A Different Experience

I love camp! I freely admit that although I am having a great summer here at Don Lee I really miss my camp back in Florida. Warren W. Willis Summer Camp is one of the places I consider home and I truly to miss being there. It is interesting because I left my last summer knowing that I would never go back as a counselor. I was graduating and moving on in life and I was ok with that. This summer has really reminded me of all of the things that I loved about camp and by that I mean "my camp".

It has been a very interesting experience being here at Don Lee because of my extremely narrow view of camp ministry. Don Lee is not a bible camp. It is not an evangelical, bring your church group, and get your kids saved kind of camp. Don Lee has been described to me as a sailing camp with where tradition and faith intersect. Faith and Spirituality is a part of everything that we do here. It is the underlying current that moves us along. It took quite a while for me to see it and understand what that means.

I am not Mr. Superevangelical and amongst many of my friends from undergrad I am quite the opposite, but I have struggled with the lack of evangelicalism here. At WWW we had worship every night, small groups (bible study) twice a day, usually some other kind of Christian teaching time and praise time every day. Everything built up to Thursday nights in which we would have a time for commitment for those who were wanting to commit their life to Christ. It is especially meaningful to me because it was in 4th grade that I walked up to the altar in the Graham-Sapp Chapel and Warren W. Willis Camp and committed my life to Christ. It was in 7th grade that I remember recommitting my life. It was in 10th grade or so that I felt my call into ministry. And February 2009 that I again heard my call into ministry and God began ushering me towards Duke and calling me back towards Himself. That time of commitment, that time of being talked to about God and my relationship with Christ was something that was very meaningful and impactful in my life. My experience was meaningful to me and valid, but was only meant for me and during a very certain time in my life. By bringing that into what we are doing now and expecting everyone to have the same experience that I had at camp is denying the mystery that God is working in all of our lives. I am now the one helping provide this experience for the staff or the campers and am participating in God's work.

Something that I have had to learn here is that these counselors and staff members have grown up having a very different experience. They have grown up going to a camp where they have seen God in a very different way. It has not been as explicit as my camp experience, but they still want the campers to see God here. This is a place where the Don Lee staff have seen God and continue to see God, year after year. Don Lee is a special place is a place that campers, staff and volunteers encounter God. It is a place that kids get to learn about sailing, cooking in the woods, how to fish, how to kayak and canoe, and how to build camp fires. Don Lee is a place where kids are taught to see God in everything that they do. Maybe I need to start living my life as less of an explicit ministry, but simply start living and let Christ's ministry flow through me.