OUR STORY

Thinking of these Jamaican campers, the teens considered the idea of “taking Swamp Camp to the Jamaicans instead of the Jamaicans coming to Swamp Camp.” And so, they did...and upon their return from a successful week of teaching 77 Jamaicans the intricacies of camp during the summer of 2010, the concept of Swamp Corps was conceived with the mission of teaching kids around the world the Swamp Camp culture and helping them to see God (Job 40:5) not just hear about him.

Two campers, children of the late Damien Jean-Baptiste and his wife Karen, from Barbados attended the camp in Jamaica and returned home and told their parents who, in turn, requested the possibility of starting a camp. A team was gathered and our second location was born.

In early 2011, the Columbia Church of Christ hired new Youth Ministers, Mike & Melissa Block, who reached out to Jeff in Athens just to start a friendship and share best practices with the youth. Jeff shared what was happening in Jamaica and Barbados regarding Swamp Camp. Mike shared that the Columbia Church of Christ was supporting work done in Johannesburg, South Africa specifically a couple, Dave & Beth Pocta, who moved there to help with Youth & Family Ministries. Dave & Beth had led camps in the midwest U.S. and wanted to start a camp but was tentative because they were only going to be in country for another year. Mike shared with Dave about Swamp Corps and its three-year training model; they called Jeff to find out more and subsequently extended an invitation. Jeff wasn't sure the interest, but after sending out some exploratory inquiries had over 100 people interested in going to South Africa. The first Swamp Corps team to South Africa was comprised of 63 people. A year later Dave & Beth returned to the United States and the training continued in South Africa under the direction of Rodwell & Osylia Mugochi.

In September of 2011, a dad brought his daughter to a Daddy Daughter retreat at Swamp Camp U.S.A. and noticed a map on the wall showing the locations of the new Swamp Camps in Jamaica, Barbados, and South Africa. He began to tell Jeff about the mission society of which served as president and the churches it supported in various locations in Brazil. His children had come to camp for years. Knowing the impact it had made on his children, he asked if we could go to Brazil in February of 2012. Jeff said it couldn't happen that fast and so they decided to get a group of people together to meet at a 2012 Summit Conference in San Antonio, Texas to discuss when a camp could start. The group met and decided to send two people to the camp in Jamaica in July of 2012 to observe; they were Denise Araujo and Samuel Santos. After their return home, Swamp Corps received an official invite for the first camp to be held in July 2013 in Belo Horizonte, where Denise and her husband, Marco, lead the church, and with Samuel and his wife Shirley, to be camp directors.

Keith & Lisa Goodwin adopted two children from India who had been coming to camp for years. Once they heard about Swamp Corps, they called their friend Dr. Ashok who lived in Chennai, India, and was the leader of Hope Worldwide India to let him know about how it has impacted their kids. He was able to share the idea with several church leaders primarily with Abraham Rajkumar who led the youth ministry. After a Skype call it was decided they would meet at the 2012 Summit Conference in San Antonio, Texas. However, neither of them got the other's cell number and so while on the flight to Texas Jeff was telling his wife he didn't know how to get in touch with Dr. Ashok and wondered among 18,000 how he would find him. Jeff resolved to let that play out and they would figure something out once they arrived.

Upon arrival to his hotel, Jeff was waiting at the elevator when he heard someone call his name; turning around, lo and behold, Dr. Ashok was standing in front of him. Turns out he and Jeff were on the same floor of the hotel in rooms next to each other. Can you say Spirit! They set up a meet for the following morning at which time Jeff was introduced to Abraham and from there they began planning for the first year of training to begin in 2014. In the meantime, Abraham and his wife, Julie, would make a trip to South Africa late December of 2012 to see the Swamp Camp culture and experience a week of camp and training.

Jeff and Jennifer spent some time in the ministry with a couple, Will and Tosha Archer, in the early 2000s. Will & Tosha some years later moved to Bahamas and shared about Swamp Camp with their church inspiring a young couple, Leonel & Josiane Floreus, to want to lead a camp. They called us and we began the training process. It is amazing how God can take prior relationships and through continual connection make something happen later. Viola! Swamp Bahamas.

