Summer camp was very formative for me as a teenager. I went from a drugged-up teenager who was in a recovery group my 8th-grade year to a Jesus-loving 9th grader who would later become a pastor. Camp Yavapines located in Prescott, AZ is what helped make all the difference. 

Pastor Wendy Eberhardt is currently the Young Adult & Camp Director for the Arizona Conference of Seventh-day Adventists. She is a passionate follower of Jesus Christ.  At the age of 8, she went away to summer camp for a week and continued to attend each summer till she was too old to be a teen camper, then immediately applied to be a summer camp staff and really never stop spending her summers at camp.   

She has had the privilege to work at the following Adventist camps across the NAD,  Camp AuSable, Indian Creek Camp, Laurel Lake Camp, Camp MiVoden, and Camp Yavapines.  She has been the director at four of those camps and it was during these years that she truly found the joy that God promises when He talks about the abundant life He desires for each one of us.  She says she has had the privilege of working side by side and doing life with hundreds of young adults over the past 30 + years, building those relationships in which she has had the honor to help them in the process of finding God’s calling for their life. This is where her joy comes from. 

She has been involved in youth and young adult ministry for over 34 years, married for 37 years to Ed Eberhardt, and they have a son named John. 

Besides the joy she receives from mentoring leaders for Jesus,  I enjoy being outdoors especially in or on the water, spending time with the people I love, and reading great books!

We discuss the advantages summer camp ministry has over more traditional ones and how this ministry is cross-generational serving both Youth and Young Adults alike.