Refugee Campership Drive
Goal: $30,000

This summer, over 45 youth from RefugeeNet will attend summer camp at our diocesan camp in Julian, Camp Stevens. This is the ninth year of such a partnership, and I hope you will support a campership drive to raise funds for refugee campers' registration fees.

On Sunday, June 21, World Refugee Day, congregations in the Diocese of San Diego will give the plate offering for the Refugee Campership Drive. Will you join us?

RefugeeNet supports refugees who settle in San Diego after fleeing violence in their home countries. Each summer, dozens of refugee children get the chance to go to camp and just be kids. At Camp Stevens, staff work to give campers a new world perspective, a clearer sense of who they are, how we're all interconnected to one another and to God's creation, and the assurance that they are loved by God.

In addition to the over 100 campers from around southern California that Camp Stevens provides campership assistance to each year, Camp Stevens has welcomed 45 campers from RefugeeNet each summer for the last eight years. This amounts to an annual cost of $30,000. This year, we expect 65 campers from RefugeeNet. The Refugee Campership Drive ensures that Camp Stevens is able to provide this life-giving experience.

As a diocese and as a community, we support one another because we can accomplish so much more together than we can apart. The Campership Drive is a wonderful opportunity to love these refugee children in Jesus' name. If your congregation is able to participate in the drive, please reply to this email with a simple "Yes." You may find details on the drive, how to participate, a bulletin listing and promotional flyer here: www.campstevens.org/refugee.

As Christ makes all things new, so too can we help those whom God has placed among us, by transforming camp experiences from death to life. Thank you for supporting this campership drive.

Faithfully,

The Rt. Rev. James R. Mathes

Bishop