Hi everybody. So I do apologize for the delay in the creation and posting of this blog post…no, really. This was ridiculous. Don’t even ask me how it took me over a month to write and post this. I mean I know I can be a slight perfectionist but there’s really no excuse. Anyway so here I am to give one man’s account of working up at camp after 11 years away.
I left for camp on Saturday, August 1st although when I got up that morning I yet to either pack for camp or get my bedroom ready for work that was to happen while away. Our landlord had wanted to do work on my room and with me leaving for camp afforded the perfect time. More on the work that was done for a later post but regardless I still needed to move everything out of my room before I got on the road. It was weird as it felt like I was moving and I’m sure by the time I left I had a whole bunch of confused cats on my hands. Actually Christina said that even though she knew I was only going to be gone for a week that it still felt like I was moving out which was not making her happy. Anyway, once I made it up to camp and had settled in, we had a staff dinner (lasagna!!) prepared by my brother Seth (or Manuka). After dinner we somehow crammed a week’s worth of information in a mere few hours. It was a good refresher but I missed the “bonding time” you usually get from spending a week together. We had two distinct groups of former counselors and because of that nature it made it a little more difficult for folks to come together as your natural inclination is to talk to the people you already know which is a different animal than in past camp staffs I’ve experienced. Anyway, so after the staff training we had some good winding down and off to bed.
Sunday saw us meet up for breakfast and head on up to Mount Calvary Lutheran Church to attend church, which was one of the many things that didn’t change in terms of structure. After church was staff meeting, lunch and then we got ready to meet our campers in the early afternoon. One of the things I liked was that we all wore past camp staff shirts either based on when we had previously worked at camp or by way of whom we could get a shirt from. This made me feel like we in some all-star game where we’re wearing our regular jerseys and not the all-star ones. Is that analogy taken too far? *hmmmmmm* Anyway, I was one of four counselors (initially) who had Junior High Adventure and we had about 40 campers, which is a good number considering our total attendance of campers at camp was just over 100. We did have nervous time as we would have parents come in waves and we only had three of us there to coordinate things with our group. This is an issue because two of us need to stay at the lodge so we had one very tired Cody (Polaris) running capers and parents around. After check-in and orientation we had the traditional sing-alongs and burger dinner at the lodge. Camp pictures followed (Oh and anyone in the know, when will we be getting these, including the staff picture?) and we hiked up to the high school for Sunday Night Games. Now I would love to talk about the games but I had a camper with a stomach ache and didn’t quite make it all the way up. As for the first campfire of the week? It was familiar, yet different, but it still got to me the way campfire always does. Afterwards we headed off for bed, which started one of the trends for the week, which was how much work it is to get junior high school guys to get to sleep. I swear I wanted some kind of pacifier but in lieu of having one, I just tried my best and when my best wasn’t enough, then there’s always program staff help (thanks Honaw and Howakan).
Now heading into the week I liked that the schedule was pretty similar in structure to how things were when I was in my prime. It obviously works and I always liked how you get into a “camp rhythm” because of the schedule. I’m a pretty regimented guy so it fit my personality well. Anyway, the basic layout goes like this: breakfast, staff meeting/morning games (MAC time), morning activity, lunch, rest time, early afternoon activity, snack time, late afternoon activity, cabin time, dinner, Bible study, evening games/event, campfire, bedtime. I can set my watch to it and for that, I think it’s the best. If you’re a visual learner, then here was my schedule for the week:
On Monday our morning activity was the GIC course, which is where daft thing like “teamwork” are cultivated. We did, though, feel it necessary to run though another name game or two as faaaaaaaar too many of the campers (oh and maybe a few counselors) didn’t know each other’s names. So the first half of the “GIC course” wasn’t quite the norm but we did head out after feeling like we knew a little more about the group. The one activity we did do was one where the goal was to get the group to all balance on a wood rectangle (maybe 8’x10’ but I could be way off) that is set up a little “see saw-y” so coordination was important. After being frustrated with the going through a few times, Noelle (Oasis) told them that she’s seen over 40 do this before so it IS possible. We also got them to appoint a leader, as before it was almost 40 junior highers all talking to each other at once which resulted in mass confusion, and it helped them see how having someone coordinate a plan can help achieve a goal. So after a few attempts, they finally got things into balance and happiness abounded…which was great although I laughed when Oasis admitted she’s never seen over 40 people do this but wanted to give the group motivation. Good times! Here’s how the mass confusion looked like for a spell:
After lunch we made our way over to field/volleyball area for some good old water balloon volleyball. For the uninitiated, this game is just like volleyball…except for the sheets, water balloons and some rules differences. Other than that, it’s identical. Oh and here are a few pics.
