CrossRoads: Developing Young Adults into Ministers
The Alma Hunt Offering for Virginia Missions makes possible the summer ministry of CrossRoads Camp and Conference Center, a camp managed by the Woman’s Missionary Union of Virginia. Each summer hundreds of campers and guests encounter God in the mountains of Central Virginia beside the Little Piney River. CrossRoads offers leadership development to summer staffers in high school and college, and as a result, has helped many young adults discern a call to missions and ministry because of time spent at CrossRoads. We asked Kristen White, Pastor at Antioch Baptist Church in Red Oak, Virginia, to share how CrossRoads has impacted her:
It began when I was seventeen while standing in the field singing praise songs just before walking into worship in the vesper garden one evening. I looked at the ten campers who were in my cabin that week, along with all of the other campers and staffers gathered in that place. The voice wasn't audible, but in the strongest way I've ever heard God speak came the words
"This...this is what I want you to do for the rest of your life."
"This" has taken on many forms over the decades since that night, currently that of pastoring of a rural congregation. Because of the ministry of CrossRoads, I was able to discern a calling to vocational ministry and gain many practical skills to help prepare me for it - finding teachable moments all around, leading when needed and accepting leadership when needed, being empathetic and compassionate, just to name a few. I am deeply grateful for the time I spent at CrossRoads as a camper and counselor and the ways that it served as a foundation for the years that have followed.
2002 CrossRoads Summer staff
Rev. Kristen White is second row, third from left