Work Camp has been an amazing experience for me. At first, I did not want to go at all, but as the week progressed, I started having so much more fun and I could feel the significant change in my faith in God. It grew deeper. The fact that the entire community had the same belief made it so much easier to let myself free and sing from the bottom of my heart.
On the first day on arrival, it was awkward with my crew and no one was really talking. At this point, I was worried that the week would be boring. The next day, I didn’t expect it, but the team building really brought us together. The whole week on site has been nothing but fun and inspiring. Not only was my crew amazing, but so was program. Everyone was so into the songs and games. It really felt like home. The worst part about work camp is going home. I promise I’m not lying when I say this was the best week of my life.
My Experience at work camp was much more exciting than I ever expected. Having this work camp being my first but certainly not my last made it so unique and interesting, changing my life forever. I will always remember finishing that deck and seeing the smile on my resident’s face as she walked up the ramp onto the deck for the first time. It put a genuine smile on mine and everyone else’s face that was there with me. Going to mass everyday and having confession changed something in me, making me want to be much more involved in the church which I will certainly keep with me going forward throughout my life. Not having my phone for a week showed me that I really don’t need it all that much and I could go without social media for the rest of my life. I thank Mr. Tom and every adult that was involved for organizing and leading this year’s workcamp for Nativity, making a great experience for me and the rest of the teens, But I also thank all of you for without your donations and willingness to help this couldn’t have happened.
Throughout this week, I was impacted in many different ways. Firstly, I realized how often I allow God to take a backseat in my life and how often I made choices before taking our lord into the equation. I also realized I don’t pray nearly enough or read the Bible as much as I should. Because of these realizations I can now change my life for the better and fix some of the areas I lack in my faith life.
Going into WorkCamp this year, I was skeptical. This was my first year attending and I had no idea what to expect. From what I had heard, it didn’t sound fun at all; sleeping on a cot, waking up early, and working on a house during the hottest week of the summer. It even got to a point where I was ready to drop out last-minute, but I decided to go anyways. Looking back, I am so glad that I chose to go because WorkCamp has been such a transformative experience for me. Although it definitely wasn’t easy, I can say with certainty that I learned many things that I will carry with me for the rest of my life. I learned how to work with a group of strangers, how to be patient with others, and how to install a window when Lowe’s sends you the wrong size, but above all I felt closer to God than ever before. Every day at WorkCamp centers around our faith, with Mass every morning, several devotionals throughout the day, and worshipping together every evening. In these aspects of WorkCamp I witnessed the strong faith of a thousand other teens which inspired me to grow in my own faith and also gave me hope for this generation of young believers. It is true that WorkCamp involves a lot of sacrifice; leaving your phone at home, dressing modestly, and eating peanut butter and Jelly sandwiches every day. But in the end WorkCamp allows us to do what Jesus called us to do— to serve others, sacrifice our earthly desires, and be an example of His love to the world.
Hello, I’m Felipe and this was my 1st year of WorkCamp. To say the least, it was a life-changing experience that I will never forget. Like many first-years, I wasn’t exactly thrilled when I was told that I was doing it, and when I asked if I had a choice in the matter, the answer was pretty much a no. However, once I got to school and started to adjust to life there at WorkCamp, I began to open up to the experience. I met my crew, 4 other teens and an adult crew leader, all of whom I had never met before. and over the week, we became very close. Our discussions and advice we gave to each other were very inspiring and helpful.
Every day, first thing in the morning, we went to mass. I was seated in the midst of a 1000 other teens, listening to amazing homilies and receiving the Eucharist. The priests were always welcoming and their experiences and wisdom were always very fascinating to listen to. In the evening, after everyone showers and eats, we gather for program. Every day, we had amazing musicians and speakers preach and sing for us. It is astonishing how many teens were there, worshiping and praising God. Some days, we had special events, like adoration and confession. This was the highlight of the week, as this was where the Lord came to me and opened my heart.