I took the third option off for break and understand it was a rousing time at the pool. On my end, I took a crazy nap and then found myself utterly and completely drained. This then lead to me actually wondering if, at 34, I still had the physical strength to do this for a week. I was enjoying my time but suddenly I found myself sore, drained, and just not at the best place as I wanted to give my all and at that moment I was thiiiiiis close to seeing Susie (Vo’Evah, who was program director for the week) and saying, “I’m falling apart. What can we do?” Thankfully I was able to push through but it got interesting for a few minutes.
Wow…and I just realized that I can’t remember which All-Camp we did Monday night. I want to say it was Counselor Safari. Anyway, let’s pretend it was Counselor Safari…Anyway, this seemed to be a variation on a game that was banned (Counselor Hunt) back when I was a counselor in the ‘90’s but whatever, it was cool. Basically the counselors hide in the forest as some kind of “animal” (I was a mountain lion) and the campers, along with some counselor help, find and capture the “animals” and I somehow don’t think PETA would approve. I didn’t make the game up, btw. Other than that, the one thing I will about this was that I got the following shot. Yes, it’s a little “Endor-like” which suits me just fine.
Tuesday was highlighted by a trip to Lake Gregory but before I talk about that, I have a little back story to cover that must happen before I cover the rest of the week. On Sunday, right before we received our campers, Manuka gave us paperwork on one of the girls who happen to have Asperger Syndrome. We each read through her report but still didn’t know what to expect. However, after she arrived with her dad on Sunday, we didn’t see anything that might be of concern. We got through Monday and we noticed a couple things. First of all, she had made a friend who she was spending lots of time (a good thing) with and we also found out that she wanted people to call her Ian. Now I think the overall opinion was a “whatever she wants to be called is fine with us” and going into Tuesday I didn’t think much of it. So I got ready for the lake on Tuesday morning and didn’t even think about what shirt I was throwing (yes, this ties in) on but I decided to put on one of my
(post-punk English band for the uninitiated) shirts and then headed to breakfast. Shortly after getting into the dining hall, Ian walked right up to me and said, “You like Joy Division too?! What’s your favorite album?” Yes folks, it turns out one of her interests (as those with the syndrome will hyper focus on certain interests and the like) happened to be one of my favorite bands. Who knew?! Of course I than put it together. Ian…like Ian Curtis…the late lead singer of the band. Right. I did feel bad as when we all got on the bus Ian told her friend who wanted to sit with her, “I’ll sit with you on the way back. I want to talk about Joy Division.” And so it began…now before you get the wrong idea. I thought it was great, as she was able to draw a connection with one of her counselors, and I’m sure it really helped her feel like she fit in more as camp situations can be difficult at times. Once again, there’s God stepping in…I had just bought this particular shirt about a month earlier, the fact I wore it when I did (as the impact wouldn’t have been as great should I had thrown it on Thursday) was interesting timing to say the least, and that I was assigned this particular group all made for nice timing. Maybe I’m the crazy one, but whenever I see a confluence of events all pointing to the same thing, I usually don’t dismiss it as coincidence as I believe we’re all put into each other’s path at just the right time for reasons we might not understand at the present moment…but that’s for another post. Anyway, for the rest of the week I found myself in a variety of conversations while on options with Ian and it became a good thing for her week.
Okay so that’s how my Tuesday started at breakfast but as far as the lake day, it was a nice change of pace from “regular camp” stuff so I was in. Now, as opposed to “my generation” (HA!) we left for the lake in the late morning instead of right after breakfast. I like that as even I do enjoy the lake, you (or I) do get “laked out” after awhile although seeing everyone splash down from the water slide was fun. Oh and we also had a new counselor join the group at the lake as Cody (Falcon) (yes…another Cody to the mix…but not to be confused with Codie, who was working one of the other groups) came on board to help out. Anyway, here’s how Lake Gregory looked that day.
Once back at camp, in the mid afternoon, we camp stored and hung out in the dorms until dinner…or they did as I was on break. Anyway, after dinner/Bible study we engaged in a rousing game of reverse scavenger hunt. You know. Grab a bunch of random items from the tipis/dorms and, in camp groups, try to match up the items with requests from the facilitators. Here’s what that looked like:
Wednesday morning we hit the Dogwood hike, which I haven’t done in over 10 years and certainly was in no position to lead. Thankfully, John (Honaw) agreed to lead the kids on this one and did fun things like tell about how Alice Algae and Freddie Fungus took a lichen to each other…get it? Algae. Fungus. Together. Lichen. Liken. Anyway…oh and we also saw this:
Good old fur and bone coughed up by a bird of prey…in case you’re wondering.
