United States (MNN) — Flash floods struck central Texas in the early morning of July 4, devastating many summer campgrounds and homes in the Guadalupe River lowlands. According to reports, the water level rose 26 feet in less than an hour.
As of Tuesday, at least 109 people are known to have lost their lives, too many of them children. According to the state government, 161 people remain missing.
The Christian, all-girls Camp Mystic was among those hardest hit, with 27 campers and counselors lost and six remaining missing as of Tuesday.
“Can you imagine being a camp director, even along the river here, being used to hearing about flash flooding, being used to hearing about raining and so forth, and knowing that you’re entrusted with [all these] campers?” says Greg Yoder with Keys for Kids Ministries. “Our hearts go out to them.”
Keys for Kids works with camps across Texas and the United States as part of the Christian Camp and Conference Association. They provide devotional materials that camp directors can use with their own branding to help kids grow in their faith during and after camp.
Quarterly devotionals for teens and kids (Photo courtesy of Keys for Kids Ministries)
“Every quarter for the rest of the year, these campers will receive Keys for Kids [devotionals] in the mail with a custom cover from their camp,” Yoder explains.
The Keys for Kids team has interacted with people from Texas camps at different conferences they attend. “So it hits us right where we live,” Yoder says.
Ways to pray
Pray for first responders. “If you go through some of these flooding situations and you’re going up against debris, you’re going to get injured,” says Yoder.
Pray for kids who survived the disaster and are probably asking, “Why did God spare me and not my friend?”
Pray for the families grieving over their losses.
Then, ask how you can help kids in your life process this tragedy.
“As adults, what is [our] responsibility as we look at this whole situation from the outside in, in helping the kids in our lives… understand that God is a good God even in this scenario, by pointing them to various portions of Scripture?” says Yoder.
“Isaiah 57 is the perfect one that I tend to go to because sometimes I don’t have answers, I don’t understand. Sometimes I wonder why. Knowing that God has it all figured out and that it’s His plan A and not plan B, that really is helpful for me.
“Talking it all through and really helping our families be engaged in a situation helps us to be more connected and [helps] them understand the gospel message, actually.”
Header photo: Response to the floods in Central Texas, July 2025 (By wckitchen – via Flickr and Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0)
