A local couple with a strong background in golf started up a Christian athletic day camp a few years ago, and for its third year, the unique ministry has found a new home in Waterloo.

Teryn and Mitchell Gregson are the founders of Driving Disciples Golf Camp, a summer opportunity for youth to both deepen their faith and learn golfing fundamentals.

As they described, both of them were born and raised in Waterloo, graduating from Waterloo High School in the mid-2000s.

Both of them also played on the WHS golf teams, with Mitchell later being inducted into the WHS Athletic Hall of Fame both among his team and as an individual.

While Teryn pursued a career in broadcast journalism and worked for a time as a Professional Golfers’ Association of America broadcaster, Mitchell continued his athletic career beyond high school, golfing at Kansas State University and winning two collegiate events.

He further moved to play professionally in various mini tours. He qualified for a number of Korn Ferry Tour events – he compared this to Triple-A minor league baseball.

Mitchell added he won the 2012 St. Louis Metropolitan Open Championship – perhaps his biggest professional win – and also competed two seasons on PGA Tour Latinoamerica.

While Teryn has most recently served as a stay-at-home mother with their three children on top of writing an upcoming book, Mitchell has been working in the community as a golf instructor.

“I’ve been teaching since 2021,” Mitchell said. “I teach a variety of age groups, kids all the way up to adults, beginners to advanced players. Currently I’m the director of instruction at Waterloo Country Club, and I give lessons out there to people that are interested in improving their games.”

Back in 2021, while the Gregsons were living in Jacksonville, Fla., they began brainstorming an idea for the ministry that would become Driving Disciples.

“We both have that strong golf background,” Mitchell said. “We were becoming a little bit stronger in our faith as we got married and started having kids, and we wanted to pour back into the community and into the word. We thought launching a Bible study ministry would be something really cool to do in the golf space.”

Their first camp took place in Jacksonville in 2022. Another camp was hosted in Florida last year as well, though 2023 also saw the camp make a St. Louis debut.

With the birth of their latest child earlier this year, the Gregsons opted to take things somewhat easier and keep the camp especially close to home. This year’s sole camp will be hosted at Concord Presbyterian Church in Waterloo.

The couple spoke quite positively about being able to bring the camp so close to home, especially given all the support and donations local residents have offered them in the past.

“So many people in this community have donated,” Teryn said. “They’ve supported this ministry and supported this cause, and they’ve done so since the beginning. For all the people that have been our Waterloo donors, it’s really neat that we’re now able to bring this camp to Waterloo.”

Providing something of an overview of the camp, the Gregsons emphasized how much they try to integrate both faith and golf into each day.

Teryn described how they start the day with an opening prayer and any prayer requests.

Participating kids break into smaller groups as part of each day, cycling through three stations: a full-game driving station, a short-game station for chipping or putting and a Bible study and snack station.

Each day also has a particular theme, with participants learning about Genesis while being taught the beginning of their golf swing or hearing about the 10 Commandments as they also learn the basic rules of golf.

“It’s a fun week for the kids, and it’s a fun week for us to teach them a little bit more about the Gospel and a little bit more about golf as well,” Mitchell said.

Camp-goers also learn other lessons from both golf and faith that are meant to be applied to both the sport and their everyday life.

Teryn spoke about up-and-downs in golf which refer to chipping the ball onto the green and following up with a putt. This up-and-down is then tied to the “up and down journey” of Paul the Apostle as well as the many up-and-down experiences of being a Christian today.

Mitchell spoke generally about how lessons from golf can be applied to everyday life, focusing on how important an individual’s reactions to good and bad situations can be in both cases.

“A lot of sports are like this but golf especially, where you have some success and you have failure, and it’s how you react to failure and success and your attitude that you bring to the golf course that really affects outcomes,” Mitchell said. “I think life is a lot like that.”

Per the Gregsons, feedback on their camp has been very strong the past two years.

“Most parents have really been appreciative of the fact that we are interweaving Christianity into a sport for their child, that they get that Biblical world view at a sport camp,” Teryn said.

Though they’re still accepting sign-ups, each of the previous camps managed to fill up with interested kids.

Looking to the future, they expressed an interest in once again having another camp in Jacksonville given their ties in the area.

They also hope to generally have more involvement from parents. Teryn spoke about how she strives to send out updates at the end of each camp day, adding they’ve considered other camp models or activities such as parents gathering for dinner with a Christian athlete.

“Our long-term goal is to involve the family more into the ministry,” Teryn said. “Right now, the parents come and they drop their kids off… I want the parents to be as involved as possible.”

The upcoming camp takes place Aug. 5-8 from 8:30 a.m. to noon for children in grades 4-9.

For more information or to register for Driving Disciples, visit drivingdisciples.org.

Scholarships for kids interested in participating are also available, and inquiries can be sent to info@drivingdisciples.org.