Involve Your Youth Group - F.A.Q.'s
How is Project: R.A.K.E. different from other work camps?
In our focus and our heart. Drew and I are youth pastors who work each day in the youth ministry trenches. We used to take our students on 8 hour road trips to $300+ work camps where the focus was getting the projects done. When God laid it on our hearts to begin our own work camp program, our vision was primarily to create a ministry that better served the needs of our students. First, we saw a need to put more emphasis on our leaders using the work as a tool to build relationships with the teens. We wanted the teens to be learning and doing the work, under adult supervision and guidance: not the other way around. Second, we wanted emphasis to be placed on ministering to the homeowner; not just on project accomplishment. Students are encouraged to spend time during the work camp, sitting and talking with their residents who they are serving. Third, we wanted an emphasis to be placed on worship. Devotions and worship sessions during the weekend focus on what it means to serve God with our lives; to be a Romans 12 "living sacrifice." We wanted our teens to understand what it means to worship God both with their mouths in song, but also through their daily lives. Finally, everything must be done with a spirit of excellence (Col 3:23-24), as unto God, not for man.
Three years after God birthed this new ministry, He laid it on our hearts to make it accessible for other youth ministries; especially those who could not afford the $300+ trips. So we keep our fees to a minimum and allow you to bring your adults free of charge. This is our ministry to you, a fellow youth worker.
Your students will have the opportunity to minister alongside teenagers from our own youth ministry. Your teens will benefit from the same passion, the same heart, and the same drive that motivated us to start this for our students. We don't do special work camps for other youth ministries. You are joining us in what we are already doing for our own students. We want you to partner with us in something that God is already moving in, because we know that He is using it to change the lives of our students, and we want to help you provide that same experience for your teens.
We hope that you will let us partner with you. We want to help you involve your teens in worshiping God, not only through music, but through serving others and learning to live their lives looking for God to provide opportunities for them to minister to the spiritual needs of others.
-- Pastor Mike --
How much does a Project: R.A.K.E. work camp cost?
Weekend Work Camps: $50 / participant, $150 group deposit
3, 4, & 5 events: $100 / participant, $300 group deposit
Also note that your leaders, age 25 and older, attend free because we understand that the most powerful thing about work camps is the time the students spend building relationships with their leaders. We want to empower you to bring as many adults as you can recruit without the worry and the hassle of either paying for them, charging your students more to cover their fees or asking them to pay their own registration fee. We want to create an environment that really empowers you to minister to your students during the event.
What's included in those rates?
Basically… Everything... T-shirts, showers, recreation time, the Big House game room, your meals and all the necessary materials.
- Saturday breakfast, lunch & dinner
- Sunday breakfast & lunch.
- Since we get people out of the church at 5:30 on Sunday, most groups prefer to hit fast food on their way home. Some crew chiefs decide to stop at Wawa to pick up something extra to go with lunch; others do not. The bag lunches are usually sufficient to satisfy each group and any extra stops are the responsibility of each group.
And like we said, all of your adults come free. The money the students pay will basically help to cover our costs for your students’ meals, shirts for your group and some of the incidentals. We raise all the support and find donations for the materials on our end so that our guests don't have to worry about any of that. We want to make this as accessible as possible to groups like yours. Why? It’s just what we feel that God has called us to do.
Our group will have 10 -12 youth and 4 adults.
Can you keep us all together?
Some groups find that their students are pushed out of their comfort zones and therefore, grow more during the weekend when they are placed in pairs with students from other groups along with one of their own leaders when possible. However, other teams really prefer to keep their groups together. We can usually make either preference work.
However we also try to keep crew sizes down to 4-6 students each so that each teen really has the opportunity to DO the work under the supervision and direction of their adult leaders / crew chiefs. This has proven to be more effective in ensuring that everyone enjoys the experience and gets everything out of the weekend that God has planned for them. We've found it's very difficult for the adult leaders to properly manage more than 2 or 3 pairs of students on any given site and doing so waters down the experience. So we'll probably need to divide your group of 10 into 2 crews so that you aren't stepping on each other throughout your work site.
This is one of the reasons we require that you maintain at least a 1:5 leader to student ratio preferable of the appropriate gender and it's even better if you can do this with adults skilled in various areas of construction.
What work will my teens be doing?
Depending on the weekend and the weather, Project: R.A.K.E. teens usually tackle one or two roofs, a wheel chair ramp, a kitchen remodel, a bathroom replacement, usually some plumbing and electrical work, some concrete repair, drywall, spackling, painting, window and door replacement, etc.. etc.. etc.. Our crews do a little bit of everything. If we have a qualified, in-need homeowner who needs something done and is not in a position to do it themselves, and we have a skilled adult who can lead teens in those types of repairs, we try to help them out.
Who comes to Project: R.A.K.E.?
-Jr. Highers: Students entering grades 6th, 7th, 8th, or 9th grade in the fall. (Limited to one work camp during the summer.)
-Sr. Highers: Students in grades 9th-12th. Summer events (July & August) include students entering 9th grade in the fall.
-Young Adults: Students age 18-25.
-Team Leaders: Individuals age 21 & older, who love teens and who might have some construction or painting skills.
-Crew Chiefs: Skilled adults age 25 and older who have extensive knowledge in one or more areas of construction.
-Group Leaders: Those forever young individuals who have huge hearts for and endless patience with teenagers.
I want to bring youths of all grades to a project.
Is this possible?
Not at this time. We use our Jr. High (6-8th grade) program to teach students a strong foundation and give them the spiritual milk they need to grow and mature so that when they are in Sr. High / Varsity program, they are ready for deep spiritual meat and putting feet to their faith through mission experiences. Each summer, we offer a 3 day Jr. High project in preparation for the work the Sr. Highers will do. Additionally, we occasionally offer low key community service project opportunities as they become available to us. If you are interested in a Jr. High only Project of this latter type, please contact us and we can let you know if such and opportunity occurs.
What kind of Jr. High experience do you provide each summer?
Each summer, we offer a 3 day Jr. High project in preparation for the work the Sr. Highers will do. The first morning, the students will help their crew chiefs pull tools & materials from the Project R.A.K.E. garage and load lumber onto trailers for transportation out to the jobsites. (In February and October, a lot of this preparation work is done prior to the workcamp by volunteers). Each group of students will then begin repairs for a local family in one of the following areas: ramps, single story roofs, bathroom replacements, kitchen remodels, some plumbing & electrical work, drywall, spackling, painting, etc.. etc.. etc.. Our crews do a little bit of everything… rain or shine. While some crews will complete their assignments start to finish, the primary focus of our Jr. High projects is to do demolition, prep work, and foundation building for what the Sr. Highers are scheduled to work on the following week. For example, one Jr. High team may load a trailer full of lumber at the garage follow it to the job site, unload it, build the ramp boxes, and begin digging post holes. The following week, the Sr. Highers will come back, mount the ramp boxes at the appropriate slope, and install the deck boards, wheel guides, and hand rails. This focus on preparation work by no means takes away from the quality or the experience that your Jr. Highers will get. Make no mistake, your students will be asked to work hard. At the same time, our work camp staff put a strong emphasis on relationships and towards that end, we work diligently to ensure a higher adult to student ratio during Jr. High projects then we do for the Sr. High because of the age of the students.