tuna Archives - Bethany Birches Camp

Posts Tagged ‘tuna’

20 Years Investing in People

Brandon “Tuna” Bergey and others

When Brandon was asked for a reflection for this article, he wrote: Twenty years is a long time. It is also a short time, when looking in the rearview mirror. It also happens to be my 20th anniversary as Executive Director at Bethany Birches! There are far too many experiences, moments, and relationships to comb through as I reflect on my service over the last two decades.

One thing that stuck out to me immediately, was the transformation I have experienced and witnessed. A while ago I started, and developed, a backcountry ski program. I am no longer the only coach, but sometimes I still get to take campers skiing (so fun!). Often campers new to the experience start with uncertainty, and a lack of confidence or maybe worse, overconfidence. When I am patient, and engaged, and responsive to their specific needs and concerns, many start to focus and improve. That’s when their God-given spirit starts to appear. They become excited and willing to challenge themselves. They start realizing how to learn the skills they need to succeed.

I have witnessed the same transformation over a long period of time within campers who become staff members and in some cases board members and supporters. One of those persons who is walking along that pathway, currently in the lifestage between staff member and supporter, is doing a pilgrimage and will then spend some time with a group of nuns she admires. She shared that camp played an important role in shaping her faith journey and grew her hunger to know Jesus. In a slightly different vein, the director of Camp Agape (a BBC-operated program for children with incarcerated parents), said that she often sees graduates of Camp Agape around town in restaurants and other shops. She sees them behind the counter, or in whichever job they hold, and she hears a similar message. They are thankful for their time at Camp and it is one of the keys that helped them envision a productive future, and helped them to now reliably hold a job.

The BBC board and staff put together a two-part book to honor Brandon at this year’s annual benefit auction (mark your calendar for September 27, 2025 to attend). There were some wonderful remarks from past staff sharing their memories and experiences working alongside him. Some highlighted funny times, others shared their appreciation of his leadership. One tribute highlights Brandon’s other-centered leadership. She writes “he looked straight to the inside skills and gifts within me, and past my timidity. Having someone respond to my strengths in this way, rather than bending to my weakness, caused me to start to open up into those strengths, into my truest self.” Another shares “I was extremely grateful for you opening BBC, your home, and your lives up to me while on the 2017 summer staff, when I needed rest and healing for the next chapter of life (parenting). Our Rivers was in the works while you were expecting Simon. Being in VT with you all was an experience outside of space and time. Kind of like a dream, with challenges and deep healing. I feel confident the Lord coordinated this opportunity for me and I am appreciative of your openness to facilitate.” From a slightly different perspective, a multi-year counselor writes “I have so many memories of Tuna jumping his dirt bike for the MI skit every week, late friday nights watching movies in Tuna and Cheeks living room, and ridiculous ways of pronouncing mundane words just to make things more interesting. Beyond the fun, silly, and even wild memories, I think the thing that comes to the surface quickly is his uncanny way to incorporate deep faith thoughts into almost any conversation.”

Among many accomplishments, Brandon has led Bethany Birches through a program revitalization, the replacement of it’s key building “the pavilion,” multiple program leadership transitions, the 2020 pandemic in which BBC summer camp was full with zero Covid-19 transmission, and during his tenure has worked with supporters to raise more than 6 million dollars.

Director’s Update and Announcements

Greetings friends! This year’s newsletter includes voices from parents, volunteers and staff. Our goal in sharing from their experiences is to help you connect with what happens at camp.

The Soil and Seed Project

One of those voices is past staffer Greg “Elvis” Yoder who brought the Soil and the Seed Project to my attention. Their work represents one of the ways we like to help campers understand spiritual concepts and practices. Elvis worked at camp, contributed much to our music, and started what some know as “rock the pond.” We demoed the Soil and seed Project at camp this summer and highly recommend it. In their words: The Soil and the Seed Project nurtures faith through music, art, and Little Liturgies for daily and weekly use in the home. These resources help establish new rhythms of faith as together we turn towards Jesus, believing and celebrating the Good News of God’s Love for the whole world. The resources are free and you can find them at: https://www. thesoilandtheseedproject.org. If you have kiddos at home, give it a try as a post dinner or pre bedtime practice.