Remember Rodwell and Osylia in South Africa? They are from Zimbabwe although living in South Africa, and have quite a few relationships with leaders and members of a church in Harare to which they reached out and told them all about Swamp Camp. They also inspired many of the now-trained counselors from South Africa to travel to Zimbabwe to establish a camp. A group from the U.S. met them to help. This is the first camp to be trained by a camp that was trained by the U.S. camp.

This story starts in Charleston, South Carolina where a group of disciples of Jesus would travel down to Nicaragua to help with a church in Managua and a farm in Malpaisillo. They would share about the camp and the impact it has had on their children back in the States. This led to a conversation with Rudy and Mirna Mandino and Rolando and Selene Obando to start a camp. Once again people traveling to serve and carrying the message of the impact of Swamp Camp with them. Since then Roland & Selene have become trainers themselves helping with several Spanish speaking areas as you will see as the Swamp Corps story unfolds.

Once when Jeff was in India, he was introduced to a couple who spent time in a middle east country near India overseeing and helping several churches in a country where Christianity is illegal. The introduction happened because Abraham Rajkumar, the Indian Camp Director, always had a dream for the children of this nation thought he was not allowed to go. This couple initiated a Skype (remember Skype?) call with a couple who led a church in a major city of this country for us to talk about the idea of establishing a Swamp Camp for all the children in the four associated churches across the country. Jeff couldn't believe he was on a call with someone in this country considering the possibility of going there. So many questions. And yet the Spirit opened up doors and camp was started with a team of 11 people all over 21 who braved the trip into a predominantly Islamic country to start a camp.

The team had to come in at night and travel in vans with tinted windows and have armed escorts to church. The local team planned a safe venue in the beautiful hills of the country and a successful Year 1 Training took place; albeit everyone on the team got very sick. Despite this amazing bonds were made and watching the campers be in a place where they could openly talk about God without fear of persecution or consequences was both exhilarating and humbling. The Christians' faith is so palpable and inspiring.

Year 2 brought us to a different location and yet again a new location in Year 3. Interestingly, the location in Year 3 was canceled about month before the team arrived and camp was to be held so we were able to find a new place -- a catholic campus surrounded by barbed wire, dogs at night and armed guards. The first night we were there we went up on the roof top of one of the buildings to see if it would work for our Starlight Devotional location; we used flashlights to see. After just a few minutes the manager of the complex came running to us and said don't use the flashlights, that is how we signal other "Christian" groups in the area to come to our rescue. Never thought of that. Amazing the different things to consider when in a country that persecutes Christians.

We are so grateful for the amazing parents and servants who continue to make this camp a fruitful and so important event for the kids each year. So very valuable in their faith journey as you can imagine.

In June 2012, Keith and Lisa Goodwin moved from Athens, Georgia, USA to Phnom Penh, Cambodia. As advisors for HOPE worldwide, they quickly settled into their responsibilities at the Sihanouk Hospital Centre of HOPE and HOPE’s Embassy Clinic. They were warmly welcomed into the fellowship at the Phnom Penh Church of Christ and taken by the love, the needs, and the spiritual focus of this body of believers. Strong bonds formed and they fell in love with the Cambodian people.
 
In modern history, the Cambodians have suffered greatly due to multiple civil wars, collateral damage from the Vietnam War, genocide at the hands of the Khmer Rouge communists, and sustained power struggles and corruption within its own government.  Most Cambodians are Buddhists, live very difficult lives and know little, if anything, about the Gospel of Jesus.  In 2012, the nation’s median age was 24.9 years!  Fifty percent (50%) of the population was very young and searching for delivery from what their world had to offer.  The Spirit worked powerfully to bring hope to this desperate segment of the population. Despite life's hardships, these were some of the most grateful people on the planet having been touched by God's love through the work of the church and HOPEww.
 
