October 2, 2026
ROME, Ga. — When Georgiana Ungur first came to SURGE in 2015 as a child camper, she was learning how music could be used to serve the Lord. This summer, she returned to the Georgia Baptist Mission Board’s music camp at Shorter University as a staff member, seated at the piano and helping lead the youth choir.
Ungur’s journey from camper to staff member has been more than a progression through a summer program. It is a picture of what SURGE is designed to do: help children and students develop their musical gifts, grow in their faith, and learn how those gifts can be used in ministry through the local church.
“I found my people,” Ungur said, remembering her first experience at camp.
This year marks the 71st year of music camp in Georgia. The camp serves students from third grade through their first year of college, providing age-appropriate tracks designed to nurture musical ability, strengthen worship leadership, and build community among children and students.
SURGE Kids, for third- through fifth-graders, is designed to nurture the early development of children with musical ability while helping them develop a heart for God and a desire to use their gifts in ministry. The older student camp, for sixth-grade through first-year college students, helps students sharpen recognized musical gifts and move toward future worship leadership in the church.
Ungur first came to camp after participating in the Sacred Keyboard Festival, which offered scholarships for camp. Her parents saw that SURGE combined two things she already loved: music and Baptist church life.
“My parents saw that it was a Baptist camp and it was music,” she said. “And they said, ‘This is something that she loves, both of those things she loves. So why not send her?’”
She came as a child camper with a friend and quickly felt at home. She returned for multiple years of children’s camp before moving into the youth camp.
Ungur tried several instruments along the way, but piano eventually became her favorite. The friendships she developed also became part of what kept drawing her back.
One year that stands out to her is 2019, the final year the camp was held at Toccoa before moving to Shorter. Ungur roomed with three other girls that year, including Elisebeth Terry. The two became close friends and later roomed together for several years after SURGE moved to Rome.
This year, Ungur and Terry are both among the youngest members of the camp staff.
As she neared the end of her years as a camper, Ungur said she knew she was not ready to leave SURGE behind.
“I was getting close to graduating camp, and I thought, ‘There is no way that I’m not coming back,’” she said. “I really, really wanted to come back.”
She laughed as she described how strongly she wanted to return.
“I think it’s my fault that we have the internship position because I begged so hard,” Ungur said. “They said, ‘We’ve got to make this internship position so that more former campers can come back.’”
The internship allowed her to return in a new role, helping with the behind-the-scenes needs of camp. Moving from camper to intern required some adjustment, she said, because she was no longer simply participating in classes. She was helping set up, assisting where needed, and learning what it took to make camp happen.
Now, as a staff member, her role looks different again.
“I get to sit in classes and pour into kids and be present more than trying to run around and do all kinds of errands,” she said. “I love that part of it this year. I’m really, really enjoying it.”
Unger grew up being poured into by adults at camp, many of whom remain important relationships in her life. Now she says that one of the most meaningful parts of serving is getting to build those same kinds of relationships with younger campers.
This year, she is serving as a sponsor to nine girls.
“I’m an adult now, so I get to relate to them in a different way, but I have my own campers,” Ungur said. “I get to have that same relationship with them, and it’s a very, very cool feeling to have younger girls come to you for help or ask you questions or tell you something they’re excited about.”
She recalled one camper who texted her in all capital letters last year to say she had rededicated her life to Christ at camp.
“I was so happy for her,” Ungur said. “Being able to do that for others, like other people did for me, is a very special thing. It’s very hard to put into words.”
Ungur said SURGE has always stood out because it is not simply about learning music theory, developing performance skills, or improving technique. Those things matter, she said, but the camp’s spiritual focus is what shaped her most deeply.
“I grew up in the church,” she said. “My parents are both believers. I was in the church every Sunday. I was on stage from a very young age, so I loved music for a long time.”
More recently, she said, she has grown in her understanding of worship and what music means in her own walk with Christ.
“For me, singing, if it doesn’t glorify God in any way, if the message is not centered around Christ, it doesn’t uplift me at all,” Ungur said.
At SURGE, she said, sermons and leaders consistently pointed students to Christ.
“They put Christ in the forefront of everything,” she said. “They were more focused on your heart and your walk with Christ.”
Rhon Carter, worship and music catalyst for the GBMB, first got to know Ungur through the camp, where she and her younger sister stood out as gifted musicians. He said Ungur’s story reflects the larger vision behind SURGE.
“What we’re trying to create is a vision where churches train students year after year after year, and they get to a point where they become the leaders who are now training or helping other people,” Carter said. “I call that a discipleship model. It’s just using music.”
Carter said Ungur’s development did not happen through one week of camp each year alone. Her parents invested in her musical and spiritual growth, and SURGE helped encourage what was already being nurtured at home and in church.
“We didn’t train her exclusively once a year,” Carter said. “Her parents also bought into the idea that they needed to disciple their daughter musically and spiritually and gave her the lessons she needed. Then we would fan that excitement, that flame, through SURGE, ReelFest, and all those things that we do.”
For Ungur, the adults who invested in her were one of the biggest reasons she kept returning. As a child, she said, she was quiet. But camp leaders saw both the person she was and the musician she was becoming.
“They pushed right past that,” she said. “They were the ones that really, really motivated me to keep working on learning piano.”
That encouragement helped prepare her for her current role. Last year, she sat beside Dniel Ng, the high school accompanist, during the week and watched closely as he showed her what he was doing and how to become a better accompanist.
“That was the encouragement I needed to come back and fill in this position,” Ungur said, “and not just come to camp, but do something that I really love to do.”
Ungur said she would encourage students who love Jesus and music to come to SURGE, even if they are unsure or do not know anyone else attending.
“If you love Jesus and you love music, this is the place to be,” she said. “This is the week that I wouldn’t trade anything for. It’s the highlight of my year, this one week.”
She said students who arrive without friends usually find community quickly.
“You will find somebody within the first day or two,” she said. “And if you don’t, you will end up talking to somebody and then meet them again next year and the year after that and build all these amazing friendships.”
For former campers, Ungur said returning as staff offers the opportunity to give younger students what they once received.
“If you loved camp as a kid, now you finally have the opportunity to show other kids how much you love it and be there to experience it with them,” she said, “and you get to see a different generation come to love camp as much as you did when you were there.”
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