Enter Vince and Joe Lara, unruly, foulmouthed, and skeptical about camp. They fought, drank, smoked dope, stole money from a fountain at the mall, and couldn’t care less about school or church. Their stepfather and older brother were in prison, and their mom, Jill, who worked full-time for a medical supply company, could barely control them. “My greatest fear was that they were going to follow in [their brother’s] footsteps,” Jill said. “They wouldn’t listen . . . I would tell them to come home and they wouldn’t.”
Enter Brant Nyhart, a lanky senior from Arizona State University, who was terrified by the responsibility of co-leading a cabin of unchurched boys. Brant had served as a youth leader at Scottsdale Baptist Church for almost three years, but had mostly interacted with kids who had grown up in the church.“I really doubted that I had any ability to relate to them whatsoever,” said Brant. “I wanted to be used, but I didn’t think I could be.”
Enter Craig Ramsey, a retirement specialist for Vanguard, who thought kids were “annoying” before he started working with the youth group at Scottsdale over five years ago. But after interacting with a few of the teens from the church, Craig decided to become a leader in the youth group, mentoring several guys through high school and into college.
So, how did two dope-smoking teens, a college guy, and a retirement specialist end up in a cabin together?
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