A summer of camp ministry wrings you out and scrapes you dry. But it is important. Because after you are all done, when all that you have is spent and still more is needed, God steps in.

The night before Senior High camp Scruffy got 3 and ½ hours of sleep. Why? He spent an hour playing a board game with our three sons. They miss their Dad and they needed him. He spent time talking with busy and weary staff members until 10:00, because they needed instructions or encouragement or just a listening ear. Then he spent some time with me, watching a TV show, because he’d been busy with camp all week and I needed him too. After I went to bed, at midnight, that was when he started on cabin assignments and all the necessary paperwork to get another camp going the next day. Up before 7:00am for a vet visit and camp shopping and then straight into staff meeting and camper registration. Two, maybe two and a half hours into Senior High camp I found him on the camp porch staring out into the forest. We sat on the dusty old camp couch, holding hands. The dry, fragrant forest surrounded us along with the sound of kids in the meadow playing a group game. Scruffy quietly wept as he told me about a camper he had already talked to, hours into camp, broken by life and trying so hard to just be a normal girl. But how can you be just another kid having fun at camp, when life has given you a battle instead of a childhood. That was Monday.

Van Helsing spoke on the power of God.

The Power to Change

The Power to Fight

The Power to Love

The Power to Forgive

The Power to Surrender

We needed the power of God and that is exactly what we received. Pressed down and overflowing, more than we had asked for or could rightfully imagine.

Amazing things happened this week. We saw kids asking to mop. Asking to serve. Asking mind you, not dragging behind their counselor moping and grumbling and making snotty comments. Nope, asking. A young man previously overheard telling someone that kitchen work “sucked”, was seen kicking the support staff out of the kitchen so that they could take a break while he did dishes, even though he was a camper this week. A girl who said that camp was more than family to her. We heard things like “Camas is my home” and “This is the best week in my entire life”. A boy prayed out boldly “God, keep your hand here forever, on this Non-Judgmental place.”

Change happened. The power of God worked among us. God pushed kids forward, away from past hurts and defeats. Forward to heal and to love and to forgive. Van Helsing had been working on these messages for a year. On the last night he obeyed the prompting of the spirit, ditched/surrendered his message, and only spoke for five minutes. Then the campers and counselors prayed and worshipped together for three hours straight.

The Power of God at work, when there is nothing left in us, that is what we saw this week.

So many amazing things, but let me tell you just one. There was a camper this week, he’s been coming to Camas for years. As a junior camper, as a junior high camper, and this year he came to high school camp. Last year he described himself as an atheist. This year, he committed himself to follow God. Even though the cost will be high for him and he knows it, he boldly handed his heart to Jesus Christ.

On the last day of camp Scruffy wept again, standing before the campers, telling our story. How God has taken two people and given us love and life and made us more than we were before.

God’s Power, among us. It is amazing to behold.

Boo Boo

This was our third week of camp, fourth if you count staff training. Each morning as I sat in staff meeting I would listen to the chorus of coughs around me. Scruffy would pass the vitamin C as counselors would ask for prayer. For energy, for wisdom, for patience. And then later in the day I had the privilege of watching these same weary teens go all out for God.

The above picture of Epona letting a camper douse her with water is just one example. These teens loved you kids this week. They loved my kids this week. Two of my boys gave their counselor a run for his money (well they would have. . . if their counselor had been paid) and we got to hear all about a week full of cabin competitions and pranking and hikes and swimming and horseback riding and paintball. On Thursday Scruffy read this verse to the staff after they stumbled into staff meeting in their Jammy pants with cups of coffee clutched tight in their fists.

2Corinthians 4:7

“But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.”

So true. Without Him that long hike up to Stone Face seems impossible. Without Him that 10th camper to soak you with water seems like the end. Without Him it feels like we struggle in vain. 

A little boy came to Christ this week.

So many other children caught a glimpse of God. In the speaker’s lessons. In the morning devotions. In the songs sung at the highest possible decibel. In the counselors love and care through dust and bees, slip-n-slide and night games, water kickball and that quiet moment walking together down the trail. 

We are jars of clay and yet God does great things with humble vessels. Thank you so much for letting Him work in you. You are an inspiration to me as I struggle along trying to serve God in the every day, trusting that I too can have an eternal impact.

Boo Boo

If you are used to church, camping ministry can seem a bit odd. Yes, the camp speaker and your pastor both preach out of God’s word. But once in awhile at camp, your Bibles are also incorporated into cabin skits and night games in the dark forest. Yes, Sunday School often includes snacks, scripture memorization, and crafts, all traditional camp activities. But at camp there are times when you are part of the craft, as demonstrated in the photo above featuring sandcastle building. 

But while we might look a bit strange up here at Camas Meadows Bible Camp, we are still just followers of Christ seeking to share His glory with kids. At church a child might seek out the pastor after the sermon. The same thing happens here, with just a few differences. A child seeks out the camp speaker and his counselor. They sit and chat on the porch at the main lodge. These guys share their time and attention with one of God’s children in the pine-scented quiet of the forest. Except, while the air is indeed pine-scented, the forest may not be all that quiet if there is an all-camp pillow fight going on at the same time.