The Goodwin’s returned to the US in the summer of 2014.  The following spring they and their daughter Elizabeth (adopted from India) joined Year 2 of Swamp Corps India. After an amazing two weeks of camp, the Spirit lead Lisa to initiate talks between Jeff Rorabaugh and the Cambodian church leadership.  Why couldn’t Swamp Corps go to Cambodia?  There were several huge challenges: funding and Cambodian history.  Cambodia is one of the poorest nations in Asia and by default the Phnom Penh church had very limited resources.  From 1975-1979 the Khmer Rouge had murdered 25% (2 million) of the nation’s people: mostly the educated and economically skilled. These deaths took place in “camps.”  Cambodian moms and dads, living daily with the loss of loved ones at the hands of the Khmer Rouge, would react negatively to the thought of their children attending a “camp.”
The initial outlook was concerning, perhaps bleak. Disciples, especially in India, Cambodia and the US, prayed for the Spirit to intervene and word of the need quickly spread. A plan was put together and fundraisers of many types were held in the US.  The goal was to raise enough money to send 8-10 young Cambodians and four church leaders to India for Swamp Corps training in May of 2017.  On the heels of this, the Phnom Penh church leadership (Sovann and Pheap Seng) and the Goodwins met in Cambodia searching for potential camp locations. The options were few: camps simply did not exist in Cambodia.
 
Moved by the Spirit, disciples across the Southern U.S. opened their wallets and contributed to Swamp Corps Cambodia.  As the funding picture improved, there remained the challenge of how to help Cambodian parents to give consent for their children to attend a “camp.”  Sovann and Pheap and future Swamp Camp Directors, Dara and Mum Han, came up with a creative solution to the stigma of the word “camp.”  They decided to take the entire church camping!  God moved the heart of a family in N.W. Cambodia who owned a large parcel of land; they were willing to let the church “camp” there over a long weekend.  3 busloads of disciples, young and old, loaded up and spent a Friday and Saturday night near the border with Thailand.  They slept in the open, ate hard-boiled eggs and foraged for food: killing, cleaning and cooking chickens donated by the landowners., but they first had to catch the birds. The experience united the church in Phnom Penh and soon, they too, were coming up with creative ways to raise funds to pay for Swamp Corps Cambodia!
 
God blessed the faithfulness of these disciples; Swamp Corps Cambodia recently completed its 7th year.  In Year 1, leaders from the Vietnam and Taiwan churches sent teams to Cambodia to observe and learn.  Taiwan now hosts its own Swamp Camp thanks to the Spirit, the faith of the Cambodian disciples and Swamp Corps.

Story to come.

Story to come.

Story to come.

In 2016, we were invited by Rolando Obando to participate in a camp in Nicaragua, and we drove 10 hours to Managua,Nicaragua. I, Omar Zamboni, with eight young people and experienced our first time in a Swamp Camp. We liked everything we lived; it was incredible. The friendships we made still endure to this day, and the culture of the camp we liked very much. This is how a group of Hondurans continued traveling in the following years 2017 and 2018 and in October 2018 the evangelists of the churches of Honduras, Omar Zamboni, Hector Cruz and Wilfredo Coello  we had a meeting with Jeff Rorabaugh in Panama City to confirm that we wanted the Swamp Camp to come to Honduras, and in July 2019 we had our first Swamp Camp in Honduras; it was a new but incredible experience, God has allowed us to adopt the Swamp Camp culture. and we have held incredible camps in 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2025. God has been good and we have learned a lot and will continue to learn.

We have seen counselors become leaders, and campers become Christians. We thank God and praise his name for the work of the Spirit to make this happen.

In 2018, Kevin and Vincent from Taipei Church were invited by Sovann, the leader of Cambodia Church, to observe Swamp Camp for the first time. Deeply moved, they immediately shared with Jeff their hope for children from the Greater China region to experience the same inspiration.

