Youth pastors and leaders know the tremendous value of youth camps and retreats, but many are intimidated by the task. At Horn Creek we delight in partnering with retreat leaders, whether seasoned veterans or new leaders full of passion and heart but short on experience, to create an unforgettable retreat experience with eternal impact. We are here for you! It’s our passion.

There are so many things that come together to make a retreat “work.” But young and seasoned leaders alike always need to remember that none of our hard work and creativity is any match for the power of God to take whatever energy, experience, creativity and hard work we bring and transform it by His grace into something remarkable.

Natalie Holdren of Northland Christian Church in Topeka Kansas and Horn Creek retreat leader writes…

21 years…I wear this number as a badge of honor (or a challenge, a reminder, a privilege, a mission…) This is how many years I’ve been in student ministry and have done overnighters, camps, youth groups, small group Bible studies, Sardines, classes, and so much more!

As God has seen fit to allow me to be a part of this, I have learned much; this past season is no different. I am understanding something amazing that I’m sure I’ve taught and that God has (tried) to tell me before, however, this is totally new to me.

As we make all of the needed sacrifices to partake in student ministry, and to provide our students with every opportunity we can in which they hear, experience and know God’s Truth, it is truly all about His Grace. This grace covers our inabilities, our small offerings of fasting and prayer, our lack of whatever; His Grace makes possible our human love, our feeble use of our gifts, our excessive schedules and our years (or lack-thereof) of experience.

Therefore, I’ve come to look for the obvious hand of His Grace in the lives of our students. It’s His Grace that brings forth the fruit, His grace that builds The Kingdom, His Grace that uses a weekend retreat, a mission trip, a counseling session…His Grace that uses us to do His Work. When I look for and find the evidence of His Grace, I stop and thank Him for getting me ready for the next thing; then look for ways to teach my students to identify and experience the evidence of grace in their lives.

That’s it. At Horn Creek, we are excited to partner with you to create an opportunity to see the evidence of God’s grace working in our lives and the lives of our students!

If you want to find out more about bringing your next youth camp or retreat to Horn Creek, contact Johnny Ainsworth:
johnnyainsworth@horncreek.org
719-783-2006

We’re all familiar with the term “family values.” A quick check on Wikipedia confirmed my gut sense of the idea.

It’s political.

The “family values agenda” springs from the concern that as a society, we have seemed to move in some directions that push against the sensibilities of a more traditional, family-based society. And so we evaluate various political issues in terms of their relationship to family values.  And rightly so. Those of us convinced of the importance of the family to our society are keenly interested in moves, political or otherwise, that will affirm and promote these values. We are for the things that families value, because we value the family. It just makes sense.

To us.

But what is the logic of the political ideal of family values if a society no longer understands the value of family? Where do family values fit into a culture that often celebrates the individual over the community and self-fulfillment over sacrifice? Community and sacrifice are at the heart of healthy family dynamics.

Perhaps it’s time to get down to the heart of the matter.

You see, if family values are the what, politically speaking, then valuing family is the why. If family values are external, then valuing family is internal. If family values are the program, then valuing family  is the source code. If family values are political, then valuing family is relational. If family values are propositional, then valuing family is experiential.

And this brings us to Horn Creek, both figuratively, and for so many of us, literally. Horn Creek Family Camps have always been about valuing family. And valuing family means valuing families. And this is what goes on at Horn Creek Family Camps week after week. Horn Creek is an environment for family to be valued and families to value one-another. It’s a place where so many of the things we already know about life and love and relationship find unique freedom of expression. It is an experience. And this experience is unique for each family who comes. And that is intentional.

At Horn Creek, we have a 50 year track-record of creating life-changing, relevant experiences for families, with an emphasis on cultivating multi generational connections of faith and community. Times are changing, along with the specific challenges that young families face. But some things never change. The Horn Creek experience is in tune with both of these realities. Come see for yourself!

If you are a pastor or ministry leader interested in creating a dynamic retreat for the families in your church or organization, we’d love to parter with you to create an unforgettable experience. Or, please consider one of our established Horn Creek Family Camps.

You can find our more about all of our family camps and how to register to bring your family, or a group of families, on this website.

Also, make special note of 3 new family camps we have added this year:

Crestone Peak Single Parent Family Camp – June 27-July 3

Culebra Peak Soccer Family Camp – July 4-10

Castle Peak Adoptive and Foster Family Camp – August 8-14

Challenger Peak: Thanksgiving Family Camp – November 24-27, 2010

Thanksgiving Camp at Horn Creek is a wonderful tradition and a special way to spend Thanksgiving with friends and family. Held this year at the Horn Creek Lodge facility, this 3-day camp will be anchored by a traditional Thanksgiving meal with all the trimmings.

