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Ministry isn’t limited to church on Sundays, and The Salvation Army’s Kroc Center is a testament to that notion. Offering a wide variety of summer camps, the Kroc in San Diego goes above and beyond to teach kids about Christ in a fun and meaningful way.
In an escape from the summer heat, campers aged 7-14 spend a week in the ice rink honing their skills and learning new techniques from professional hockey players.
Watch to see how these kids are incorporating faith into the sport they love.
Below is a transcript of the video edited for readability.
Major Rob Birks: San Diego Kroc Center has been here since 2002. We’re here for everyone, and we’re here to meet their needs. Their needs might be learning how to swim, or come to church, or learning how to play hockey.
We have an ice rink. It’s the best in San Diego County, and it’s the only ice rink in The Salvation Army world.
Rob Globke: This camp started in 2016, I believe, with a partnership between Hockey Ministries International and The Salvation Army here in San Diego. Hockey camp is full of activities.
Grecia Bocharov: We split the kids into two groups, so seven to nines go get dressed for the ice session. The older group, they go to do off-ice training.
Ethan C.: We’ll usually go stretch and do some like, warm-ups and then we’ll go on ice.
Grecia Bocharov: We do some skating work, you know, edge work. And then, you know, we give them pucks and then we do stick handling drills.
Rob Globke: Then from there, they get to work on some of the passing and the shooting.
Keanna B.: We did one-on-one drills. We played games.
Rob Globke: A lot of times in hockey, it’s a grind. And our goal here is to have the kids experience a fun atmosphere and have a fun camp.
Keanna B.: The coaches are really nice. They work with a lot of kids, and they see how much people improved over the years.
Ryan Carpenter: When the kids get that kind of repetition and are able to, you know, make mistakes on their own, that’s how they kind of learn. Eventually, it becomes instinct.
Rob Globke: A couple times throughout the day, we do some spiritual components to the camp. We do a thing called the huddle, where we go through a little book.
Grecia Bocharov: It’s called ‘Win for Life.’ It goes through quotes from the Bible and quotes from the Christian hockey players. It’s about their life and what it means for them to be a Christian and a professional athlete. They have quotes of the hockey players. So we go through those booklets with the kids.
Ethan C.: It kind of relates to, like, how our faith and hockey can be in the same area. It’s not separate.
Rob Globke: At the end of every day, we do a chapel.
Grecia Bocharov: And that’s typically when one of us shares our testimonies. And, you know, how we’re living our Christian life as hockey players.
Marc-Andre H.: We just learn about God, play games, all the good stuff.
Grecia Bocharov: Through the day, they’re, like, all dragging. When the chapel starts, they all perk up, and they all listen. The chapels are my favorite time of the day.
Rob Globke: A lot of times, even kids get so focused in the hockey rink, and we try to help them see that there’s more to life than just what’s on the ice.
Ryan Carpenter: As a professional hockey player, we’re mind, body, and spirit. Sometimes we can neglect that spiritual side of things. I think when you develop all three of those parts, and they’re in balance, I think the whole person grows.
Grecia Bocharov: This camp provides that atmosphere and that opportunity to start growing and then continue to grow through the year.
Major Rob Birks: We fit ministry into what we already do here at the Kroc Center.
Grecia Bocharov: It’s great to be a part of the growth of the young people as Christians and hockey players.
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