New beginnings built on firm foundations at McCrae SUFM

For over 70 years, generations of families have experienced Jesus’ transforming love through McCrae SUFM each summer.

While this year’s mission was another opportunity to reconnect with many familiar faces, it also marked the beginning of something new.

McCrae SUFM co-director, Maddy, says in recent years there’d be an influx of new people joining the program as the mission was wrapping up.

“We previously started a few days before the New Year. This year we decided to start a little later to see if that boosted participation levels,” she says.

It did…

“From the get-go we had 30-40 kids. In the first week we reconnected with the families who’ve been camping here for generations. In the second week, we saw families who’d never heard of us, and SUFM was their first experience of Christianity. They loved what we were doing,” she says.

For Maddy, a highlight this year was reconnecting with a young girl named Emily*.

“I remember sitting on the registration table on the first day of the kids program and Emily was the first person to arrive. We started the program at 9:45AM and she was already there, saying ‘I’ve been waiting ALL day for SUFM’.

Emily’s family are not Christian, but they were happy she was so excited to be involved.

“We were also able to speak with her mum, who asked us for prayer, and we connected her with a local church, which is such a blessing because that connection can continue throughout the year,” says Maddy.

Please pray with us for the many children and families our teams connected with this summer, and that these stories of new beginnings will become lifelong journeys of discovering life in God’s big story.

*Name has been changed for privacy.