We’ll also have all the normal Horn Creek Family Camp style fun including recreation, horseback riding, nightly activities, and great teaching from Horn Creek speaker Mark Yarbrough. And yes, we’ll watch a little football too.

Register now at discounted rates!

MORE INFO HERE

The Great Commandment: Loving God and Loving Others…

June 6-12

As Christians we all have a desire to know and follow Jesus. That is at the core of who we are. But sometimes that desire gets distracted or discouraged. We may know we SHOULD follow Him, but we have lost our passion. We may know ABOUT Him, but we don’t trust His presence anymore. We may know we are SUPPOSED to do something for Him, but we aren’t so sure what that means anymore.

Still, we want Jesus. And we want our lives to matter for Jesus. And we crave a community of people seeking those things with us.

We are looking for the depth of “Love God, Love Neighbor” in real-life form.

The Horn Creek Servant Week is a brand new family camp especially focused on active faith. The theme of the week will be loving God and others. Experienced Horn Creek speaker Billy Thrall will team up with veteran camper Kurt Neale, along with the Horn Creek leadership to facilitate a unique week of challenging us to ask the question, “What does it really mean as individuals and families to put our faith into action in our communities and around world?” And, we won’t just be talking about it, we’ll be doing it! During the week, campers will have the opportunity to choose two service projects from a list of several that will need to be done at Horn Creek to be ready for the rest of the summer. Also included will be at least one project in our local community of Westcliffe. This will be a unique opportunity for campers to not only serve the ministry of Horn Creek, but also demonstrate love to the hundreds of others who will attend our camps throughout the summer and beyond. And, we’ll also be enjoying all of the regular Horn Creek family camp activities.

So, if you can come to camp June 6-12, you want to be challenged to put your faith in Christ into action, and you’re willing roll up your sleeves in service a little while you’re here, this is the camp for you. And, the registration fees for this camp are 50% of our normal regular rates!

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Horn Creek is passionate about ministering to families, and no two look exactly alike. Horn Creek Family Camps have always been welcome places for families of various shapes and sizes. Singles have always been a welcome and vibrant part of our family camps whether they have children or not and single parent families have found great welcome, encouragement and support in all of our camps through the years. We want to see that continue to flourish at Horn Creek.

Nevertheless, in conversations with some single parents and leaders in the area of ministry to single parent families, a vision was born to launch a totally new type of family camp at Horn Creek. Therefore we are pleased to announce the launch of the new Crestone Peak Single Parent Family Camp in 2010.

This new camp embraces all of the rich tradition and ministry philosophy of family camping at Horn Creek through the years along with the added emphasis of bringing single parent families together in community for encouragement, support, and fellowship. Our speaker for this new camp in 2010 will be Donnie Smith, one of Horn Creek’s veteran, dynamic speakers. Donnie has a rich history of ministry to Horn Creek families with an emphasis on what it means for families to live in a radical, missional way in their communities.

Joining Donnie and the Horn Creek leadership team will be Jennifer Erlenbusch, Director of Single Parent Ministries at Irving Bible Church in Irving, Texas and Shannon Miles, the Associate Worship Leader at Irving Bible. We are excited to bring together this amazing team of leaders for a camp that will include great teaching, worship, fun, and lots of free time to decompress!

If you are a single parent, dealing with the unique challenges of parenting alone, and you need a week to get away and get with God and others who are dealing with the same challenges you are, we hope you will join us this year for the primier of this exciting new camp!

REGISTER NOW!

August 8-14

Hosted at the Horn Creek Mountain Meadows facility, this brand new camp has been organized with adoptive and foster families in mind. The camp will consist of all the fun, relaxation and family time that Horn Creek is known for — but it will also have a few special extras designed especially for adoptive and foster families. These extras will include a chance to hang out with a diverse group of families from all of the country, some focused discussion time on topics that are particularly relevant for adoptive and foster families as well as a teaching focus on our adoption in Christ. In addition, many of the families that will attend are involved in church adoption and foster care ministry, such as the leaders of Tapestry (Irving Bible Church) and LifeSong for Orphans.

As a ministry to adoptive and foster families Horn Creek is inviting children who have been adopted within the past year or have been in their current foster placement for less than a year to come free of charge. We hope you will consider joining this new and exciting camp.

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July 4-10

Register now for this great new camp!

Soccer Family Camp at Horn Creek is a unique experience that combines the majestic setting of the Rocky Mountains with spiritual renewal and challenge from a Christian perspective, and soccer!

Soccer Family Camp is a great opportunity for your child to have a lot of fun learning new soccer skills and team play in the Christ centered context of Horn Creek family camp. The soccer workshop portion of the week will be primarily in the mornings between breakfast and lunch, and will be of benefit to beginners as well as advanced players (age 3 to 13).

