Peyton didn't talk about "it" at school. She barely broached the topic at home. Her dad was incarcerated. Even if she wanted to talk about it, she wasn't sure how.

"It was a really touchy subject," admits Peyton, who grew up in Oregon and now attends college in Eugene. "I went to a [high] school where everyone seemed to have two parents and was really well-off. I never really talked about my home life. I would never talk about my dad."

WHEN INCARCERATION BREAKS UP A FAMILY

Today, 2.7 million children in the U.S. have a mom or dad behind bars. Parental incarceration is a difficult and confusing journey, and like many of her peers, Peyton struggled to navigate feelings of abandonment and shame.

Peyton was in first grade when her father went to prison. Incarceration all but severed the relationship between father and daughter, who had to rely on two-hour visits that felt too long, yet not long enough—the standard prison protocol, the awkward silences. Longing for hugs. Hesitating to give one.

"I remember weeks when I would go see [my dad] but wouldn't say anything …," Peyton says. "Some days it hurt too much, and I just couldn't do it."

On the last night of camp, Peyton heard a timely lesson from the chapel speaker.

"The message was to let go of the lies you have told yourself," Peyton recalls. "My heart opened, my guard crumbled down, and I was just completely open to Jesus' healing."

After camp, Peyton was bursting with stories to tell. She called her dad the night she got home. Beyond the thrill of pool parties, go carts, and horseback riding, she was most passionate about the new Bible she received. Already she had opened it to Genesis 1 and marveled at the creation story. The same God who spoke the world into existence had changed her forever.

"I owe a lot of that to camp," says Peyton. "It really put me back on the path that I was supposed to be on."