On Thursday October 23, HBA’s eighth graders arrived at Camp Pu’u Kahea for three days and two nights of camp.

Small group sessions, worship, daily chapel services, and activities focused students on their relationship with others and how God can reflect through them.  This year’s eighth grade camp was titled Friends, Family, Faith.

Christian Ministries directors Rob Lockridge and John Kaneshiro, along with student counselors, lead the students through discussions and messages throughout the day. On the first night, Lockridge spoke on ways students could be an example for Christ in their daily encounters with others. He referenced Colossians 3: 12-14 which says to show compassion and kindness to others, to forgive, and most importantly, to love.

Students also engaged in family groups to reflect on each day’s message. Eighth grader Max Wiemken said, “My favorite activity during camp was family groups because I got to listen to Mr. Yasutomi’s funny puns.”

Student counselors from upper grades were given the chance to lead these family groups and interact with the students the entire camp. Counselors are trained by the Ministry Team ahead of camp to plan out their family group devotions and activities. “This camp gave me more experience in being a leader, whether it be for worship or in my family group,” said junior Joshua Namba. “My big take away from this camp was to lead by example, rather than trying to tell the kids what to do.”

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“I learned that we are always loved by God, and whenever we feel unloved, we just need to pray and He’ll show us love.”

Eighth grader Anna Kerr

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Sophomore Khristian Vinca, who in addition to being a counselor helped with worship, said, “The thing I enjoyed most at camp was playing on the worship team and also moving to Peterson the second night (due to the cross country cabin being moved out) and finding out how crazy the eighth grade boys are!”

Students also took part in a relay race and were given free time throughout the day. To finish off the camp, a short worship session was held before students boarded the bus and headed back to school on Saturday. Eighth grader Anna Kerr said, “[At this camp] I learned that we are always loved by God, and whenever we feel unloved, we just need to pray and He’ll show us love.”

Kaneshiro hopes that the lessons from camp will stick with the Class of 2019. He said, “We hope the class of 2019 [was] able to walk away with a stronger understanding of what a godly relationship [looks] like and be able to personalize that in their families, friends and faith.”

Photographs Danielle Toda (’15)