Dear PCJH family and JOY Summer Camp Community,

I’m writing to you today to let you know that our Elders and Staff have come to the decision to pause JOY Summer Camp for the summer of 2023.

JOY has been a fixture of summer ministry at PCJH for many years. We love ministering to your families through JOY and we see it as an important role to provide a faith-filled summer opportunity for children in the Jackson community. Furthermore, we realize how this ministry plays an important role in many of your summer childcare plans. 

This was not an easy decision to make. We have created a JOY vision team to plan for summer 2024 and beyond. This team will assess the direction for JOY camp and think through real challenges we face such as staffing and sustainability. We will explore potential partnerships in the community that can strengthen JOY. If you would like to share ideas towards these ends, please contact our Interim Children's Ministry director, Preston Gordon.

As we made this decision and discerned the way forward for 2023, we felt God invite us to go deeper into building the community of families at PCJH. Our desire is to invest more robustly into discipleship for parents and kids together throughout the spring and summer. We created an after-school program on Wednesdays, will offer a parent class on technology and the family (starting tomorrow!), and are working on further creative ideas for the summer months. We intend to host a one-week long mini camp (vacation Bible school) that is open to the community.

Thank you for your involvement in JOY Summer Camp. We are grateful for your support over the years and we look forward to creating new ways of partnering with and ministering to you and your children this year.

Ben Pascal

Senior Pastor