Each day’s instruction will include a variety of individual and group skills including: ball control, footwork, dribbling, passing, shooting, and juggling.

Our Soccer Family Camp includes great meals; a variety of activities; and our evening Round Up, a meaningful time of worship and teaching with Horn Creek speaker and soccer aficionado Tony Felich. Also directing the soccer portion of our camp is soccer expert Walter “Chico” Chiriboga. We’ll finish each evening with a different activity after Round Up, like the Hanging Log, Family Game Night, Skit Night, and our weekly Western Night variety show that includes a carnival, music and melodrama, and culminates in a huge barn dance!

The Culebra Peak camp is a traditional Horn Creek family in every way, and you’ll still have lots of freedom to spend time as a family as you see fit. We are simply adding the component of soccer camp type activities in the mornings between breakfast and lunch, for those who wish to participate. If you want to be about soccer all week, there will be plenty of opportunity, but there are many other options as well. And we’ll end the week with a final Horn Creek Cup soccer game and a big campfire!

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Introducing a brand new Horn Creek summer program specifically designed to come alongside small and medium sized youth groups!

Our goal at The Peak is to strengthen the church by giving intentional opportunities for youth leaders to connect with their kids in an outdoor environment, while leading them towards deeper intimacy with Christ.

Through strategic recreation, adventure programming and teaching, The Peak seeks to help encourage leaders and their kids to work together, build trust, grow in leadership, and hunger for more of Christ. As our week goes on, we seek to figuratively (and maybe actually) climb the Peak together as we seek to tackle key issues that challenge our faith.

Our leadership team will come alongside youth leaders to help train and lead them to connect with their kids. Our daily schedule will include devotional and small group breakouts, nightly teaching, campfires, challenging outdoor recreation, games and programming, and intentional small group challenges.

Each student will have an opportunity to hike in the outdoors, go whitewater rafting, be challenged on high ropes and low ropes elements, go horseback riding, swimming, kayaking, waterslides and more.

At the end of the week, each small group of students will be given a challenge as a team to overcome, and then have an opportunity to apply what they learned in the context of their lives.

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We are really looking forward to our summer family camps this year. Registrations are rolling in at a consistent pace, and the latter half of the summer is already filling up. Please help us spread the word that we still have plenty of space in our June and early July camps. We want to fill those up too!

We are also very pleased, for the first time in a number of years, to be adding several new family camps to our schedule. We are praying that these camps will add new dimension to our family camp ministry and serve to expand and deepen our ministry to many new Horn Creek families as well as veteran campers. Each of these new camps has been born out of the specific gifting and ministry passion of Horn Creek campers, and much prayer is going into their planning. Please join us in prayer for these new initiatives and help us get the word out!

There are 4 new family camps for summer 2010 at Horn Creek, each with its own special emphasis:

Crestone Peak Single Parent Family Camp

Culebra Peak Soccer Family Camp

Castle Peak Adoptive and Foster Family Camp

Servant Week Family Camp

We encourage you to take a closer look at each of these new camps, and we’ll be exploring each of them a little deeper here on the blog in the days to come. Please be thinking and praying about families you could invite to consider attending one of these new camps this year.

Some primary reasons for the change:

Honoring you – with increased mental, physical and spiritual readiness for ministry.

Honoring the family – through our commitment to the proper care and encouragement of our staff families. (practicing what we preach)

Honoring our staff – by recognizing the importance of balance, margin and sabbath rest. (practicing what we preach)

Honoring our local community – in our commitment to the local Church. (many of our permanent staffers have leadership roles related to Sunday activities in our local churches)

Honoring God – by trusting in His principles for operating in a way that is more physically, emotionally and spiritually healthy.

We trust that you will join us in celebrating this change in our Family Camp schedule.

And now we are pleased to announce that you will still have the option of arriving at Summer Family Camp on Saturday afternoon if you choose! This option is at no extra charge for 2010 Summer Family Camps only.

Here’s how it works:

We will have your room ready for you on Saturday night if we know you are coming.

Camp activities, meals and check-in will not be until Sunday at 4:00 – until then, you’re on your own!

Well… not quite on your own. Someone will be here to greet you and make sure you find your room on Saturday afternoon (you can arrive anytime after 4:00), and we’ll have a simple continental breakfast set out for you on Sunday morning.

We’ll see you at check-in at 4:00 Sunday afternoon. Meanwhile, we encourage you to take part in the many events that go on in Westcliffe on the weekends, sample the local cuisine (aside from the Sunday morning continental, there will be no meals at camp until Sunday dinner), and worship at one of the great churches in our community on Sunday morning!

You can find out about special events going on in the valley related to the weekend you will be coming to camp at: www.custercountyco.com

If you would like to arrive on Saturday after 4:00 in the afternoon, please check the appropriate box on your registration form so we will know to expect you.