Earlier today, I posted a graphic with this logo on it. If you go to our website, wakonda.org, you’ll see it there as well. What is it? Let me explain.

Last week, I spoke with our Wisconsin Conference Executive Committee and rolled out a vision for the future of our Youth Department. This logo is part of that vision.

Camp Wakonda is a special place that, as we say all the time, is “set apart.” It’s a beloved location for Adventists in Wisconsin, and even outside of the state. But the word, Wakonda (a Lakota-Sioux word meaning “set apart”), doesn’t lose its meaning once a person leaves the camp. The truth is: in the same way that the camp has been set apart as a special place for ministry, we want people to know that God has set them apart for a special mission.

Deuteronomy 14:2 – “You have been set apart as holy to the LORD your God, and he has chosen you from all the nations of the earth to be his own special treasure.”

So, we are taking the idea of Wakonda and applying it as the very mission of the Youth Department. We want every young person in Wisconsin to know that God has set them apart for His good work, and that He has a plan for their life.

Thus, the new logo. Of course, the Youth Department, still has all of the same functions as before: overseeing club ministries, camp ministries, public campus ministries, and so on. But we want to lean into the idea of evangelism, because that’s what we’re all about: reaching young people through evangelism and empowering them to do evangelism. This is a big part of what it means to be “set apart”: to preach the good news, in and out of season.

So please pray for us as our department moves into the future. My personal hope is that we can mobilize the young people across the state of Wisconsin to be the ambassadors for Christ that our area so desperately needs.

If you would like more info regarding this initiative, please feel free to reach out via DM, or shoot me an email/text sometime. I’d love to chat about what this looks like, practically, over the next several years.

Special thanks to my graphic designer, Josh Inglish, for once again putting together a beautiful brand package to help facilitate this vision becoming reality. You’ll notice the gradient from darkness to light: it is my prayer that this initiative serves to bring people out of darkness and into the light of Christ.

I’ll leave you with this: 1 Peter 2:9 – “But you are not like that, for you are a chosen people. You are royal priests, a holy nation, God’s very own possession. As a result, you can show others the goodness of God, for he called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light.”

Zack Payne, Youth Director
Wakonda “Set Apart”