The Extra Mile Update // A Peek into the New Base Camp Space
When I first found out that Lake Mary would be building a new space, I was so excited. Really, who wouldn’t be? The thought of a new building, shiny new fixtures, brand new coffee machines, a beautiful new Resource Center, and perfectly painted walls are exciting. But what got me most excited, dare I even say, made my “heart beat fast,” was the thought of the new Base Camp children’s ministry space. It’s no secret that children’s ministry is my true passion—I wouldn’t be doing this job if it weren’t! What excites me the most isn’t just the thought of this brand new space, though I am pretty excited about that. I’m most excited about the thought of what it will mean for children and families.
The new Base Camp space will provide a stable, safe, and predictable environment for children and families to come into together and learn that God loves them so much, and that He wants to be a part of their lives.
Has this been happening already at Lake Mary High School? Of course! I’ve seen families grow closer together and closer to the Lord because of what God is doing in that ordinary high school building. At the school, we have had the opportunity to build relationships in a place where churches aren’t always welcome, and we have seen people who didn’t know about Summit come to love this place and call it home.
The new building and the new Base Camp space aren’t going to change what God is already doing at Lake Mary. The new space will just provide us an opportunity to have a broader reach to families in the community who might be intimidated to drop their kids off in a space that isn’t a church seven days a week, or the family with a special needs child who needs to be in a certain type of environment, or the family who simply hasn’t heard of Summit Lake Mary yet.
At the Lake Mary campus, we have a large, dedicated group of people who give freely of their time on Saturday evenings to set up Base Camp in the LMHS Auditorium. They come in and joyfully unpack the two PODS at the back of the school, wheel everything in, sort which room it needs to go into, unpack it all, and set it up. They have been doing this willingly for three years now. And then, on Sundays after services they turn around and pack it all up again and put it away, just to start the whole cycle again the next Saturday.
This new space will give our hardworking, dedicated families an opportunity to turn the three years they have been serving by setting up and tearing down an opportunity to turn that inward service into outward service. Imagine how many hours people will be free to dedicate to our Lake Mary community, rather than to setting up and tearing down Summit each week. Imagine the impact and change we can have with the shift of where our service and time is going. The Lake Mary community won’t be the same, I can promise that!
The new Base Camp is going to be a great, beautiful place for kids to come into and feel welcome and safe, and like they belong. But most importantly, it will be a place where families and kids can grow together and have a deeper sense of how much God loves them, and that what they do with their time and talents in our Lake Mary community matters.
Base Camp blueprints
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