Choose Your Program

Those first years saw a few dozen children come to the site in West Guilford. Now, nearly 70 years later, Medeba hosts over 5,000 young people every year, throughout the year, in Summer Camp, Outdoor Education and Group Retreats.

In addition, over the last 25+ years, Medeba has trained 250+ young adults in our 10-month college level leadership training program called Proságo. Students have come from a dozen different countries around the world. After graduation they have gone on to serve young people in their communities, multiplying Medeba's impact on young people here, and around the world.

To challenge young people to continually say “yes” to God.

Our mission is to use adventure and community to challenge young people to continually say “yes” to God.

Adventure and community experiences are wonderful ways for young people to discover things about themselves, about God and how the two relate. We are very concerned with using a safe and responsible approach when ministering to young people in our care. It is very important to us that we are providing a physically, socially and spiritually safe environment where no one is forced, coerced or emotionally pushed to accept any truth or make any decision.

Adventure

Learning should be fun, and adventure is an ideal tool to make learning enjoyable! Adventure takes place when exciting, new experiences challenge you to push your personal limits. At Medeba, adventure learning occurs in small groups as trained leaders help guests learn from their experiences and apply the lessons to real life. 

Challenges like white-water kayaking, ice climbing, and high ropes elements are custom-designed to teach life skills like co-operation, communication, trust, and problem solving. At Medeba we encourage personal growth in all areas of life-- physical, intellectual, social and spiritual.

We welcome and accept guests from all backgrounds without discrimination, and as Christians, we believe that having a relationship with God is the ultimate adventure. Medeba is a safe place to ask questions and explore faith, and care is taken to ensure young people are treated gently and appropriately when discussing spiritual matters.

Community

We are intentional about the use of community to foster friendship and allow individuals to safely explore and learn in a supportive environment of encouragement and acceptance. When arriving at Medeba, each guest will join a small community within the larger group for accommodation and then be guided by trained leaders throughout their stay.

Because we have designed our program and facilities to promote community, we desire each guest to disengage from their current communities, in order to fully engage in the temporary community they join at Medeba.

In our summer camp programs the best way to fully connect with others in the present is to limit technology use while at Medeba, especially cell phone use for texting and social media. We encourage guests to leave their devices at home or in their bags as much as possible while experiencing life at Medeba.

Programs to Accomplish our Mission Strategy:

Ministering Directly: to young people

• Summer Camp for boys and girls ages 6-17
  • over 1 thousand weeks of summer camp with many children experiencing positive life change.
• Outdoor Education for grades 6-12 and university groups
  • Over 2,000 young people visit Medeba and experience an adventure program designed to challenge and inspire them.

Partnering with Existing Youth Leaders: to minister to young people

• Hosting weekend Retreats for youth groups
  • Over 2,000 young people come to Medeba for retreats each year. We support existing youth leaders by hosting and facilitating their group to help them meet their objectives.
     

Training Leaders: to minister to young people

• Proságo - 10-month Leadership Development Program, post-secondary level program
  • 12 participants join us each year and we train them in four key leadership disciplines, Discernment, Guiding, Communication and Empowerment. This is accomplished through workshops, sessions, trips, expeditions, and practical leadership opportunities.
• Leader In Training program – 2-month Leadership Development program for ages 15-16
  • 36 participants are trained every year in preparation to become leaders in their communities and potential staff for our summer program
     

Developing Ministry Tools: to increase effectiveness of impact on young people

• Medeba Activity Team - development of adventure activities
• Publishing Materials about adventure from a Christian perspective
  • Our Executive Director has published a book to explore, define and understand the value of adventure programming from God's perspective.

Sharing with Other Organizations:

• “Medeba Shares” consulting work.
  • Medeba’s Executive team is committed to ministering to other organizations that have a similar mission.