Faith & Traditions

Servant Camp was born out of the creative minds of a few Christian parents looking for good summer activities for their children in St. Paul, MN. Allen and Debbie Saunders started the camp in 1978 because they had a dream that children would experience God through fun activities. That summer children met weekly and did interesting activities in yards and homes. The families were part of a Christian community called Servants of the Lord. The first year of camp was open to children of families in the community who were St. Paul residents. Another couple, Carmen and Gail Lee, joined with the Saunders as camp leaders.

After that first year, it became clear that the Lord had an even bigger vision for Servant Camp. The format grew from a day camp to an overnight camp for grades 4-8; older campers were later added. Since the first year when camp was hosted in back yards, 7 different sites have been used. Participation has grown from 15 children to 500+ campers and staff. It is estimated that by now, more than 6000 campers have come through the gates of camp.

The goal of Servant Camp is to give each camper and staff member an opportunity to grow spiritually, make new friends and have fun with new activities.

Over the years, many people have willingly given a week of their summer to serve at Servant Camp. We’ve had some who have served for more than 20 years, and we also have many former campers now serving as staff.

In 2009, Gail Lee died of breast cancer. We will always miss her gentle, yet tenacious, spirit as an assistant director and friend. She worked very hard to make Servant Camp a wonderful place for all of us. In 2011, Carmen Lee stepped down after 25+ years of running the show. We are deeply indebted to them both for the time, sacrifices and love they poured into Servant Camp. It is not an exaggeration to say they formed Servant Camp and made it the treasure it is.

Pat Ficker and John Ostby came on board in 2011 as director and assistant director, joining Jeanne and Mike Oberg and Ginny DeSanto.  Kathy Stauble joined our team in 2015.  John Ostby has moved into an advisory position, Janice Mertz, from Servant Branch, Steve Busk & Beth Couch from the South Bend Branch became directors in 2015. Chris Marquis is our newest director joining us in the winter of 2024.

Eight of the nine directors have been part of Servant Camp for many years and bring a great deal of experience and passion for bringing youth to a relationship with Jesus Christ in the great outdoors.

Servant Camp received its name from the Christian community, Servants of the Lord, which the original directors were all a part of. Servants of the Lord joined the ecumenical Christian community, People of Praise, in 1986. People of Praise has 21 branches around North America with 2,900 members.

Learn more at People of Praise.