School Outings

In other news, we have recently partnered with a few local school groups. It started when a friend and teacher at Woodstock Middle School, Erin Hanrahan, suggested that her class really needed fresh air, a chance to connect more deeply, and to have fun. Her and program director Anna “Meatball” Martin planned two days filled with activities, free time, team building, and of course, food! It felt a lot like a camp program. We are hopeful that the students benefited and went back to school rejuvenated and with renewed hope in their lives. Some other nearby schools have partnered to provide a similar experience for their students. If you are within a school system and interested in this, let us know and we can share some of the options.

Camp Staffing

No doubt you have seen some of your favorite organizations and companies looking to fill open staff roles. Bethany Birches is no different. While we are in conversation with a few past staff and hopeful those folks can meet the needs, current gaps include food service, facilities and maintenance, rental coordination, and bookkeeping. If you know someone who might be a good fit to work within one or multiple of these roles please let me know: brandon@ bethanybirches.org or call the office at 802-672-5220. On the topic of staffing, join us in praying for and recruiting the winter 2023 seasonal staff and volunteer team. This winter we have planned to host 8 weekend programs including one for Camp Agape and one day for families. Winter camp gives us a chance to fulfill our goal for every young person within a 60 mile radius to have a chance to experience God in community and nature. The staff team utilizes kitchen, facilities, program, and counseling staff. We can use you even if you have only one weekend to join us! And for you teens, there will be an internship program happening each Saturday. DM the Bethany Birches Instagram for more information. There is so much more to share, but, the page is getting shorter. You’ll just have to find your way out here to Bethany Birches to be part of the fun. Come visit, or sign yourself up as a volunteer. Indicate interest by going to our website and hovering over “give” then select “volunteer.” Grace and peace to you,

~ Brandon “Tuna” Bergey, Executive Director

Cheeks is Pregnant!

Yes, it’s true. Her due date is June 26. We’re posting here to make sure the whole Bethany Birches family knows this exciting news. This will be our (Tuna and Cheeks) first child. We were so busy with camp for many years that we didn’t consider children. One day, Cheeks turns to me (Tuna) and says by the time I’m 30, I want to know if we’re going to have children. I said OK. 30 came and went. So did 31. By the time we were 32 we were ready for a child. And in our 33rd year, we will have a baby, Lord willing. It’s amazing how God works in our hearts and adjusts our perspectives over time.

As you know, June, July and August are the three busiest months of the year here at camp. Probably not the ideal time to welcome a new person into the world. But, we are. And we are thankful for the opportunity to have a child. So the camp started looking for an interim program director since Amber will not be able to do her job this summer. We offered the position to Dan Laubach and he accepted.

The full story on staffing at camp, in case you’re wondering:

I (Tuna) will continue to be the Executive Director
Cheeks may or may not return to her post as Program Director (she is allowed a little more time to decide that)
Dan, the interim Program Director, is committed through October at least.
Many of the summer staff are returning from prior years.

If you’re at camp this summer, you will recognize many of us from past summers. And you might even see baby Tunacheeks!

Hope to see you at camp soon!

Tuna

(aka Brandon)

Career! The intersection of faith and work. Tuna and Cheeks share with Christopher Dock High School Students

A number of weeks ago I got an email from John Stoltzfus, the campus pastor at Christopher Dock Mennonite High School. He wanted to know if Cheeks or I or both would be willing to come share about the intersection of faith and career in our lives. I thought about it for a day and realized that not only would I enjoy being back at my alma matter, I have a deep passion for young people and their search to figure out what to do with their time. It was a stressful journey for me and so I wrote him back and told him I’d love to share with the Dock students!

Here’s what I said. Cheeks worked her schedule out to be able to come also. She was able to share a small part of her story.

Segment I (9 min.): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UcghQe96LtY&feature=youtu.be

Segment II (12 min.): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bpKKkm0goiE&feature=youtu.be

Segment III( 7 min.): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vI4aX1xHxcQ&feature=share&list=UUzZ4rFvDhKwIS5rzYAUMC5g

How have your faith and career intersected? I’d love to hear about it.