At church children can learn about the sacrifice of Jesus Christ as they participate in communion with their parents for the first time. Here at camp this happens too. But it sometimes looks a little different. Like a counselor breaking a Twix bar and pouring out her can of Coke to share with her girls as they contemplate the body and blood of the one who gave everything to make them real live princesses, true daughters of the king.

A little strange, yes. But such is the body of Christ. Each of us have our part to play in God’s amazing story. Some of us get to wear a suit and tie or a fancy dress while we follow our Lord, while some of us serve by chewing up a dill pickle and spitting it into a glass bottle faster than that pesky boys cabin who TP’d the cabin last night. Don’t let this stop you though, teach that Sunday School class, eat that pickle, and serve God in the way that He has called you. 

Boo Boo

 This week began our summer camp season with our fist camp for grade school children Jr. A. Frosty, our speaker spoke from Romans 12 and as I talked to counselors and campers and listened in during Staff Meeting in the mornings I heard wonderful things. Two new Christians were born this week, a boy and a girl both decided to follow God. Other children decided to go deeper with their Lord. I heard about how kids spoke of wanting to take the next step with God, wanting to learn how to obey and become more and more like Jesus each day.

I was able to go down to the campfire on Thursday night and be a part of the singing and sharing out under the stars. No, we didn’t have an actual campfire (the fire danger is intense this year) but we sang together beneath the darkening sky, jumping around to the fast songs (I myself tripped during “Lean on Me” and lost my glasses beneath a pig pile of happy children who were doing the motions to the song) and raising our hands up toward heaven as the music slowed. Then a glowing red flashlight was placed in the fire pit and any child who wished to share took a glowstick and stepped forward. As the wind finally cooled for the evening and a full moon began to rise just beyond the trees, children stood and shared their hearts. 

Some were silly and some were serious and all of them were so very brave to stand and praise God before their peers. “I want to thank God for my new friends.” “I want to thank God for Frosty and how he made us understand the Bible.” “I want to thank God for all the fun I had.” These sentiments were common and heartfelt. It is a big thing to leave home for an entire week and realize that you have made it to the end.

There was one little girl who stood out to me. She didn’t rush through what she had to say. She spoke and then paused, fiddled with the glowstick, and then slowly spoke again. I knew that this particular child had been reluctant to participate in cabin discussions and chapel times. The music was too loud for her, but she listened from outside the lodge where one of her counselors always kept her company. Her counselors tried new ways to make her feel welcome and hoped that she would enjoy camp in the end.

“I want to thank my counselors for sticking with me the whole week. . . and I want to thank God for all the counselors who took care. . . who loved us.”

I am so glad that she realized that her counselors careful care of her was in actuality love. Because if kids can see love in us, then there is hope that they will be able to see God as well. For God has sent us to camp to serve and God Himself is love. So I want to thank our counselors as well, two of my boys were campers this week. Thank you for your sacrifices and you care. Thank you for your love. 

Boo Boo 

I was walking along the path between the camp and my brother’s house. My brother and I made this trail when we were children, wanting a quick way to Grandma’s on Saturday morning for cartoons. It is thin and twisty and scattered with broken pine needles. As it snakes through the forest, the path brought me near these beauties.

As I was snapping photos, it occurred to me that this was but a small sampling of the wildflowers that carpeted our forest. I had the privileged of viewing these particular flowers, because they happened to be growing near a path. But what of all the others? Were the unseen blossoms any less marvelous because they bloomed in the dark recesses of the woods, far from the tromp of human feet? Of course not. Just the knowledge that they exist, scattered all through the pine-scented woods thrilled my heart.

Isn’t God like this? We see a bit of Him, because the path we are on happens to brush up against some of His glory. But the thrilling thing is knowing that there is so much more of Him. Glory upon glory upon glory, that we have yet to encounter. Like wildflowers that carpet the wilderness, alone and unsung, but all the more lovely for their quiet splendor. 

The forest shows me something of God, every time I step out, breathe deep, and pause long enough to actually see. This is what we hope for the campers who will rush through our doors this summer. That they will be granted a moment to bump up against God. Maybe it will be in chapel time, or while reading the Bible with their counselor, during game time, midnight hike, or simply as they walk the path from their cabin down to the dinning hall.

God is here, but we must pause and take Him in. We must let go and let Him take charge of us and do His mighty works. God is vast and God is quiet, like wildflowers hidden in the wilderness.

Boo Boo

Mountain Lady Slipper

“Almost everything will work again if you unplug it for a few minutes, including you.”

–Anne Lamott

When I read that quote, I couldn’t help but think of camp. Did you know that a week in the wilderness, away from all electric lights, will even reset the human body’s internal clock? There is more than one way to unplug. Unplugging from man-made light will restore the body’s natural ability to sleep and awaken. Unplugging from a tense or dramatic situation can give one the clarity to deal with it in wisdom. Unplugging from our own goals and desires can give us the freedom to hear God. Unplugging from the pressures around us can give us a moment to reach for our Lord and heal.