The week is not just for your own benefit, but the benefit of others as well. As one of the sisters at our camp said, “Next to the Eucharist, our neighbor is the most holy object presented to you.” When you come to someone’s home and assist with repairs, you have no idea how much that means to them. My residents were beyond grateful that they could let fresh air into their home and sleep without worry that ice would frost their windows in the winter.
I do hope that whoever is reading this is moved to join us in our mission. It fully changes you for Christ and shows you the true reward of serving others as Christ did for us.
During the week at work camp, I encountered Christ in many ways. The first way was in the community. When we were singing worship and the mic cut out and hearing the room of hundreds of teens get louder to continue the song/worship was so inspiring and I felt Jesus in the room with us. Another way I felt Christ was seeing hundreds of teens together to celebrate the sacrament of adoration, communion, and penance. Lastly, on the last day when we heard the testimonials of the homeowners, to hear how we completely changed their lives, I felt closer to Jesus by hearing how thankful they were. Work camp brought me closer to Jesus and I am looking forward to getting closer to him by continuing the things I did there. I can’t wait to go to work camp and help out my community in the future.
Coming into work camp I felt extremely grateful to have gone my second year this year. Thanks to nativity, me and over 20 other teens were able to devote ourselves to God this week and be able to grow more with our personal connections with the Lord, and also with each other. I feel blessed and I couldn’t have imagined going to work camp through a better parish. Seeing all my friends grow with God just like me makes everything we went through that week worth it. I was blessed with helping my resident in replacing a new deck so it was more accessible for them for their daily lives, and for their kids so they were able to play outside without anymore splinters. I thank everyone that made it possible for me to be able to attend work camp this year and everyone i attended with, Thank you Nativity parish. God bless.
Hello, my name is James. This is my second year at workcamp, and like last year, it was an amazing experience. At workcamp, we are privileged to serve those in need in our community. My project this year was sealing a roof and installing gutters, giving our resident peace of mind that her roof wouldn’t leak and would protect her from the elements for years to come. The projects we do are not only physically helping our residents out, but also they give hope that there are people in the world who care about them, and they just so happen to be a bunch of random teenagers. At workcamp we also deepen our faith life, we had daily mass and on Thursday we had adoration and confession from priests all over the diocese. We also learned the importance of praying daily and living through Christ. Workcamp was a joyful experience, and I recommend it to anyone who is thinking about going.
Hello, my name is Ben, and I went to WorkCamp over the past week. WorkCamp was a great experience that pushed forwards my faith, while allowing me to help people in need. Every morning began with Mass and prayer, which helped me stay centered as we built a deck and wheelchair ramp for a resident who just had surgery and couldn’t afford one himself. After working hard all day, we had program where we worshipped and praised god. Overall, WorkCamp was a great experience that helped me strengthen my faith and become a better version of myself.
This year I was so blessed by this parish to be able to attend my first work camp. Ask me if I was excited before camp, and that would be a different story. Being honest, I did not want to leave behind the comforts of my life at home and the normality of summer. That first night of work camp, as I lay on my cot unable to sleep, it made me realize something. My faith life had felt disconnected and far from God. As I slipped in and out of my sleeping bag, I felt as though Jesus had been slipping in and out of my heart. There was a void that needed filling, and unexpectedly, work camp was what filled that emptiness in me. My assignment during work camp was to fix the windows and floor for a family of 4 that had been living in their great great grandparents house. To be able to repair the damage in their home repaired the damage in my heart. To see the joy of a little 4 year old girl who knows they can walk safely on her kitchen floor is a feeling you can only get if you attend work camp. Along with work, throughout all 7 days my faith was uplifted through worship in song and prayer. Work camp is the only place you will ever feel so connected with other teens in Christ. Daily mass, songs of worship during program, and constant prayer has made me feel more close to my faith than ever before. I felt as though not only the parish was united as one, but that all the hundreds of parishes were united as one under God. This is what work camp is about. Yes we might have been strangers, but we were brothers and sisters in Christ. For all the teens on the edge about work camp, reflect on your life right now. It doesn’t matter how far or close you are in your faith, work camp will change your life. Don’t wait to let work camp slip away from you, because you will never feel anything as powerful as what me and hundreds of other teens went through. I truly felt Jesus Christ working through me and saw him working through each and every one of the people there at work camp.
