God in growth

Greetings this Thanksgiving holiday!  I am thankful for you and for all the ways God prompts people to engage at camp. I am thankful for the ways God can be seen here.  One way I’ve seen God this past year is in the ongoing growth at camp.  Allow me to give a handful of examples.

Our program director, Chick, continues to grow and learn and seems to not weary of the learning process.  This is a great model for all of us to push through the challenges that come with the learning process.

I am experiencing similar growth. As camp grows I am stretched to get better at strategic and future thinking. 1 Cor. 13 comes to mind, that famous passage about love. Picking up at vs. 8 “Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. 11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. 12 For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.  13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.”  This is relevant to me right now.  I am growing up, yes.  I am also increasingly aware of the need for love.  Over doing a good job. Over getting it right. Over everything.

On the topic of growth, this summer was the most attended in our 53 year history.  I chalk this up to the movement of God’s spirit in three people, among others.

Jane Glick, school nurse at Rochester who asked the school board to promote the camp among all the students.  After getting their permission, we offered BBC’s tiered pricing as well as additional subsidy from Taftsville Chapel. Over 30 new campers attended camp this past summer through her efforts.

A second woman named Beth Ann Maier, leader of Camp Agape (CA), made a way to send CA campers too old for the CA program to the BBC sessions that would be age appropriate. That accounted for 30 additional attendees.

A third person contributing to the attendance growth this summer is a young camper named Nick. He hosted his birthday party at camp in January.  Facebook ignited after we posted a video of the party and 20 registrations were received the three days after the posting of that video.

It’s partners and champions like this that fill camp with people.  I believe each of these three are responding to inner promptings they experience from God.  To be clear, I am not trying to promote a type of prosperity gospel, but rather an image of a God who longs for our presence and desires each of us to be in tune with Himself.

Join me in sitting still for a moment this holiday.  Consider meditating on how God might be prompting you.

Brandon “Tuna” Bergey

Executive Director

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