Last summer at Luther Springs, if you’d played a game to find out who traveled the farthest to get to camp, Kornelia Rudkowska would have won.
Kornelia came to Luther Springs from Poland, by way of Newberry College in South Carolina. She wasn’t planning to spend the summer at camp, but Newberry College chaplain David Coffman encouraged her to consider it. One day while looking at the NovusWay website, Kornelia saw information about Luther Springs. “I saw there was a camp in Florida and I thought that sounded like a great place to spend a summer,” Kornelia says. “I saw all the activities that were offered and that’s the thing that spoke to me the most.”
Kornelia was so excited about the idea, she shared it with her college friend Jordan Seay. “I remember Kornelia telling me that she found a camp in Florida called Luther Springs,” Jordan recalls. “I loved the idea of spending my summer being a counselor with my best friend!” To make their final decision, Kornelia and Jordan made a list of pros and cons about working at camp. “There were a lot more pros than cons,” Kornelia remembers, “so we were convinced and off we went.”
For Kornelia, the summer of serving at Luther Springs turned out to be fun, but it was also a transformational experience. “I thought the biggest challenge for me would be spending 10 weeks in a row out in nature,” Kornelia shares. “But it was also challenging for me to just slow down. I didn’t like to be still at the beginning of the summer. But by the end of the summer, I would sit by the lake and look at the trees and I really loved that.”
Kornelia’s favorite part of camp was evening devotion time when staff and campers would gather together, talk about their day, and share their highs and lows. “It was a very spiritual time,” remembers Kornelia, “and it was truly inspiring to share those moments, and the gospel, with kids.”
Jordan is thankful that Kornelia told her about Luther Springs and convinced her to go. “Being able to spend my whole summer with people around me that were strong in their faith really helped me grow in my faith,” she says. “Working with children and getting to watch them learn about God was really beautiful. This summer was truly a life changing experience for me.”
Thank you for your gifts to NovusWay Ministries, which give counselors like Kornelia and Jordan opportunities to grow in faith and grow as leaders.
