About us - Mission

BACCLC (1998 - 2007)

The objectives of BACCLC were written by Fr. Denis Kong, the founder of BACCLC, in 1998. It was not until 2003 that the objectives were fully published to public on the Internet. The mission and goals of BACCLC are to:

• RECOGNIZE and EMPOWER youth and adults as full members of the church
• PROMOTE and DEVELOP a spiritual environment for youth and young adults to reinforce and strengthen Christian values
• FOSTER active and personal religious experience through participation in small group activities
• BE WITNESSED in the group and proclaim The Good News, which is shared, experienced and applied to daily life

When BACCLC was first established, the targeted audience was Chinese Catholic young adults at the age of 16 and up, who speak and understand Cantonese fluently. All of the activities and talks during the camp were conducted in Cantonese. During the late 1990s, there was a vast number of immigrants and international students from Hong Kong and Macau residing in the Bay Area. These young adults had a tough time blending into the American culture and participating in local retreats. The objective of the camp was to provide a comfortable and nourishing environment for the Cantonese Catholics to enrich in their faith and living out a Chinese Christian life in the United States.

The profiles of the BACCLC participants gradually changed as the living camp became more well-known and advertised in the Bay Area. Started around 2001, there were Mandarin speaking and American born Chinese young adults who joined BACCLC even though the majority of the camp activities was conducted in Cantonese. In 2003, BACCLC was conducted both in English and Cantonese. In 2004, BACCLC fully turned into an English living camp, except for the small group sharing. Campers could still use their native languages to share their faith.

CACCLC (2008 - Present)

In 2007, after the 10th year of BACCLC, the organizing committee believed that there was a need to re-examine the goals and objectives. Having achieved a 10-year milestone, the committee thought that it was a good time to evaluate the past and shape the path of the living camp for the future. After several careful and thorough discussions amongst the organizing committees, it was concluded that the originally written goals are still very relevant to BACCLC. The only suggestion made was that it was essential to have a single mission statement that would encapsulate the goals of the BACCLC, soon changed to a state-wide living camp called California Chinese Catholic Living Camp (CACCLC). A lucent statement of purpose and mission is necessary for the general public to know and the participants to remember.

CACCLC's Mission:

California Chinese Catholic Living Camp (CACCLC) unifies Chinese Catholic young adults to learn about God and to live out God's Word, in full communion with God and His people.

Co-written by Eddy Kwong and Helen Lau
Last Revision: April 28, 2008