A weekend-long student retreat at Forest Home consisted of competitive lawn games, being in community with friends and worship nights that went until almost 2 a.m. This was a group of about 200 from Point Loma Nazarene University at Kamp Love.
Kamp Love is an organization that spans over 100 public and private universities, with an annual 24-hour camping trip in the fall and a weekend-long retreat happening in the spring. From March 20-22, students gave messages during these different times of worship, with themes of vulnerability in faith and being rooted in a relationship with God.
Kamp Love Point Loma is led by Jack Trepus, a third-year biology and chemistry major, and Elena Yoder, a fourth-year theology, justice and peace major. Trepus, the senior and spiritual director for Kamp Love Point Loma, described the camp as a way for people to encounter God more intimately and intentionally.
“It’s a ministry that simultaneously seeks to create connection, and, so to speak, pitch a tent … for people to experience the presence of God through connection, through fellowship and worship; [it’s] very evangelistic in that nature,” Trepus said.
Trepus has been involved with the organization since his first year, with the mentorship of PLNU alum Elijah Hagen. He stepped into the role of senior director of Kamp Love PLNU after Hagen graduated in the fall of 2025.
About 60-70 students volunteered to serve as part of the prayer, activities, facilities or worship team. Lincoln Zdunich, a second-year theology and philosophy double major, led the worship team with Maya Valverde, a fourth-year commercial music major.
“The biggest thing for us is how do we lead people into the presence of God, like, under his blood, for an entire weekend?” Zdunich said. “Because that is the most powerful thing, and that’s what’s so important.”
Esther Freeman, a fourth-year commercial music major, Hagen and Trepus spoke during the different worship services throughout the weekend. On the Sunday morning of camp, Trepus encouraged people to get baptized that evening at Sunset Cliffs. Ten students followed through in the cold, ocean water.
Weeks before the event, Trepus knocked on different doors within the first-year dorm halls and invited people to camp. He said that although some rejected, he also saw students who considered. Trepus baptized two of those people.
“I don’t know if they went because of [the knocking], but they went, and they encountered the Lord, and they were baptized, and I got to baptize them,” Trepus said. “It was just this beautiful, full circle moment.”
Blake Driscoll, a first-year business administration major, said an invite from his mentor, Otto Rogers, a third-year psychology major, led him to go to camp. Driscoll and Rogers both were baptized on that Sunday afternoon.
“I was really looking for an answer,” Driscoll said. “I kept praying, ‘Show yourself, God, I need you. I want to know you, make yourself known.’ Eventually, I heard just like ‘submit,’ and the word ‘submit’ had been coming up in words, sermons or just [conversations] with my friends [already].”
Dalton Page, a second-year Christian studies major, has been head of facilities for Kamp Love Point Loma since fall camp in 2025. He was in charge of overseeing and setting up amenities around camp, such as providing lighting on walkways, handling trash and setting up the sound systems for amenities and games.
“[Working for the camp] means that I get a chance to serve and pour into others,” Page said. “I really like the ministry, and I think it’s really powerful. For perspective, last fall, we had 10% of the Point Loma student population go. And I just think it’s such a blessing to be there and to be able to serve.”
Trepus said he hopes that in the future the organization becomes “five times more equipped, and five times more wise” than they are now.
He encourages those interested in helping to contact the organization by email at plnu@kamplove.org.
“We will have a Kamp Love in the fall,” Trepus said. “We want it to be big, and we want freshmen to come and meet the Lord. We need at least 100 to 120 leaders to make fall camp happen.”
Olivia Roberts 
Carson Dillon