A few students at Point Loma Nazarene University handed out donuts and Kamp Love Point Loma fliers outside Brown chapel on Friday, Feb. 17. Kamp Love is a Christian camping retreat created for students to experience God’s love in nature, according to Kamp Love’s website.
According to Kamp Love’s website, the camp was originally called Camp Lope because it started at Grand Canyon University, whose mascot is an antelope. The intent was to get students outside of the city in a community where they could share the gospel.
Camp Lope was renamed to Kamp Love in honor of Jarod Lovekamp, a student at GCU who died in 2020. His friends created Kamp Love and made it an official nonprofit for students to experience.
Ryan Cummings, third-year media communication major, and Grace Wisenor, third-year communication major, are in Loma Outside, a PLNU club in which students explore nature together. In spring 2022, Cummings and Wisenor led a camp retreat.
“We worked together and did a Loma Outside camp called Jesus Outside,” Cummings said.
Cummings noticed that GCU’s Kamp Love was similar to Jesus Outside. He reached out to Kamp Love founder Austin Rockwell, who wanted to be a resource for helping them bring Kamp Love to PLNU. Rockwell invited Cummings, Wisenor and Cole Stark, Cummings’ roommate who has worked with them in previous ministries, to visit Kamp Love in Williams, Arizona.
“Point Loma’s such a beautiful community, but a distracted one,” said Cummings. “Our goal is to take everybody out of this environment and go to a place that is just each other and the Lord and really lean into that.”
Another PLNU student described the impact camp has had on her life.
“The biggest ways I have seen the Lord move in my life have stemmed from camp,” said Grace DiLorenzo, second-year psychology major.
DiLorenzo helps lead Kamp Love Point Loma, alongside Cummings, Wisenor and Stark.
DiLorenzo started attending Loma Outside last year and attended Jesus Outside camp for the first time.
“When I went to Jesus Outside, it shifted my entire time at Point Loma,” DiLorenzo said.
Cummings and DiLorenzo said that campers usually get a “camp high” after attending and they wanted to do something to make that last.
“We’re going to camp together and then coming back into the same community,” Cummings said.
Cummings and DiLorenzo said that they hope to bring students together and foster leadership at the retreat this year. Kamp Love Point Loma will take place on Mar. 24-26, at Hume SoCal in Big Bear, California.
While Cummings and three others started Kamp Love Point Loma, there are 25 other PLNU students who will be leading the retreat.
Written By: Cambria Jacobs
Steve Anderson