Thank you to everyone who helped make Araminta 2025 the best year yet! We had 312 participants, including 240 students! If you’ve never been to Camp Araminta, you might wonder why you should go? Camp is the best week of the year for three main reasons: Identity, belonging, and purpose.

We spend time discussing who God is, and who we are to him. This includes learning (or relearning!) God’s story, from creation to final restoration. It also includes a refocusing of our own identity being rooted in God and his purposes for our lives. We attend discipleship groups (or D-Groups) based on age, morning prayer and compline, and cabin time based on gender. We have access to about a dozen clergy so we can ask whatever questions we might need along the way. And every day we spend time in musical worship, both fun and energetic songs about God’s story, but also significant time spent in reverent and reflective worship.

The environment at camp is heavily influenced by connection throughout our diocese. One of the benefits of being a geographic diocese is that we nurture a sense of belonging within a larger community. Years of attending diocesan functions like Camp mean years of friendships built across the miles. It is an incredible joy to get to share time with those we’ve bonded to over the years. An added bonus is how many campers are able to relocate when they attend college to another Anglican church in our diocese because they already know so many families from camp who welcome them to their new church home.

Lastly, we have fun! All kinds of activities are offered at camp- canoes, tubing, swimming, archery, crafts, music, quiet time, games (carpetball!), 9 square, sports, skits, mealtime songs, gaga ball, a ropes course, and more. Our final day is always filled with a giant competition of sorts that gets everyone engaged and cheering each other on. You can’t explain the laughter and smiles- you have to come experience it for yourself!

If these things aren’t enough for you- consider the added benefit of leadership development. Almost 100% of our counselors were once Camp Araminta campers. In the Gulf Atlantic Diocese, we grow leaders. We love these campers and after 20 years, we are getting to see former campers sending their own children. What a legacy! Our true purpose here is to help all participants seek after the Lord in such a way that they’d be excited to return home and share God’s story with others. Seeing it surpass generations is a gift from God for which we continue to be thankful!

If you’d like to join us next year, mark off July 20-25, 2026 and watch the website for open applications!

Camp Araminta is one very active week with ongoing, exciting programs and activities that keep our kids busy from the crack of dawn until the evening. Camp is open to all rising 4th-12th grade students. We are building Christian Community through fellowship, living the Christian ideal from day to day, and learning to hold each other accountable. We also encourage discipleship by teaching youth how to filter the culture around us and discern what we listen to, say, and do (in music, media, and games). We are a ministry dedicated to supporting our youth as well as our fellow Anglicans.

Isaiah 40:31 reminds us that “those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.” Like birds learning to fly, our faith begins with a leap; we take that step and can feel God’s comfort surround us like the very air we breathe. The name Araminta was chosen because it means lofty in Hebrew.

As Christians, not only do we keep our minds focused on things above (Col 3:2), but we strive to pass on the faith to others in a way that they, too, will take that leap and learn to fly into God’s comfort. Araminta from its English roots means prayer or protection, and our prayer is that Camp Araminta is a place “where faith takes flight” for everyone who comes here.