Purpose

Competition brings out the worst in many of us, kids and adults alike. We can quickly become self-centered, angry, and unreasonable. Many of us may have been told or have told our kids or others to "just be a little less competitive."  But competitiveness is woven into the fabric of our very nature. What if there was a better way? What if our competitiveness was re-directed to honor God in all of our efforts and to care more about others than ourselves?  SB2W uses sports to train kids at how to win and lose, succeed and fail, in a way that honors God and respects others, following the motto: "God first, others second, I'm third." The sermon below, from “Camp Sunday” at Resurrection gives a fuller picture of the vision of camp and how it flows from the life of Jesus and the upside-down kingdom that he establishes

STORY

Summer's Best Two Weeks is a camp program that began in 1966. It still operates primarily as a resident camp in Western PA, serving over 3,000 campers every summer. But over the years, a number of individual churches in the mid-Atlantic have started their own Summer’s Best Two Weeks Day Camp programs in loose partnership with the Pennsylvania resident camp.

Jimmy Brock (now the Pastor of Resurrection Community Church) grew up going to both the Day Camp at The Falls Church in Falls Church, VA and the Resident Camp in PA. He then worked as a counselor at the day camps, where he first met his wife Suzanne, who was a fellow counselor. In 2015, they started a new SB2W camp in Atlanta, GA and in 2018 brought this camp program to Virginia Beach. In 2018 and 2019, in partnership with Crosswater Presbyterian, a one-week version of camp ran as part of the Princess Anne Mission, the effort to plant a new church in southern Virginia Beach that launched Resurrection in September 2019. In 2021, Resurrection’s Virginia Beach camp expanded to two weeks and a new location started at Grace Chesapeake. In 2022, Alejandro Romero came on staff at Resurrection as part of the Kingdom Expansion project, making it possible to start locations in Kempsville and Indian River, that year, and increasing to nine locations in 2023 and 2024. In 2024, Alejandro moved to a church in Boston and Julie Dorn came on staff as associate director to continue to develop and expand the camp program.

program

SB2W features a wide variety of sports, including football, basketball, soccer, hockey, ultimate Frisbee, kickball, wrestling, tumbling, crafts, trampoline, and swimming. Campers are assigned to squads divided by age and gender with a college-age senior counselor and a high school-age junior counselor. In these squads, campers learn the basics and develop skills in the sports, engage in interactive Bible study, and build relationships with their peers and their counselors. They are also assigned to one of two teams, Romans (red) and Galatians (blue) for team competition. These team assignments are made for life in all SB2W camps and all family members are assigned to the same team so that campers develop a strong sense of team loyalty and identity while learning to respect and honor their opponents. In two-week terms, full-day campers also have the opportunity to participate in an overnight camping trip and compete in a track meet and swim meet.

Leadership

Jimmy Brock is the director of SB2W Tidewater as well as the pastor of Resurrection Community Church. He and his wife Suzanne (a first-grade teacher at Three Oaks ES) met as day camp counselors in 2001 and now their five sons all also participate in SB2W as campers, junior counselors, and senior counselors. While Jimmy is officially responsible for the overall vision and mission and systems and training and discipling counselors, he also serves as the hands-on site director at the Red Mill location, and still delights in teaching and competing in every sport at camp

Julie Dorn is the associate director of SB2W Tidewater and a member of Westminster Reformed Presbyterian Church, host of the Suffolk location. She lives in Suffolk with her charming husband Eric (a deacon at Westminster and operator at Surry Nuclear Power Station) and their four darling children. Julie has worked on many events including weddings, surprise parties, retreats, dances, graduation ceremonies, and has sat on many committees throughout Suffolk.  One of her biggest joys is being able to homeschool her children and watch them grow in their relationships with Christ.  Julie's high energy and playfulness have led to the descriptor: “she’s just a party waiting to happen”. Julie pretty much shares in all the SB2W responsibilities, but is particularly focused on recruiting counselors, supporting site directors, and handling a whole lot of coordination and details

Affiliations

SB2W Tidewater is a ministry of Resurrection Community Church, and under the oversight of the elders of Resurrection. Resurrection is part of the Tidewater Presbytery of the Presbyterian Church in America, as are many, but not all of our site churches. SB2W Tidewater gladly partners with any church that proclaims the historic Christian gospel, and welcomes families and campers of any or no faith background to participate in our camps. While we have a relationship of mutual affection and appreciation with Summer’s Best Two Weeks in Pennsylvania, there is no legal or formal connection between the two.