Putting Lasting Smiles On The Faces of Hundreds of Teens

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NASSAU, BAHAMAS – It’s not your average summer camp, but a retreat for teenagers, the Ablaze Summer Retreat at Club Crush at the Atlantis Resort is addressing issues of the whole man.

Retreat Coordinator Mericha Walker tells us the retreat is addressing financial literacy, budgeting, and conversations around what it means to be male and female from the Christian perspective.

However she says the number one goal is to pour joy into the youngsters.

A lot of teens in 2025 are walking around depressed, walking around anxious, walking around with panic attacks, with so many reasons in their minds not to be happy. So our number one goal is to put a smile on their face that lasts.

The summer retreat powered by Life Worship Center Church provides a safe space for the teens to be authentic and build lasting relationships.

Walker says teens go without their phones while at camp from 8 am to 8 pm when the retreat ends, and she says the numbers have grown, going from 110 in their first year to about 166 teens four years later.

“Kids keep telling their peers…I want to be there so you should want to be there too and I think it’s the fact that we’ve kinda taken things back to old school.”

Arriving to the retreat Wednesday morning, we met many excited teens moving around the facility.

Some of them shared their experience so far:

Raven Ross – Retreat Attendee

“My experience at Ablaze has been nothing short but life-changing and that may sound like a cliché but I mean it,” she said.

Anaya Fines – Retreat Attendee

“I met new people, I had new experiences and I wouldn’t say that I experienced God, but I got to know him in that time,” Fines said.

Midway through the seven-day camp, and camp attendees and organizers say it’s not too late to join.

Amari Perpall – Retreat Attendee

“It strengthens me in ways I didn’t know it could, and I just feel like anybody who could experience this should at least give it a try,” she said.