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April Monthly Contact

Each month, I write an email to some of Bethany Birches’ supporters. The topics and content vary. I share from my heart in these emails, about things that have happened at camp that I just love! A lot of times, I highlight something that one of our campers or staff has written or done. And, what would a note to supporters be without updates and sharing of needs?! Expect that too. Here’s April’s update.

You can subscribe to this update if you’d like right here.

The latest need:

From Camper to Servant

What do I remember about Bethany Birches? I remember the great fireside roundups, cooking over the fire, British Bulldog game, the mud pit, sleeping in the cabins, and so much more. My name is Leah Beidler and my week at BBC was often the best week of the summer. I am now 28 years old and living in Dorchester, MA, but was a faithful BBC camper for years when I was in middle school. I always enjoyed the drive up there and the excitement of what the week might hold. I met great friends, got to sing great songs about Jesus, and be immersed in God’s country.

I now live in the inner city of Boston and volunteer with a church in an underserved, high crime area. Vermont and Dorchester, MA are two different worlds. I have gone from the quiet, solitude of Vermont to hearing sirens, sometimes gunshots, and many other things. In the midst of the darkness I have found great light in the children and youth that live in our neighborhood. They are hungry for new experiences. I am the Youth Pastor at the church and this summer I wanted to get some of the children out of the neighborhood. My hope is that they could experience something new, exciting, enriching, and full of Jesus. BBC was that and everything more. I was a little skeptical about bringing three boys from the inner city up to BBC because of the extreme differences, but I remember what BBC did for my heart and growth so I wanted to give it a chance.

I think the best moment was picking the boys up after a week at BBC. The whole ride to Vermont I was worried that I would get there and they would say their time was miserable and boring. When I arrived they greeted me with hugs and begged to stay. They told me all about what they had learned, games they had played, and friends they had made. The highlight was hearing one of our boys read a poem that was about his vision, hopes, and thoughts about God. I remember thinking; “This alone makes it worth it.” To share that energy with the boys and hear the excitement that BBC and the staff brought to their hearts was an amazing gift. I am so grateful for the staff at BBC and their hearts to pour into our children, youth, and this kingdom on earth. Thank you! We are already waiting for next summer.

Leah Beidler, former camper

From Camper to Servant 2: Board Report

Like most campers, I did not go to Bethany Birches for the first time looking for an opportunity to grow spiritually. Like most campers, my family was from the area and did not have a lot of money. Like most campers, my older sibling went to camp and came home with stories. Like most campers my parents were happy to have me out of the house for a week during the summer. My Bethany Birches story is very like the story of so many campers, and that gives me hope.

Since my first week of camp about twenty years ago, I have returned to Bethany Birches many times. At first I returned simply because at camp we built fires and ran around in the woods and played games, it was all a young boy could ask for. As the summers passed my reason for returning to camp changed; I still looked forward to all of the activities but I also looked forward to seeing the friends who I only saw at camp. I looked forward to seeing the counselors who I greatly admired. I looked forward to singing songs and seeing skits and hearing the stories the staff shared. I looked forward to being in a place where I felt Christian community most strongly, where I felt God.

When I was invited to become a counselor I thought I knew what I was doing. After nine years as a camper and junior counselor, I had honed my dodge ball skills and knew how to build fires. My very first week disabused me of the notion that I could succeed on my own. There were seven eight-year-old boys who were expecting me to make them pancakes and who were unaware of the benefits of socks and sunscreen. Others vacillated from fast friends to bitter enemies and back again in minutes. The energy I thought I had was not enough, the patience I thought I had was not enough, the skills I thought I had were not enough.

Jeremiah 17:7 says “blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in Him.” Thanks to the campers I have had I have been blessed. Reliance on God changes from an abstract to an absolute when you are a camp counselor, as does the concept of Christian community. The campers are the fire which forges a disparate group of young adults into a hardened team of prayer-warrior servants like nothing else I have experienced. You have to trust God, you have to trust each other.

The “real world” intervened in my plans of being a camp counselor for the rest of my life. Although I no longer have the great blessing of being on the staff each summer, I still try to get back to camp as often as I can. Instead of looking forward to fire building and dodge ball, I now look forward to seeing God at work in the lives of the campers and staff. I look forward to reconnecting with campers who I have known for years. I look forward to meeting new campers who are just starting out on their journeys, journeys like the one I am on. My hope for these campers is that they will experience God and learn what a loving community can be.

Dave Ross is the newest BBC Board member

To Each According To Their Need: Price Tiers

Ayn Rand’s novel, Atlas Shrugged, which has recently been made into a movie Atlas Shrugged: Part 1 presents ideas that are arguably opposed to the Kingdom of God. Any Rand’s philosophy on the matter of need suggests that people should get only what they earn, regardless of their needs. If you earn it, it’s yours. If you need it, well, you can’t have it until you earn it. She believed that this would create a society full of contributing individuals. Consider that.

Now, consider Acts 4:32-35 from The Message:

32-33 The whole congregation of believers was united as one— one heart, one mind! They didn’t even claim ownership of their own possessions. No one said, “That’s mine; you can’t have it.” They shared everything. The apostles gave powerful witness to the resurrection of the Master Jesus, and grace was on all of them. 34-35 And so it turned out that not a person among them 5 was needy. Those who owned fields or houses sold them and brought the price of the sale to the apostles and made an offering of it. The apostles then distributed it according to each person’s need.

I realize that Ayn Rand may not have seriously considered the Reign of God as a legitimate economic model. That doesn’t mean Bethany Birches shouldn’t. Since the beginning of BBC in 1965 we have tried to offer a unique camping experience, creating a community of love with whomever joins and we’ve tried to do this at a low price. While a camping community is a different version of the church than what we see in Acts, there is much similarity.

Obviously, offering something to someone for less than what it cost to provide that something runs up a deficit somewhere. Let’s put this in the context of camp. If it costs us about $400/camper, and we charge $200, there is $200 of expense remaining. Who will pay the remaining $200? Enter: donors.

Bethany Birches was initiated with a donation of land. And since that very first day, our story has been one of people providing money, time and oth- er resources to make the camp pos- sible; an ongoing illustration of God’s provision for kids to have a special, faith-developing experience.

In a board meeting in 2010 we were discussing these issues around the topic of pricing. We talked about the fact that some of our camper families have much resource and some have very little. Enter: tiered pricing.

We are now well into the first summer season using a tiered pricing structure. The highest tier is about what we figure it costs to have a camper at camp (no profit built in). Both of the lower tiers are donor-subsidized rates. Could we consider this a Kingdom economic model? Or perhaps foolishness? Maybe it’s a system easily taken advantage of. Whatever you call it, we’re trusting that the Christ who inspired the craziness in the book of Acts will continue to inspire us and show us a way so that “not a person among them was needy.”

Tuna