The notable afternoon option was the creation of survival huts that our group was to then sleep in at night. We had the campers divided into small groups/pairs and let them have at it with a variety of results. Here are some of their efforts:
They did need to be reminded to not do things like pull off branches of living trees to use and at one point, after one of the girls mistakenly pulled a branch out from an aforementioned living tree, I playfully corrected her. Some of you might be familiar with the Kevin and Bean show on KROQ and one of their recurring segments, “Kevin (or Bean) the Interview Killer!!” where one of them will just kill the flow of an interview with an ill timed question or something along those lines. Well right after I saw one of our campers pull out a branch I, without thinking, sang, “Lydia the forest destroyer!!!” in the same melody and all…hey, I was entertained.
So after survival huts were constructed, loosely speaking, we took a vote on whether or not we would sleep in them for the night and the “yes’s” juuuuuuust barely won out so away we left after campfire. Now I had been somewhat hesitant because the majority was a slight one which made me unsure as to how this was going to go over. Once the campers had settled in, I found a place to sleep…right under a tree…on an incline…that I didn’t prepare…It was also COLD and I slept in my jeans and jacket but hey, it was camp so why not. Anyway, the next morning we all got up and had breakfast and while talking to them, it seemed that they all appreciated the opportunity and like the experience, so it did work out in the end.
Thursday, the last full day, saw the group split up as we did rock climbing over the course of two options. In fact, it took so much time that my group (the first) didn’t get back until Lunch had just finished but it was well worth it. Chris (Howakan) and Honaw facilitated it and I loved seeing some of the campers. Especially so, our camper Ally tried it initially and had to quit as it had, at one part, gotten too difficult for her. However, after giving it another go, she was able to make it up and I was really happy and proud of her for not giving up. Other than that I tried my best to corral my boys as best as I could as they were simply determined to eat these ants (they taste like lemonade, btw) that lived in the tree trunks used as our bridge to the site. I thought it gross but I had to remember these are 12 year old boys we’re talking about. Anyway, here at a few shots from this activity.
On ant hunt
Ally making it to the top
Thursday evenings at camp are always hallmarked by two things: Formal dinner and a special evening all-camp. The formal dinner is fairly self-explanatory as all the counselors dress up and serve the campers, including clean up so they love that one. As for the special all-camp, we had a carnival which consisted of games, activities and plenty of music that lent itself to wild Lutheran dancing. Here are a few shots from the carnival:
The “old gang” back together
Friday morning saw another tradition: pajama breakfast. However, this guy forgot about it and didn’t even see it on the schedule. So it was great comedy to have me get up, shower, shave, and then start waking people up to have Falcon remind me that it was pajama breakfast. I then sheepishly put my pajamas on to give the illusion that I was on the ball and didn’t forget. After breakfast, we cleaned up the dorm and had affirmations with the campers. Lunch was followed by closing campfire where we had some crazy 6-7 guitar onslaught and I even had a chance to play the ever popular “Lost and Found” which was a song I co-wrote years ago back during my first time at camp. Shortly thereafter, all the campers where checked out and gone. It was really strange for a bit to not have anyone I was responsible for but Friday afternoons at camp are always that way.
That night was had a two-ish hour long “campfire” just playing lots of different songs, talking, and making s’mores. It was pretty magical and seemed to go on forever (in a good way). Here’s a few pics.
Anyway, before I wrap this up, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the Bible studies for the week. The studies for the week centered on the Biblical use water as a metaphor with Christ as being the “Water of Life” as the lynchpin by which all the other studies pivoted. We were able to teach and show how, by using the “Water of Life” metaphor how the wellspring of this water feeds us, nourishes us and provides the way for us to have an impact on the world at large. In addition to the studies themselves each lesson used activities and visuals that helped drive these points home and I know this aspect made an impact.
Anyway, after having more than a month to reflect (once again, sorry about the delay) I am eagerly awaiting to see how things will unfurl for next summer. As far as I know the future of CALC staying as a camp once/should it be sold is up in the air so we might be moving elsewhere, which would break a LOT of hearts (including mine), but we’ll see. Oh and on that, I had on numerous occasions the thought that as I was engaging in the various activities that camp encapsulated that “so and so” might be the last time whatever it is might ever happen on those grounds. I think that thought was perhaps in the air as we huddled around the campfire circle that last night. Regardless, we did show that doing summer outdoor ministry IS still viable as we did quite well, as far as the bottom line, and have some nice resources to head into next summer so it was definitely blessed. To have this come from an idea in January to the reality that we have a full head of steam and a running start to next year is pretty amazing. I’m looking forward to it and if you would like to help in any way feel free to contact me as I can either provide what you’re looking for or I can point you in the right direction. I lastly want to think everyone for their support, especially those whose support was in the form or working beside me for a week. It was awesome, inspiring, and blessed and I can’t wait to next year or seeing some of you beforehand.
