Mills Spring Ranch in Casper, Wyoming, started a partnership five years ago with an organization called Prison Fellowship.* They minister to the families of incarcerated individuals and will sponsor any child with an incarcerated parent to attend summer camp for free.
Two of the campers attending MSR’s 2025 summer camp program were a 17-year-old boy and his 12-year-old sister, whom I will call “Sam.” The first day, Sam’s camp counselor was told by one of the cabin mates that Sam would smoke a vape occasionally. Her counselor had a conversation with Sam about the alleged vape, which Sam denied, saying the other girls just didn’t like her.
Later that day, several of Sam’s cabin mates told the counselor they had seen her holding the device. The counselor took the camp’s village director with her and had another conversation with Sam. Again, Sam denied it and said she wanted to go home.
After praying about the situation as a leadership team, we felt like it was important for Sam to remain at camp and for our staff to focus on connecting with her and loving her well. During the next conversation, Sam agreed to stay at camp one more day only because her brother was having a great time and she wanted to support him.
As the week progressed Sam started connecting with Hailey, one of our horse barn wrangler staff. Hailey did an amazing job of creating space, and Sam shared about the many challenges she regularly faced with her peers and adult figures in her life.
Through prayer, we decided as a summer camp leadership team that if Sam did in fact have a vape and willingly gave it to a staff member, there would be no consequences. Toward the end of the week, while having a private conversation with Hailey up at the horse corral, Sam removed the vape she had been hiding and gave it to Hailey.
In this vulnerable moment, Sam said that her mom’s boyfriend gave her the vape and encouraged her to use it. Sam also stated that, through the worships shared all week at camp, she had come to realize that the vape no longer fit her identity and she wanted to stay at camp the rest of the week. As a leadership team, we told her how proud we were of her.
From that moment forward, Sam looked as though a weight had lifted off her shoulders. She began to smile, sing, and participate in the song motions during worship. She began having conversations with other campers and staff and was experiencing joy—maybe for the first time in her life.
By the end of the week, Sam said she had chosen to believed there is a God. We hope to see Sam again this summer at camp and I can’t wait to see the Holy Spirit continue transforming the lives of campers and staff.
* Prison Fellowship is not affiliated with the Seventh-day Adventist Church.
Brent Learned is the RMC youth assistant director and Mills Spring Ranch manager.
Website: www.rmcyouth.org/camp
