Braeside Camp

Braeside Camp is an icon for the pentecostal (PAOC) Christians in southern Ontario. When I was younger, I used to go there for kids camp every year. My mom was a camp counselor for several years and my family usually stayed in a cabin on the camp grounds. I still have a scar that I received there from a chain link fence while playing tennis and I remember begging my mom for a few dollars so that I could buy some Christian Archie comics from the book store. (I still have those comics, of course.) We even brought our cat Puffy there one year.

It was at kids camp one year at around the age of 13 that I received my baptism in the Holy Spirit. It was at one of the kids' services and I went up for that purpose during an altar call. I was sitting on the steps of the stage facing towards the crowd of kids at the front and no one was praying for me directly when the Holy Spirit came. I vividly remember that experience.

Braeside Camp usually ends each summer with a weekend conference. This year, there will be services starting on the evening of Thursday September 1 and continuing until the evening of Sunday September 4. Tim Schwindt, the worship leader at my church (GTA), will be leading the worship times. I volunteered to go out there for morning and evening services to play percussion.

So finally, I've come full circle. I was once the kid at the front praying for baptism in the Holy Spirit, and now I'm the guy ministering in music to those people praying for baptism of the Holy Spirit. Cool.