This year I attended my first work camp. I have to agree with what I’ve been told: it’s a life changing experience. My crew got the job of roofing… I’m afraid of heights. On the first day on site I got up on the roof for about two minutes then got scared and came down, but I continued to lean into it and by the end of the week I was on the roof for three thirty minute shifts (which was the maximum we could do that day). Also, while I was there, at home base I felt there was so much friendliness and love in the other campers, it was so simple just to go up to someone and talk to them, which is a feeling you (or at least I) don’t get much in high school. Not only did I grow in confidence when I was there, but I grew in prayer and relationship to God. I’m not sure how to explain it exactly but work camp helped my praying feel more real. In conclusion, sign me up for next year.
Hi, my name is Emily Pryor, and this was my second year at Workcamp. It was such a beautiful experience for me and I was able to be fully immersed in prayer, Catholic community, and service. I was put on a deck repair project with 5 other teens and 2 adults who I’d never met before, and we all were able to work so well together, and my crew, crew 51, were all such hard workers despite rhe heat and the early mornings. It brought me so much joy to be able to learn to use new tools and to help teach others to learn tools I was already familiar with, as well as being able to have deep spiritual conversations on site. Aside from the worksite, I also got to participate in prayer, song and dance, Eucharistic adoration, and confession, and we got to start every day with mass. Together with more than a thousand teens and adults, we were able to live Acts 2:42. It was truly an uplifting, powerful, and spiritual experience, and I’m so glad I got the chance to “lean into it” this year.
Workcamp was a good experience for me . When i first got there I wanted to leave and be with my friends back home, but throughout the week I started to like it there and started to be closer with god. Workcamp helped me strengthen my faith with god by attending mass every morning and by doing confession. So in the end workcamp was a great place to grow my faith and be with friends.
This is my second Workcamp and I am so glad I went. Workcamp is such an impactful and incredible experience that really changed my life. I loved every minute of it and am already wanting to go back.
This year i had a tough project requiring not only my crew, but 2 other crews to complete this project. It was very scary, even though I went last year, for 20 complete strangers to build a large deck 10 feet off the ground in 4 days. Every day there would be 20 of us working hard, while having fun, helping each other meet our goals for the week, and strengthening our relationships with Christ and each other. Being able to help and serve our resident was one of my most favorite parts of the week. He would greet us every morning and his son even ate lunch with us! We were able to develop a friendship with a kind family while being able to build a community to serve them. I loved getting to know my crew and forming some lifelong friendships, and it was even more special that we were able to help a family in need.
For me the most impactful part was being able to deepen my faith. Going into Workcamp my relationship with God was not bad, but it wasn’t amazing. After this week I can feel the fire of the Holy Spirit working in me and I am filled with so much joy and love. Going to Mass everyday at 7am was such a great way to start each day. I have never been more excited to wake up that early. Every night everybody at Workcamp, over 1200 people, would gather for Program, which is basically 3 hours of praise and worship, talks, and games. Seeing 800 teenagers sing their hearts out praising the Lord could bring anyone to tears. On Tuesday night we have adoration with the bishop. Adoration was the most insane experience I have ever felt. I’ve been to adoration many times but this one was different. I really felt the presence of our Lord right in front of me. I felt so much warmth and love around me and I don’t even have words to explain it.
Despite the heat reaching 100 degrees, and pb&js every day of the week, I come back with a heart filled with so much love for Christ and my community, and I want nothing more than to be able to share my love for Christ with others. Thank you, and God bless.
