As the Lord continues to lead our ministry in Illinois we have seen our Sportsmen grow to college age individuals. Many of the young men that I work with, like most of their peers, don’t have a plan for after high school and often ask for guidance. One of the paths that some of these men want to take is college, but most of them along with their families do not know how to navigate their college future. Because of this reality God has put a burden on my heart to build relationships with colleges, universities, trade schools, and the military. 

One such relationship we are continuing to develop is with Lincoln Christian University in Lincoln, Illinois. Our goal is to develop a partnership where CTO Sportsmen can have an opportunity to build relationships with current college students to see if LCU would be a good fit for their future.

We were able to start this partnership through the Lincoln Christian University Camp Teams. These are specialized teams, developed at the college, assigned to camps throughout the summer. The closest team that matched us was the sports team. We were assigned the college athletes!

In order to get these guys ready for the grueling schedule of Summer Camp we took them out for a three days of intense training. The team came to us with a great attitude, and a willingness to learn how to do the “outdoorsy stuff” of which they weren’t familiar. Activities like learning how to run the rifle & pistol range, throw tomahawks, run the archery range, and how to set up and tear down the mobile 5 stand unit.

We put them through the paces and even shared with them the best kept CTO secret…shh (looks around to make sure no one is listening) whispers…how to cook CTO Eggs. Overall it was a great experience for both the LCU camp team and the CTO Staff. We look forward to seeing where this partnership takes us in the future.

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