In the heat of late July and early August, amidst record numbers of yellow jackets for the state of Washington, a herd of wonderfully rambunctious junior high campers tumbled into camp.
It truly was a herd!
Between staff and campers, the kitchen fed 95 people this week!
And along with those rowdy kids, Pyro, tumbled into being our camp speaker.
You see, Scruffy thought he had the Middle School Camp 2 speaker all covered, but at the last minute, the plan fell through. Pyro, a long-time camp friend and one of our board members, heard that Scruff was madly scrambling for a new speaker and offered to help out.
This week, he spoke on the life of David.
How David, as the chosen king of united Israel and Judah, was supposed to point ahead toward the coming Messiah. Pyro also spoke of David’s incredible failures and a life filled with war and bloodshed, so much bloodshed that he was not allowed to build God’s temple. However, God still used David. Even with all of his flaws, David’s life and reign did indeed point forward to a completely different kind of King.
During cabin discussion, they talked about the many ways in which Jesus was like David and how He was also different. What would the coming of the Messiah have been like if Jesus was a mighty warrior king? Well, the counselors that I chatted with felt that there would have been a whole lot of bloodshed and much less time spent on talks of turning the other cheek, loving your neighbor, seeing a kind Samaritan as the hero of a parable, and stories about God as a father pulling His broken son into His arms.
What do you think? What kind of Messiah would David have made? Why do you think God chose to come to us gentle, and riding on a donkey, the colt of a donkey?
A week of summer camp provides such a unique chance for discussing God’s word, His love, and His coming to our rescue. Part of this is because of the kind of environment we strive to create at Camas Meadows. Children get to step out of their everyday worlds, form new friendships through shared experiences, and connect with God in a new and powerful way.
In this era of constant stimulation, in a time when tablets, phones, memes, and games dance constantly before our eyes, quiet can be hard to come by.
Those who study how children grow, thrive, and learn are realizing that open-ended play, silence, the great outdoors, and moments of pure simple frolicking are just as important to our learning and growth as classrooms, information, and organized sports.
Summer camp offers an incredible mash-up of organization and chaos, teaching and listening, silence and cacophony. Children escape the everyday world in so many ways. One of which, a mad race against their friends and new acquaintances to eat a banana blindfolded.
Another way campers step away from their everyday world . . . standing in silence in the middle of a mountain meadow, listening to the wind rustle the aspen leaves above them and send the tall grasses swaying against the legs of their jeans.
When Scruffy leads the “Star Trek” to Inspiration Point he sets a timer and the entire group waits in silence, listening to the forest sounds in the darkness and watching the vast expanse of stars that God scattered in all their glory above.
“The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.” Psalm 19:1
Giving children a chance to try new things is such a vital opportunity for their growth.
Braving the chilly waters of the dunk tank.
Pulling on that paintball mask and charging through the forest, dodging paintballs, making it to the log at the top of the hill with a pack of new friends.
Taking a chance and singing a worship song that has crazy hand motions.
Children who discover that they are capable of jumping into a new adventure at camp often realize that they are capable of a new adventure with God as well.
All of those new camp adventures also equal shared experiences with cabin mates and camp counselors.
Folks tend to highly undervalue the role of shared experiences in ministry.
Have you ever sat at a table next to a group of good friends?
How do you know they are close?
They have inside jokes they all understand. They don’t have to explain a story because they were all there and just a phrase spoken by one can bring to mind the entire tale for the group.
I have tried to explain camp ministry before and watched people actually look down their noses at the fun camp activities as though they are not vital pieces of the ministry that God uses in such powerful ways. Fun activities are shared experiences.
Believe me folks, those crazy games are so so important as we seek to tell children about Jesus! Kids won’t listen to just anyone talk about God and shared experience is how we show that we are trustworthy voices in their lives. Trustworthy enough to share about Jesus.
The camp program (games, activities, time in nature) is not the ugly step-sister of camp life. Also, chapel time is not the Cinderella of the camp experience. Both are vital parts of camp ministry.
Think about that table full of friends we were imagining before. The people with shared stories that they all understood, shared vocabulary, shared experiences that they could immediately reference and recall how each person in the group changed during the living of those moments.
Who do you like to worship next to and read your Bible with?
Now, who do you go to with your questions about God?
Who do you go to when your heart is breaking and you need someone to lift you up in prayer?
Yeah, me to.
I reach out to the people that I have shared experiences with. People that I know I can trust because we have lived life together. They were trustworthy when I had a squirrel terrorize my cabin, so I figure they will also be trustworthy now.
Every game and hike, every crazy skit and hastily launched water balloon, every goofy hat and goofier dance is a share experience.
Those shared experiences form tight bonds of friendship.
Those tight bonds of friendship show campers that they can trust this group of camp counselors who dedicated their summer to give them a week they will never forget.
Campers who trust, are willing to ask the tough questions; seek real truths about God; risk getting to know Jesus in authentic ways that they were never willing to risk before.
There are no wasted moments at camp.
If just being in God’s great outdoors for a few priceless moments of unstructured play can help refresh our mental health and revitalize our tired bodies, how much more can God use this lovely forest setting to show us His peace, His power, and His love?
If simple shared experiences can form life-long friendships that stand the test of time, how much more can God use those experiences and those friendships to foster a deeper understanding of His son? If a flawed, warrior king can point us toward the King of Kings, how much more will God use the power of the Prince of Peace to do great works in our minds and hearts and everyday lives?
In the gospels, there are several times that Jesus uses parables to describe God as “harvesting where He did not plant and reaping where He did not sow seed.”
As I stare at those baffling words, I think of the terrible things life has thrown at me that still produced good, even though nothing about them was actually good at all.
The death of my father when he was only forty-four.
Watching someone I used to know well descend into a pit of addiction.
Standing by, helpless, as people I love lost their battles with depression.
There is nothing good there. Only pain, darkness, and grief.
Yet God is so very bold. He walks into the terrible and senseless situations around us and He reaps a harvest. He harvests where He did not sow seed and He reaps where He did not sow. God does not even waste the wretched things in this life, how much more will He use the simple beauties of childhood adventures lived well and a week of rambunctious fun boldly dedicated to His name.
An unlikely friendship, daring to reach for hope in a dark time, the ring of laughter in the forest as a group of friends tries to prank another cabin, everything is spiritual my friend because not only do we come together to sing and study God’s word and talk about His way of healing hearts and restoring souls, but we have dedicated each and every moment, big or small, over to our Lord for His use.
The God who can cause flowers to bloom from a heap of rocks can heal our hurts and give us peace in Him. Can you trust Him to do miracles, my friend? Can you trust Him with the tiny moments of fun and the giant moments of heartache? He reaps where He did not sow, how much more when every day is dedicated to Him? How much, indeed!