In 2019, the first camp in Taiwan attracted over 200 participants from China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and the United States. Since then, Swamp Camp has become the most anticipated annual event for the Taiwanese church’s next generation—a powerful testimony to the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

In 2022, after a two-year hiatus due to COVID, recruiting counselors posed significant challenges. Remarkably, the number of counselors matched their prayers exactly. With Taiwan's strict border policies hindering foreign participants, the Taiwanese church held the camp by faith. Just before pre-camp training, camp director Ryan tested positive for COVID and had to lead remotely. Despite these challenges, no one contracted the virus during the camp, and many children encountered God’s greatness, beginning their journey of seeking Him.

In 2023, the American team returned, and through prayer, a new venue was miraculously secured at an incredible price. This year, the camp expanded to seven days and six nights, featuring more counselors and campers than ever. Parents were invited to a weekend parent camp, where Jeff shared the camp’s vision and culture. Many parents were moved by how the camp transformed children, cultivated future church leaders, and united churches across Taiwan. Recognizing the significance of this milestone, they designated 2023 as Year One for learning and passing on the experience.

In 2024, participation grew even further, with counselors joining from the United States, India, the Philippines, Indonesia, and observers from Malaysia. Those in need received financial support from generous Taiwanese parents, reflecting how the camp culture had touched both children and their families. However, the camp faced unexpected challenges: a severe typhoon and a gastrointestinal virus outbreak. Isolation measures were implemented midway, with volunteers braving harsh conditions to deliver meals and care for patients. Despite these hardships, the counselors creatively ensured the camp remained engaging. When isolation ended, the reunited campers and counselors cherished their final days together, gaining deep insights. This year’s parent camp evolved into a "Next Generation Builders Workshop," welcoming not only parents but also teen ministry leaders to join Jeff’s courses. They recognized that Swamp Camp is more than just a camp—it is a divine blessing to nurture healthy churches and future leaders.

Story to come.

Story to come.

“And afterward,
I will pour out my Spirit on all people.
Your sons and daughters will prophesy,
your old men will dream dreams,
your young men will see visions.
Even on my servants, both men and women,
I will pour out my Spirit in those days.
I will show wonders in the heavens
and on the earth,
blood and fire and billows of smoke.
The sun will be turned to darkness
and the moon to blood
before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord.
And everyone who calls
on the name of the Lord will be saved;
for on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem
there will be deliverance,
as the Lord has said,
even among the survivors
whom the Lord calls.”
- Joel 2:28-32

Paraguay is a small country located in  South America. My wife, Valeria, and I lived in South Africa for many years. It is where I made Jesus lord of my life; And it is in South Africa where we were presented  with Swamp Camp and where my son got to experience Swamp Camp during the early years of his life.  Some time later my family and I moved to Mozambique; it is there that thru Rodwell [South Africa Swamp Camp Director] we got connected with Jeff and had Swamp Samp in Mozambique. For family reasons we left Mozambique and moved to Paraguay.

The church which hired us in Asuncion City had at one time over 200 disciples, but when we arrived the church had only 30 disciples and no youth attending church; the only person of the younger generation and youth disciple was my first born son .

After many months of prayers and fasting  I remember talking to my family how can we restore the church and my kids answered “Dad through Swamp Camp. Let’s bring Swamp Camp and invite the disciples kids to Swamp Camp. When the uncles at church see their kids coming back from Swamp different and starting to go to church their going to come to church too.” 

We got in contact with Jeff and It WAS Amazing to see over 150 people at camp in Paraguay and a large contingency from different countries coming to start the camp and to see many of then making Jesus lord and thru Swamp many parents getting reengaged and getting strong spiritually and today two of my kids are disciples of Jesus. My first born right now is serving as a missionary in Chile and he is a counsellor at Swamp Camp.  My second son is a disciple as well and a counsellor and just moved to serve as a missionary in Brazil and my last born is studying the bible –all this because God used and is still using Swamp Camp to inspire the church.

And now Swamp is going to Bolivia and many churches are asking if we can have Swamp in their countries as well. I have no doubt that the Spirit is using Swamp Camp not only to restore our church in Paraguay but is raising a generation to go to different places to help people see God and know Jesus’ love.

- Araujo Francisco

Story to come.

Story to come.

Story to come.