Zona Camp: A generational journey for one Arizona family

The first time Daniel and Ashley Ingram went to Zona Camp, they were newly graduated high school seniors on their way to California in a church van.

That was 22 years ago at the very first Zona Camp at Point Loma Nazarene University. They attended with their youth group from First Baptist Church of Bullhead City. Their leaders at that camp included Daniel’s dad and Ashley’s mom.

Sitting around a table outside a coffee shop at California Baptist University this past June, they joke that at this moment, they’re living their parents’ lives.

That’s because Daniel and Ashley are once again at Zona Camp. But this time, they’re the youth leaders with Mountain View Baptist Church in Tucson, and their two kids, Brighton, 14, and Braelyn, 12, are students.

In fact, the first year Daniel served as a youth leader at Zona was in 2023 — Brighton’s first year at camp and, coincidentally, Zona Camp’s 20th anniversary.

“I got to take my kid, who just graduated sixth grade, to the 20th anniversary of Zona. That, to me, was the coolest. That was not on my radar,” Daniel, 39, said with a laugh. “I had no idea that it would be 20 years later and I would be coming back as a ‘senior citizen’ instead of as a senior in high school.”

This year, Ashley, 40, also started volunteering with Mountain View’s youth ministry, returning to Zona as a leader just in time for Braelyn’s first trip to the camp.

“This is the point where we’re starting to let go and they’re becoming their own people,” Ashley said. “And for me, [youth ministry] is a way of staying connected to them and staying relevant in their lives.”

The Ingrams joined about 1,000 other people who attended Zona Camp at California Baptist University from June 23-27 this year. Of those, 27 students made first-time decisions to trust Christ, 18 students rededicated their lives to Christ and three responded to a call to ministry, Portraits reported.

To attend camp this year, students paid between $349 to $399, depending on when they registered. Thanks in part to the Arizona Mission Offering, the price students pay for camp has not increased in six years, said Chad Murrell, camp director and lead pastor at First Southern Baptist Church of Scottsdale. The annual offering helps fund camp, keeping costs down for students as much as possible.

This year, the Arizona Mission Offering will raise money for eight Arizona Mission Network ministries, including Zona Camp. With a total offering goal of $225,000, $28,150 of that will go directly toward Zona, making stories like the Ingrams’ possible.

Daniel and Ashley have experienced camp as students, leaders and parents. As adults, they see clearly how camp allows students to get away from distractions, ask the big questions, focus on God and deepen quality friendships.

For Brighton and Braelyn, time with friends has definitely been a camp highlight.

Not only has Zona meant time to play Super Smash Bros. with a friend, but at camp, “you can be more real,” Brighton said. “Because you’re not really worried as much as when you’re with non-Christians.”

For Braelyn, too, the friendships cultivated at camp have made a big difference, especially as a new seventh grader entering the youth group for the first time.
“I’m going to be closer to everyone,” she said, when considering what youth group will be like after Zona.

And ultimately, this is the hope: That students connect with each other and with God in such a way that their lives are impacted well beyond the time they spend at Zona.

“We’re all going to have doubts like … did God really speak to me in this way?…” Ashley said. “But if you have these fun, awesome, powerful memories to back that up, it cements your faith. Hopefully [students] can see that it’s not this dry, boring thing that is an old and moldering faith, but it’s alive and vibrant and exciting.”

Learn more about the Arizona Mission Offering at azmn.org/amo/.

Johanna Willett, a freelance writer living in Tucson, is a member of Mountain View Baptist Church, Tucson.