Welcome Kardia!

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Hello everyone, my name is Kardia!  I’m a native Wisconsinite who grew up in a family that loved me and loved Jesus and showed me what it looks like to follow Him. Regarding my choice of careers, my mom always tells me that she’s happy I’ve found people to go on adventures with—it means she doesn’t have to!

I got my foot into the camp world in 2009, when I spent my summer working as a counselor at a camp up in the Northwoods of Wisconsin that may sound a little bit familiar...it was called Camp Luther. That experience involved pouring myself into the lives of kids of all ages and wondering (often) just what I had gotten myself into.

The year following my first summer at camp, I graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire with a degree in Secondary Education, but I found myself increasingly drawn to the world of outdoor ministry. After spending a second summer working as a counselor at Camp Luther, I plunged full-time into the world of camp and have never looked back.

The past couple of years I have been working at a camp called HoneyRock, leading a summer adventure leadership program for high school and college students, while earning my master's degree in Christian Formation and Ministry through Wheaton College. I graduated this past May, and I'm incredibly excited to be back here at Camp Luther, where I started this journey so many years ago.
What gets me excited about camp ministry are the glimpses it offers of life in the kingdom; of what it means to grasp “how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ.” Camp has been utterly formational in my understanding of so much of what it means to follow Jesus; of what identity and community and grace look like in the light of the love of Jesus Christ.

The heart of why I do what I do starts from the belief that God speaks to us in our brokenness. He calls to us with words that say: You are mine. I have not forgotten. You are not forsaken. And you are so, so loved.  For me, ministry is trying to be that voice to others.


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