At camp, we seek to give campers time to unplug. Are things looking jagged at home? Or perhaps going so well that the pressure is high and the pace of life is furious? Camp is a place to slow, and listen. A place to rest in the glory of God’s creation, to breath in the flower-scented air of the forest and remember who made us. At camp we confiscate cell phones and ipods and strive to give kids something different than what they are used to. Something real and tangible, something that lives beyond cyberspace and lasts longer than a tweet.

We hope to give campers the time to seek and be heard, to listen and to wonder, to grow and to become something new.

Even if you are not attending a week of camp this year, you can still unplug. Drive to the forest and take a walk, go on a picnic with your children, swim at a lake, read your Bible in the quiet of a park, or build a castle in the sand. Take time away to seek God, to listen with silent lips and a still heart. God does not disappoint, He has been waiting for you all along.

Deuteronomy 4:29–“But if from there you seek the Lord your God, you will find Him if you look for Him with all your heart and with all your soul.”

Boo Boo

For years Camas Meadows has needed a camp promotional video. If Scruffy has come to your church to speak, you may have seen a slide show or a few old photos. But a video…not so much. One of our wonderful counselors, Gambit, took some great footage a few years ago. But still, the promo video did not become a reality. Until this week!

A brave and daring counselor, Shinobi, used some footage from 2013 coupled with several shots from last year. Since the rest of us had no idea what to do, he then spent a significant amount of time figuring out how to turn these images into something fun and amazing. Add some superhero music and a bit of style and we now have our own camp video. 

No longer will you have to suffer through an ancient slide show. No longer will you be required to view that picture of Scruffy in the rainbow clown wig or the photo of camp counselors dressed up in cheerleader outfits and side ponytails (unless you want to of course. I believe these historic photos are still available on the camp website). Now we have an actual video!

So sit back and enjoy the work of our very own Summer Camp Super Hero. He put his time and passion into bringing us something that just might give you a little glimpse into this thing we call camp.

Please Click Here

Boo Boo

Purple Trilliums

I wonder if it is easy to forget God if you live in town, surrounded by the works of man. People make the houses and the streets and the businesses. Plywood and roofing metal and sheet rock, asphalt and concrete and brick. People plant the flowers and tend and water them and make it all grow and thrive with their hard work and dedication.

It seems nearly impossible to ignore the glory of God, living out here in the woods. The majestic pines and firs stretch up towards the heavens without my assistance, thick razor grass covers the forest floor without me watering it every day, wildflowers thrive in vibrant color all through the forest.

Yellow Bells

Wildflowers. Just the name says it all. No one planted them. No one tended them. No one watered them. No one but God Himself. Here they are, thriving and brilliant. Their time is short, but their beauty is timeless. May we become such as these. Trusting the caring hand of our Lord to protect us and bring out the best in us in His good time.

Bird’s Nest In a Young Tamarack

Matthew 6:26-29–“Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these.”

Boo Boo

So Scruffy and I were chatting with a friend the other day. This particular friend loves math and science and always has info about some strange and fascinating study for us to consider. Last week, he was telling us about “The Rat Park.”

What? You don’t think we should build a rat park at camp? No, I’m not suggesting that we invest in a rat park. We have sufficient amounts of rodent wildlife already, thank you very much. But there was this experiment involving a rat park and it fascinates me because it says something about community and space and how God made us to thrive. We are certainly not rats, but there is a lot that we can learn from our whiskery friends.

A scientist was looking at that famous experiment where drugs were made available to rats in a maze. The rats quickly became addicted, so addicted that they ceased to do everything except get high. It was very sad. Well this scientist wondered if perhaps there were other factors involved. So he recreated the experiment, only he made drugs available to rats who lived in this huge and fabulous rat park. There was space and fun things to do. It was a rat heaven which also included unlimited access to drugs. The rats tried the drugs…but they did not become addicted. They also played and ate and ran around doing rodenty things. The scientist even took rats who were already addicted to drugs and placed them into the rat park. These rats started to live life instead of just get high, even thought the drugs were available.

Now, when you come up to camp this summer, you will not see a rat park. We hope that you will not see a rat at all, maybe a squirrel or an elk or a bear… Anyway, if the whole rat park thing seems like a pretty large leap away from a discussion of summer camp, I understand. A whole lot of crazy things make me think about summer camp. I live here. It is on my mind a lot. But this rat park story made me see that we are striving to give campers something that God created us to have. 

We were made to have beauty and space and fascinating discoveries. We were made to stretch and live and love. We were made for community and compassion. We were not made to be trapped and alone.

God tells us in His word not to forsake meeting together. He tells us that the wonders of His creation speak clearly of the Glory of God. At camp we want to offer space to run and play and see all the Glory of God around us. We want to offer a fun and kind community where kids are safe and cared for.

Sometimes we find ourselves living in a tight little maze, packed full of bad options.

At camp we want to offer something different. Wildflowers and the wind ruffling your hair. A sprint through the meadow with a water balloon in hand. A quiet moment with friends, praying for each other. God made us for things such as these.

Our hope and our passion? To spend this summer offering life at its best to the kids God has seen fit to send us. God around us in His beautiful creation. God in each of His people, putting aside self to love others. This is our goal.

Boo Boo