I had first heard about Workcamp from a few friends in my parish. I didn’t think much of it and decided not to go that year. after seeing their testimonies the week later during Sunday mass. I had realized I’d made a mistake. later throughout that year, I had a true encounter with God and since then he has changed my life drastically as I have been living every moment and each and every though of my life surrendered and in constant prayer with him since then. Then workcamp shows up… After going to Workcamp 2025 I really wish I had been to 2024’s as well. This year’s 2025 workcamp has had a great impact on me mainly due to the groups of people God has shown me, the peace he has given his followers, and how God has demonstrated how he can easily touch an entire group of over 1000 people in one single moment. I was never worried about meeting new friends or trying new things for Workcamp as my experience in Boyscouts had already covered for most of all the challenges that Workcamp presents to you. I realize that God wanted me to go to Workcamp not for the basic challenges that it presents, but for the opportunity to see a truth and bare witness to a few moments that would give me great hope for those lukewarm around us all, and those deeply in faith, around us all. I know many people talk about how magical the moment was in Tuesday night adoration. But I feel like God allowed me to be in that room so I could see a different truth about the moment and the movement of God’s people. God showed me the magnitude of his Glory through the people/participants of Workcamp that night which is truly unexplainable. the entire room, filled with the Holy Spirit. really allowed me to say to myself that the people that I’ve been looking for… the true disciples and fully surrendered Christians and followers of Christ are everywhere. Some just haven’t let go of a few things. Simply put, Everybody is already deeply in love with the Lord Jesus Christ in his love… it’s just, many of us give in to temptation, and allow a false life to be a blanket over the truth of our lives. Due to this we sometimes forget completely of God’s love. But, in removing the sin and death of our lives, the only thing that remains, and will only ever finally remain, is the Love and Lord Jesus Christ. for the past year I’d been looking for specific individuals that are deeply surrendered(when I say deeply surrendered I mean absolutely. it’s kind of unexplainable. the best way I can put it is that you can almost just close your eyes and have the Lord speak and move through every moment of your life through you. The holy spirit lives in you and you are in constant conversation and prayer with the Lord with every thought and moment of your being.) in Christ. I had been looking for a brother equally yoked, Workcamp has revealed to me that two brothers build each other up. that through even a little faith and peace of the Lord, shown through me and The Holy Spirit through me, can build up as many others as needed. The bishop told me during confessions in Workcamp, that they will see and need the peace of God through the peace of The Lord that is shows through you. basically meaning, “In every person you meet, there’s a little piece of God in them, and that’s who you talk to… BUT, make sure they see it in you first”. That’s the main impact and purpose that I found within workcamp. It was amazing to share this with close brothers and friends. people I love. and especially serving those in need of God’s love throughout their homes and those in need of help regardless of their life’s situation. Workcamp was amazing, truly… amazing!
This is my first year at workcamp, and initially while I was hesitant about going, mostly due to not going before, my perspective changed completely as the week went on. Not only did I meet so many new people, I also was able to learn more about about my faith and grow closer to god through the music. My resident for example was so kind, brought us watermelon and popsicles, and even was kind enough to show up to the lunch at the end of the week, to talk about her experience. While a lot of the time spent working was in the sun, and we worked for hours outside, I was able to grow a lot closer to my crew and I got to meet people I never thought I would interact with. This experience has not only taught me more about god, but it has helped teach me the value of community. Overall, I really enjoyed this and I would recommend it for anyone that’s undecided.
WorkCamp was an amazing experience in which I was able to get closer to God and serve others. My experience at WorkCamp really helped me to understand who God was in my life and how He wanted to love me personally. I would recommend WorkCamp for anyone who wants to grow closer to God or enjoys working outside; it also helps if you like music. I think that WorkCamp is an amazing experience for many teens who want to become more involved with the Church and with their community.