Tuna

International Flare

My camp name is “G” from Goliath. I am from Indonesia and I came to US with MCC (Mennonite Central Committee) in the International Volunteer Exchange Program (IVEP) in September 2012. BBC was my second placement during a year with MCC. Working at BBC was so meaningful to me because I worked in nature a lot! I really felt God working through nature and camp activities. The summer theme “Mission Possible” fit with me, since in the US I worked as a volunteer far from my real “world”, but I finished the assignment because it was possible #WithGod.

Working at BBC really opened my heart and mind to God. I enjoyed both work as a maintenance support and counselor assistant. In my sight, I believed that kids were not wasting their time at BBC, surrounded with good counselors, staff that are really energetic and full of passion in sharing about God’s love. I was excited to play guitar at fireside when I was there, hear the kids and all staff singing together to make a joyful noise and powerful praise to our God.

G (David Ardiles K Hadiyanto)

Summer Intern

Let your teen (17 year old) do whatever they want

In his blog post, Jonathan McKee explains an experiment he and his wife performed on their teenager. He writes:

Our theory was basically this: Start strict, and loosen up as our kids get older, eventually freeing them from all boundaries by age 17½.

Guess how it went… not bad! In fact, it allowed their daughter to begin a deeper relationship with them. Their idea was that at age 18 she can do whatever she wants. The figured they may as well let her start doing that at 17½ so that they would still have some influence before she left the house.

Jonathan writes:

Discussions with us were no longer about trying to convince us to give her permission—she already had that. Now conversations were about what she was learning from her decisions, good and bad.

She began talking with us about decisions even more. When she wanted to drive over 2 hours to San Francisco with her friends (the furthest she had ever driven), she wanted to know all about traffic, directions and safety. Not because we made her, but because we were “safe” to talk with.

Genius parenting! Now when she leaves for college, she may stay in touch. I’d encourage you to read the whole article.

What do you think? Want to try this out when your son or daughter hits 17½?

Tuna

Living with Cheeks is a gift! Spiritual Saturday

Many of you know Cheeks. She’s been the Program Director at Bethany Birches for many years (this will be her 9th summer). She also happens to be my wife. We got married after working here at camp together for a few years.

To me, Cheeks has been a gift from God. Let me explain:

Many days I realize this through various circumstances. Today, I realized it again. This time it was related to the fact that she doesn’t get distracted by stuff (you could even say she doesn’t care much about stuff). Seriously. She doesn’t like to spend a lot of money on stuff. She uses stuff until it breaks down entirely. If she looses something, she shrugs it off and mentions that she didn’t really need it anyway. Take her purse/bag for example. Right now, there’s a hole in it and one handle has broken off. She’s still using it. If it broke entirely, she might never get a new one. She might use another bag in the closet or fill her pockets.

I am quite different. I like stuff. I like high quality stuff and I like when it performs well. If it gets scratched or damaged, I like to repair it. Take my bike for example. I rode it today and it was wet. When I got home, I hosed it off and set it in front of a fan to dry. I washed it so the chain was free of grit and used the fan so that nothing would rust.

Here’s the thing. We only get so much time on Earth. Old people tell me that it goes fast. Researching, getting and taking care of stuff takes a lot of time. And, those of us who care about our stuff can at times be on the verge of caring too much for it. This is part of why Jesus told the rich young ruler to sell his stuff.

Back to me and Cheeks. She is a constant example of what it looks like to care less about stuff. With her attention not focused on stuff, she tends to focus on people… and she’s very good at considering others! Not only is this a blessing to me, it’s a witness.

I hope you find a way to bless those you live with today like Cheeks blesses me. When that way is unclear, look to Jesus. He will show you.

Tuna

Tuna Tuesday: Life to the full

I was writing in my journal this morning after reading a booked called Enjoy the Silence. Great book. Geared toward teens but relevant to adults.

