For the past 17 years I have either lived at camp year-round, been a camper, been a lifeguard, or a tent/cabin leader, helped out in the kitchen, been the 'camp nurse' or done something at summer camp for at least a week. This is my first summer where even adding up all my day-trip visits don't even add up to a single week.
When I was 5 my family moved to Thetis Island where my parents worked at Pioneer Pacific (an inter-varsity camp)... and we lived on site. We were there for 4 years I think it was. And not only did I LIVE there, but would spend a week as a camper every summer... as well as being a camper at Camp Columbia (another summer camp on Thetis Island) or Pioneer Chehalis (a sister camp to the one we lived at - and a horse camp!)
Our family moved from Thetis to Black Creek and I started attending Campfire Ministries. When I first started going it was a full out wilderness camp. We would take a bus ride, take a ferry ride, take another long bus ride... out to the middle of nowhere... where we would load all of our gear, bedding, food for the week into canoes and paddle across Village Bay Lakes to our lil campsite where we would spend the week.
Then, at 13, I started on as a leader at Campfire Ministries: Camp Bob. Camp was changing at this point and had moved to a semi permanent location on Roberts Lake. Where now instead of sleeping under a giant tarp, we were on tent platforms in big canvas tents. I worked there for 2 summers... coming out on weekends to do my laundry and re-stock my cooler.
Then I spent a summer at Pines Bible Camp, as a lifeguard/cabin counsellor, with my sister in 2005. The summer after that I nannied for a month, then came home and worked at Camp Bob again as a lifeguard. Then in 2007 I worked at Gardom Lake Bible Camp as the head lifeguard, and stayed on for an extra month in the fall to help with school groups that came in for day trips. The following summer I did 3 camps in one summer... Pines, then Gardom, then Bob... and had a different role at each... kitchen staff, camp nurse, lifeguard.
Two years ago I only managed to get one week of camp in as the lifeguard at Camp Bob.. then last summer I spent the whole summer up there. And my goodness.. have things ever changed. They now have a kitchen and supply food for campers instead, and we have new directors, and activities... and... its so different, but still so incredible!
And you see... it really doesn't matter where it was that I was working for the summer... it was what happens at camp that I love so much. Its the lifestyle, the learning that happens, the growing that happens in my relationship with Jesus. The freedom thats in these places... the people that I've gotten to work with, learn from and teach. These are the things that make my summers wonderful. Yes... it is incredible to be living on the beach of a beautiful lake or by a lazy flowing river... to have a campfire every night... to eat lots of candy and go swimming every day... to go wakeboarding and on crazy tube rides... these things are all wonderful too... but its the part that feeds my heart and soul that I have really missed this year.
I get so caught up in the crazy busy-ness of my life that I often forget to slow down and take some time to spend with Jesus. And every summer... when the camp season rolls around... its like a re-focusing retreat and a challenging learning/teaching experience that I desperately need. I know that I should try harder to be able to do this on my own with out the help of a summer camp setting... and I am trying... but I am SO easily distracted.
Right now... as I am seeing the season change... I feel like I have missed out on this summer. Well, I have but I haven't. I have still had a CRAZY summer... where God has taught me things. But I feel like its something that I could have learned a lot faster had I been able to set aside all the distractions in my life.
I have been challenged, heart broken, encouraged, lonely, joyful and blessed this summer. God has been working on me big time! I was reminded of things that he taught me last summer, reminded of beautiful truths that I need to hold onto. I have been shown love, mercy, grace and discipline. Sometimes I feel like there are just too many things thrown at me at once, and I am overwhelmed. But God is faithful and patient with me. He is gracious and compassionate. He is firm and tender. And best of all... he KNOWS me. He knows my faults and areas of weakness. He is unrelenting in his pursuit of my heart and drawing me closer to him. He is determined to stand by my side through all things, even (and especially) when I drift away. And I am learning to seek after him, to pursue him in the way that I desire to be pursued. I am learning to sit still and listen. I am learning to take joy ALL the things that he "throws my way"... and not just the good things. I am trying to take the heart-ache not as an painful insult - but as something I can learn from... and a lesson in forgiveness and reconciliation. It hurts, but there is not hate or resentment... which I think is ok. Its okay to feel hurt (and to let myself feel that way for a time) just as long as I don't let it consume me and turn into bitterness. And it hasn't... I have peace... and faith that my Jesus is walking beside me and has a purpose for all the things I encounter in my life.
Yup... these are all things and thoughts and whatnot that have been floating around in my head. It happens so often that when I start writing... I have no clue what I have to write about, and then all of a sudden I realize that I have been sitting here for almost an hour and I have created this long rambling post... that is testament to chaos of my mind!
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