Kiki Knight completed Summit, CRU’s 2-year mission and ministry training program, last year and now works in the CRU Educational Camps team as an Outdoor Leader, leading on camps, maintaining site activities and helping to support Summit trainees.
Kiki remembers first deciding to follow Jesus when she was in Year 6. Still, she felt like she started to take her faith seriously in her senior years when she studied Christian Development Extension as a subject at school. It really helped her consider more deeply what it meant to live her life as someone who followed Christ. She recalls thinking, “If the Bible’s true, what does that mean for me and how am I supposed to live my life according to it?”
Like many others in the CRU community, Kiki grew up experiencing and taking part in various ministry activities run by CRU. She recalls her first experience in Year 6 when went on a CRU Educational Camp in Canberra. Many more CRU Educational Camps later, while in Year 9, she was invited to lead on Super Week Day Camp at St Paul’s Castle Hill during the school holidays and thought “that was fun.”
But it was while attending a Year 10 CRU Educational Camp where she vividly remembers one of her camp leaders, Emily Matthews, running up to her at the end of camp and inviting her to join her team on a CRU Holiday Camp as a Junior Leader. So, two weeks later, she was leading on her first residential CRU Camp and feeling excited, thinking, “This is cool. These guys get to do this as a job! I want to do this too.” Kiki has led on the same CRU Holiday Camp every year since and this year, her fifth year leading, she served as the camp’s Assistant Director.
Having experienced the joys of camping ministry and as someone who loves the outdoors, the Summit Program was starting to look very attractive. Kiki shares, “I knew I didn’t want to go to uni straight after school. The outdoor recreation side of things was really appealing, as well as being able to get a Certificate in Ministry and Theology, and develop myself in that way. I also looked at the people who had done the program and saw the way they were serving God and thought, ‘Wow, I want to be like them.’”
“I get to lead on a bunch of camps, meet kids, have conversations, evangelise and share the gospel. I love it and I want to keep doing that for as long as I can.”
Though there were other ministry training programs that Kiki could have considered, she was drawn to Summit. She was already familiar with the camp setting, had existing connections with others in the CRU community, and there was the added benefit of Summit being a paid job. Another big drawcard was, in her own words, “The food. I’m also very much here because the food is phenomenal. Especially the butter chicken at Lake Mac!”
Convinced that it was what she wanted to do, Kiki applied for the Summit Program in Year 12 while attending a Study Camp as someone preparing for their HSC!
In many ways, Summit has been what Kiki expected. In addition to the biblical theology study and assignments, much of the time is focused on camps and the outdoors. She especially enjoys the training days spent learning new things and doing outdoor recreation activities with the team. She shares, “You get to learn how to abseil, sail in extreme conditions, how to undo a capsized boat and just a bunch of really cool, fun and challenging things.”
Kiki shares that a great joy of the ministry is the campers. “I really love the everyday moments with the campers. It’s great to build connections with them and see them having fun on camp. She shares, “Once you’ve built that connection with a camper, you can encourage them when they face challenges like being really nervous about going up the rock-climbing wall. Their friends and peers also encourage them to make it to the top and they come down just beaming. It’s really beautiful to see.”
“We also get to have really good conversations with campers about life and faith. It’s great to witness campers understanding more about the Christian faith and taking little steps towards knowing who Jesus is,” she continues.
But there are also challenges. She says, “I find it really challenging when campers are apathetic to the hope offered in Jesus. Many campers come from privileged backgrounds - they have everything and they do not see the need for Jesus in their lives. It’s so heartbreaking to have them hear about God’s amazing grace to us in Christ and then respond with a, ‘Nah, I’m good.’” She adds, “I just remind myself that God is good and that I don’t know what His plan is, but I can pray that seeds have been planted and that later they might know Jesus.”
Through the joys and challenges of ministry, Kiki is thankful to be walking through everything in community with others. “I love the community and the people here. There’s a really good balance of supporting one another as workmates, as well as praying together, and encouraging each other as brothers and sisters in Christ. The Summit family is very real,” she shares. “This is why the community in the Educational Camps team is so good. We’re all in it together and remind each other that God loves us, He is faithful and He is working – He’s the one who changes hearts. It gives us the confidence to just keep serving Him.”
As Kiki shares, it’s evident that she loves serving God in camping ministry.
We’re thankful to God for her and the rest of the CRU Educational Camps team that work so diligently to serve the campers who are in their care. We pray that God would sustain them, grow them in their trust in Him, and grant them the courage to live boldly for Him.
Want to experience Summit for yourself? Find out more at summitprogram.com.au