This week was totally amazing! We physically emptied ourselves by doing hard work for strangers in our community, who soon became friends. The evening program and devotional questions that we were challenged with throughout the days, as well as the celebration of the Eucharist, Reconciliation and Adoration spiritually filled us up with God’s Grace and Love. It was beautiful to watch and to listen and the youth’s hearts were changed and opened by God. It enabled them to step outside their comfort zone and be present to others in such an incredible way. It was an honor to witness the contagious joy And willingness to help others that poured out of so many young people. It gives me great Hope in the future of our church and in God’s plan for
The Body of Christ!
When hearing about WorkCamp for the first time, I was hesitant. Committing to a full week of cold showers, cheese sandwiches, and working with a group of complete strangers was a lot. However, little did I know of the life changing experience that was about to come. The first few days of camp were rough. I had no hope that things would get better, I felt defeated over the idea of not connecting with new people, and all I could think was “I can’t possibly spend 4 more days here.” But as the week went on, my perspective on everything changed. During program one night, I remember Steve saying something along the lines of “focus on your relationship with God, and everything else will fall into place.” That night, I made a promise to myself that no matter what happens, the only thing that mattered was growing my relationship with God. I began participating in the devotionals, singing during worship, giving my full attention during mass and program, spent any free moment I had praying for God to change my heart, and tried my best to “lean into it”. As the week progressed, I began to see God in all that I did, and everything started falling into place. The pure joy and peace I felt during camp is indescribable. I’m leaving WorkCamp wishing it were longer, a heart full of love, and a reminder that our God is a loving and merciful God. He is so good, and he can do GREAT things- you just have to be willing to take the first step to be open to it. WorkCamp has changed my spiritual life for the better, and I pray that everyone has the opportunity to experience the love and joy of WorkCamp that I got to experience. I’m already counting down the days until next year’s WorkCamp!
Initially when I heard about WorkCamp, it wasn’t something I was looking forward to. I’ve heard the stories about the unpleasant cheese sandwiches, the cold showers, the long bathroom lines, and especially the roofing jobs. In my head I thought, “Why would any teen want to dedicate a week of their precious summer to that?” Honestly the week before WorkCamp, I procrastinated packing because I didn’t want to go. But what I didn’t understand at the time was the experience I was about to have. On the car ride there, I remember praying that God that He would give me a great crew, and please, anything but roofing. But of course, when I met my crew, I found out that I had ended up with the roofing jobs. I began to feel nervous and unsure of how the week would go. The first couple days were difficult, being in the hot sun, and bonding with these people I’ve never met before was honestly the last thing I wanted. However, as the week went on, little did I know that these people would be the ones helping me get through these hardships and challenges. The heat was brutal, but we laughed through it, we rotated shifts, played games during breaks, and grew closer not just with each other, but with God. The spiritual depth I experienced at Workcamp was surreal and the life we lived at Workcamp helped me understand how Jesus lived. A truly liberating experience for me was during adoration, when we prayed the rosary together – people had the chance to go up to the mic and share prayer intentions for everyone to pray upon. That experience was eye opening and made me realize that everyone had their own struggles going on back home. But yet here they were – giving their time to serve those in need. That night in adoration I learned that even though life feels unfair or heavy, there’s still hope and that God works through us, even in the hard moments and how we, as workcampers, were a living example of this by giving this community hope. Later in the week, I found out the roof we were working on belonged to a couple whose son had just recently passed away and couldn’t replace their roof for them. For me, that changed everything and it gave me a reason to commit, and a desire to help – because I wasn’t just hammering shingles, I was helping and bringing comfort and stability to this couple who was grieving. Through all of this, WorkCamp taught me that even in sweat, discomfort, and challenge, there is beauty, purpose, and God’s presence. I came into this experience unsure and hesitant, but left feeling changed, grateful, and closer to Him than ever before. The bonds, the connections, the experience, and the friends I’ve made will never be replaceable. And the choice I made to come to Workcamp was a privilege I will never forget.
Copyright 2026 Nativity Catholic Church | Privacy Policy | Login