Summer Camp: Bringing Joy and Laughter to North Philly for 10 Years

Not long before Pastor Taehoo Lee’s month-long annual summer camp began in July in North Philadelphia, two people were shot in a nearby neighborhood.

Then, just after midnight on Tuesday morning, two shooters killed a 14-year-old boy and wounded three other boys in a neighborhood several blocks away.

Fueled by gang violence, North Philadelphia is probably the most dangerous neighborhood in the city, say police. But through it all, since 2003, Taehoo Lee has lived in one of the row houses on Uber Street and ministered to the local people -- drug dealers, homeless squatters, families, business people, and especially the children.

The children are the ones he sees coming and going and helps to mentor during the school year, and they often simply hang around with little to do in the summer. They are the ones for whom he began the camp, now celebrating its 10th anniversary.

“Kids around here are poor, and there isn’t much for them to do during the summer,” said Lee, an ordained pastor at nearby Spirit and Truth Fellowship CRC.

“We had maybe 40 kids that first summer, but this year there are about 120 -- and now they are coming from six or seven blocks away.”

This year, more so than in other years, the mothers and the grandmothers in the area have supported the effort and have spread word about the summer camp. Many have also shown up to help out.

“One of them just asked me how I got this going because she wants to start a camp on her block,” said Lee.

Begun in 2006, the month-long camp is celebrating its 10th anniversary this summer because Lee had to return to Korea for two years as part of the process of becoming a U.S. citizen, which was finalized in 2017.

Especially gratifying for Lee this year is to have two young men, Brian and Messiah, and one young woman, Ayasha, working as volunteers. They attended the camp regularly while they were growing up.

“We have many other volunteers, but these three are special. The kids look up to them because they are role models,” said Lee.

Grant Hofman, associate pastor of youth at Spirit and Truth and also a camp volunteer, added, “Through them, our kids get to see young leaders who share their same skin color, grew up down the block from them, and have gone through the same joys and struggles.

“This is tremendously exciting because these three are ministering to their peers and serving as an example of hope to them in a way that those of us who are not native to North Philly will never fully be able to.”

Only recently did Lee  incorporate his neighborhood ministry into a Christian Reformed church plant. which is called North Philly Community Church. His goal is to start raising funds to rehabilitate an empty building at the end of Uber Street and turn it into a community center and as a place for worship.

“The main reason I’m doing this now is that it makes more sense to proceed with the building project as a church. And in a way, I already have a church in my neighborhood,” he said.

“It will take some time to meet regularly but what is already going on in my community is a part of the life of a local church.”

As this new phases of the ministry opens, he said. “I am excited to see the way God builds his church. I have been a parish pastor for my neighbors over a decade. Pretty much everyone in my neighborhood knows me as ‘Rev. Lee.’”

City workers block off either end of Uber Street every morning for the camp. Volunteers arrive about 9 a.m. to clean the street, and kids start showing up about 9:30. Camp opens at 10 with the singing of a few praise songs, after which Lee offers a short message based on this year’s theme, “Our Children Matter,” based on the story of the exodus.

“We’re talking about how the book (in which the Israelites were slaves in Egypt for many years before God led them out) applies to racism and African Americans, in the past and today,” said Lee.

After he speaks, the children -- most of whom are African American and some of whom are Hispanic -- have a chance to talk about the message, and from there the day unfolds with crafts and games, lunch, and more activities. Then the day wraps up with a short time of praise.

On Wednesdays, they spend the day swimming in a pool outside the city. And on Fridays they gather for a picnic and activities in a park, also outside of town.

“Many of these kids otherwise never leave the city. We want to show them some places where they can see and experience nature” and some other surroundings, Lee said.

Hofman has now volunteered for three years with the camp -- the first year as an intern while at Calvin Theological Seminary. It was one of the main factors that led him to move to North Philadelphia upon graduating.

“What I love about Pastor Taehoo is that he sees his entire life’s call being to love God and love his neighbor. He sincerely loves his neighbors, and most especially their children,” said Hoffman.

Every time he has heard Taehoo pray before a meal, Taehoo has asked that God provide daily bread for his neighbors. But he isn’t just praying; Taehoo put his convictions into action by moving into this neighborhood nearly 15 years ago, said Hofman.

“Knowing the tense history between Black individuals and Asians in the hood, his moving into the neighborhood as a Korean and truly seeking the well-being of North Philly has a prophetic quality to it,” said Hofman.

“What I have found so compelling about Uber Street Camp is that I have truly felt I have witnessed the kingdom in North Philly, as it is in heaven, in a way I had not seen before.”

Being there with Taehoo often makes him think of Zechariah’s vision, says Hofman, in which the prophet says that the land of Judah was “so desolate that no one traveled through it” (Zech. 7:14) and “no one could go about their business safely because of their enemies” (8:10).

But through Zechariah the Lord said, “Once again men and women of ripe old age will sit in the streets of Jerusalem, each of them with cane in hand because of their age. The city streets will be filled with boys and girls playing there” (8:4-5).

This might as well be a literal portrait of the street camp, said Hofman. Though North Philly has gained a reputation as one of the “bad” parts of town, there is a different picture you see during July: boys and girls playing safely in the closed-off streets that would otherwise be covered in shattered glass and burdened by violence. Grandparents sit on their stoops, canes in hand, watching the children and enjoying the chorus of their joy and laughter.

Hofman said he also thinks of the final vision of the wedding feast of the Lamb, of the great multitude from every nation, tribe, people, and language joined together in Revelation 7.

“The camp has served as a foretaste of this banquet. For our final event, we have a block party in which our neighbors, mostly Black with some Latino and other ethnic populations, and Korean congregations from around the area bring in their favorite dishes to dine together on a feast that feeds the entire neighborhood,” he said.

“It is the only place where I have eaten soul food with chopsticks. And I imagine Jesus’ table won’t be too distant from that experience.”