The Cross

What you don't realize about camp, if you've never worked at one, sent your kid(s) to one, or been to camp yourself, is how much it changes people for the better.  When you work at a camp, you get to experience what it is like to have an impact on children and help them to develop skills.

What most people wouldn't know was just how much camp has changed me.

All those years ago, when I went to camp thanks to confirmation.  During the summer of 2002, that the staff of the camp I grew up going to did a re-enactment of holy week.  I had been forewarned that this was coming, and that many campers who had seen this in previous weeks had been emotional.  Nobody could say how each individual camper would react. 

I still remember thinking how unique this was as the re-enactment began.  It was at the point of that we reached Jesus' trial, and the chant of "crucify him" began that I suddenly understood what had happened during holy week.  It was in that moment that I finally understood what Jesus had done for ME.  It was then that I finally had a belief that there was a God who cared about ME.

After it was all over, the girls I was in a cabin with were walking back to the cabin.  I don't remember saying anything.  I do remember the counselor catching up with us.  I don't remember if she said anything to any of us.  I remember the rest of my cabin mates talking about it.  As we walked along, I didn't have any words for what it was like to experience God like that for the first time.  I couldn't find the words to explain the feelings I was experiencing.  What sticks out to me the most was the fact the my counselor reached out and put a hand on my shoulder.  It was in that simple touch that I felt God touching me, comforting me, telling me that he understood.

I don't think that I would have ever even considered working at SpringHill if it wasn't for that week during the summer of 2002 when I really experienced God for the first time through the beauty of being outside, and through that counselor.

You never know how God will reach a child, especially when that child is in nature, surrounded by campers who are also learning about God, and a camp staff that loves what they do and others.