holidays and capture them at camp. We will have a bonfire with s’mores, holiday pajama parties, fun indoor and outdoor activities and a few of our traditional camp elements sprinkled throughout our High and Low Challenge Course. I think the campers are really going to enjoy this coming weekend.”

And there is still time to register! Register kids from grades 3-12 by visiting the Camp Wingmann website, campwingmann.org, or calling the office at 863-453-4800. Winter Camp will certainly be an experience the kids will remember as they capture the grandeur of God with friends old and new.