In my reflection, I was thinking about the fact that last summer was our second most attended summer ever. And that high attendance came after a spring of virtually no advertising and very little marketing. We were focused on the cabin renovations and simply being able to use the building in time for summer.

Any increase in attendance couldn’t be traced to communications work done that winter and spring. I believe it was God who brought the increase. For me, this is a reminder that it is God who sustains all things (and even lets us partner sometimes in this effort – like when we tend our gardens). It’s God who provides the air we breathe and the life we were born into.

Pray with me that we will remember this each day and that once again, this summer, God will bring many campers so he may inspire them and encourage their hope and faith. We are told that faith is what pleases God. And with God we have life to the full.

To another summer, experiencing life to the full!

Tuna

Les Miserables & Camp: Tuna Tuesday

So Cheeks and I watched Les Miserables on video the other night. It’s a classic story and the most recent version done on video is very good. As I was watching the scene when Javert decides to drown himself, I realized one of many reasons to learn to love our enemies – so we don’t drown ourselves!

Here’s what he says in the song that made me think of this:

Da.ned if I’ll live in the debt of thief
Da.ned if I’ll yield at the end of the chase
I am the law and the law is not mocked
I’ll spit his pity right back in his face
There is nothing on Earth that we share
It is either Valjean or Javert!

Full Lyrics

In short, he can’t handle the fact that his enemy, Jean Valjean, loved him enough to help him in his time of need (Valjean gains permission to release him from behind enemy lines – he would have been most likely killed had Valjean not done this). He can’t stand this kindness so much that he decides to drown himself.

An article from Wikipedia explains the narrative this way:

“Javert wanders the streets in emotional turmoil: his mind simply cannot reconcile the image he had carried through the years of Valjean as a brutal ex-convict with his acts of kindness on the barricades. Now, Javert can be justified neither in letting Valjean go nor in arresting him. For the first time in his life, Javert is faced with the situation where he cannot act lawfully without acting immorally, and vice versa. Unable to find a solution to this dilemma, and horrified at the sudden realization that Valjean was simultaneously a criminal and a good person—a conundrum which made mockery of Javert’s entire system of moral values—Javert decides to resolve the dissonance by drowning in the river Seine; his body is later found.”

Here’s my point – Jesus’ teaching to love our enemies is for our own good. Whether we drown ourselves in an actual river or a metaphorical river, hate causes deep inner turmoil.

One of our goals at camp is to build a community of love each week, each summer and over the lifetime of the camp, with all who participate. This helps each of us learn to love those we otherwise might not get along with. In learning to love those hard to love, we become free from hate. Just one of the many things Jesus saves us from.

Tuna

Mt. Washington & The Life of Faith: Tuna Tuesday

So yesterday I hiked up the back side of Mt. Washington with some friends. We wanted to get some late season skiing in!

I have a cool GPS map but there’s an error with the file. If you could see the map you’d notice that we were all over the place! After hiking up, we walked to different areas of the mountain to see how the skiing was over there (and then over there… and over there). We did this because we didn’t know the mountain very well and wanted to find out where the sweet spots were.

This is not so different than the life of faith. For example, Jesus tells us in the Bible that he is “the way, the truth and the life…” For many years, it was hard for me to understand what that meant. I hadn’t experienced him enough to know that what he said is true or understand how it worked. I hadn’t found out where the good skiing was, yet, so to speak. In fact, yesterday I had to trust that there was good skiing up there somewhere. And I trusted that there was because many people have said so, and, I had been there a few times before.

When we got down, one friend mentioned that he feels like he knows the mountain much better now. (He’d better – we spent 10 hours walking around on top of it!) When following Jesus, in faith, it feels very much like this. A little like wondering around for a while on top of a mountain. And, we get to know him better after spending time with him or trying out something he said. Then we come to a knowledge of him. Knowledge of him (or of the mountain) is beyond faith in him (or trust that the mountain will have some sweet spots).

Just one of the many reasons I’m excited for Summer Camp 2013. Another chance to explore the life of faith and come to know Jesus. Please share if you too are excited for camp (or have been up Mt. Washington in the spring!).

What about you – what’s the life of faith like for you?

Tuna