Cape First Church sponsors summer camp for area children in foster care

Cape First Church will sponsor a summer camp for children who have been victims of abuse and are currently in the Missouri foster care system.

Chad Fisher, lead pastor at Cape First Church, has been running point on partnering with For the Children, an organization working with churches across the country to create camps for children who have experienced relational trauma.

From Aug. 15 to 18, Fisher, and up to 100 volunteers, will meet 40 children at Eagle Sky of the Ozarks Christian Camp, near Piedmont. Each child will have their own personal counselor.

"The way we do camp is intentional and we try to make it individual," Fisher said. "We will have 40 counselors for 40 kids. We want the kids to be seen and known so they aren't lost in a crowd."

Fisher was introduced to For the Children by a fellow pastor in Texas. Bryan Jarrett shared with Fisher his dream to start a ranch that would minister to abused children. Fisher, pastor of Caruthersville First Assembly of God at the time, would bring a team of 20 to 30 volunteers to Jarrett's ranch in Texas every summer to work with the children there. When Fisher and his team returned home they always said the same thing: "We have kids like that right here in our backyard and we want a camp to serve those kids right here in our schools and neighborhoods."

Eagle Sky Camp of the Ozarks -- "The Island"Submitted

In 2020, Fisher and Cape First Church began creating such a camp. He said they secured a deal with Eagle Sky for the location and worked hand-in-hand with the local foster care system, local case workers and agencies from Jefferson County to the Bootheel.

They also received training from For the Children on everything from fundraising to the practicalities of actually holding a camp, to training volunteers in how to work with kids who have been through trauma and abuse. Every volunteer has had to pass a level three background check.

"A lot of our training is on building trust-based relationships," Fisher said. "We have, on hand at the camp, licensed and professional counselors working with us. A lot of it is being able to know their triggers and how to understand and offset them."

All that training was important, Fisher said, but his main goal is for the children to have fun.

"With the camp we just want to create a big week where you can just be a normal kid," Fisher said. "Where they don't have to worry about 'stuff,' or their living situation or what's been done to them."

Eagle Sky has plenty to help Fisher achieve that goal with rope courses, beach swings, an inflatable obstacle course, canoes, kayaks and the Screaming Eagle waterslide.

There will be Bible teaching and one night they will throw a big birthday party where every child will get their own cake and multiple gifts.

"The thing about kids in the foster care system is, sometimes they get moved often, and their birthday gets forgotten or overlooked," Fisher said.

Fisher said he understands part of what the children have been through because it also happened to him. Today, he is able to talk about when he was abused at ages 7 through 9. But while it happened, and for 10 years after, he never told a soul.

"I was raised in a good home with great parents," Fisher said. "It was something that happened and I never told anybody because the lie I believed was 'I'm the only one and if anyone knew this happened to me they wouldn't believe me and they'd think different of me.'"

This camp he is creating is a way for him to give children with similar experiences something he wished he had at that age and season in his life, he said. A camp where he could escape from the abuse he suffered, to a place where he could just go have fun, he said.

"When you're in situations like that, you don't get to be a normal kid," Fisher said. "It's always in the back of your mind. I never went to foster care, so I don't know what that would be like; to go through that abuse and then not even live with my family anymore. There's no sense of normalcy."

Through a not-for-profit they created, called Restore the Wonder, Fisher said he and his wife have dedicated their whole lives to providing a place for children to be able to experience some normalcy.

"When you go through the abuse and trauma that these kids have, a lot of their innocence gets taken away," Fisher said. "You don't get to be a normal kid, you don't get to think about normal kid things, you're worried about something you should never have to worry about, certainly at that age. Our goal, dream and prayer is that weeks at camps like this will restore a little wonder back in their heart."