Posts Tagged ‘why camp’

Join Me in Welcoming Anna “Meatball” Martin to year-round service at BBC

I love shoes and clothes that fit well. It often takes me a little time to find garments that fit just right. Sometimes a garment or shoe is close and just needs a little bit of adjustment to get to that ideal fit. In some ways building our staff team here at camp is similar. When Meatball (aka Anna) finished up her first summer, I encouraged her to come back for another round, starting with the following winter because as far as I could tell, she fit really well. She came back that winter and then again the next summer. After each season ended, I encouraged her to come back. She identifies with our core values, our mission, and is able to do good work here. So naturally, when the role of Program Director became available, I encouraged her to apply. I am delighted to say that she has accepted that role permanently and I look forward to strengthening our efforts to serve youngsters who need an important camp experience. I believe she is a great fit for Bethany Birches! Join me in welcoming her. Here she shares a bit about her process of coming to accept the role

~ Brandon

As a college student, I searched for a camp to counsel at that would place a large importance on relationships and also push me out of my comfort zone. The first time I volunteered at a BBC winter camp I felt a sense of belonging and immediately knew I wanted to serve as a counselor. My two years of counseling instilled in me a deep sense of purpose and growth. I always felt supported and encouraged even on the days when my campers would wake me up four times in the middle of the night. When I finished my second year of counseling I felt drawn to helping create the environment that I felt so uplifted by. While my transition to Program Director took a few extra steps, and was fairly unconventional I am thankful for all of it. I have been so blessed by the staff who have spent their summers at camp, and so excited to see familiar faces as campers arrive each week at camp. As I was discerning whether to take on the role of Program Director, I was constantly reminded that working at BBC means you are a part of something greater than yourself. It’s not just the fun activities, spending time with kids, the mud pit, or working outdoors that draws me here; although those are huge perks. I have yet to find a place that balances progress and support as well as BBC. I know it will not be easy and there will be difficult campers and long tiring days, but I also know that I will grow. It always excites me to have a new camper, staff member, or volunteer come to camp because they get to be a part of a place that is unique in its unwavering dedication to having people feel known. I am overjoyed to spend the coming years working to help others experience the camp I love so dearly.

~ Anna “Meatball” Martin, Program Director

Are We Accomplishing Our Mission? Beyond Anecdotes.

Over the last few years Bethany Birches has been committed to partnering with academic organizations researching the benefits of Christian Summer Camps. Last year the Hope Study (University of Oklahoma) measured whether campers experienced increased hope as a result of their camp experience. The Hope Study 2018 found “The results of this report continue to provide support for the positive impact the participating Christian camps are having on the boys and girls attending those camps, not just in terms of Hope and Well-Being, but also in social connectedness and interest in their Faith.” Fifty-six percent of campers had increased hope scores after coming to camp. This was most closely correlated with making friends and having developed some faith.

This year The Power of Camp study (POC) has given us preliminary data about campers’ engagement with faith, relationships with peers, and connection to staff as a result of their camp experience. Based on early data from this summer all of the parents surveyed said their child made friends at camp and 67% of campers said they were strengthened in their faith. Only 24% of parents reported reading the Bible with their children and 87% of parents felt we were “effectively teaching Christian faith.” All of the parents surveyed said they would send their child back to camp and 90% of campers ranked “the entire camp experience” as their most enjoyed part of camp. The initial data we have received from this summer is very encouraging and points toward significant mission accomplishment. We are excited that 100% of parents surveyed were pleased with our “system of addressing bullying/ conflicts.” We see Jesus’ teachings of “Love your enemies” and “treat others as you wish to be treated” in this statistic.

2019 was the third summer in a row in which our seasonal staff participated in The Power of Camp. POC was conducted by Wheaton College looking at how staff of summer camps are affected by the experience. We have received data specific to our staff’s experiences and are able to compare this with the average of camps participating in the study. Participating in these studies allows us to quantitatively identify our areas of strength as well as opportunities for improvement. For example, between the 2017 and 2018 staff studies we saw a significant increase in how staff felt supported by their supervisors. We improved from being on par with other camps with a 4.1 out of 5 rating to a 5 out of 5 average rating from the staff. Also improving in the same period were the percent of staff who experienced growth in the teamwork and emotional intelligence areas assessed by the study. These and others had been identified as areas for improvement by camp leadership and the following year increased by 22.5% and 21.5% to be on par or higher than the average camp in the study. Between the summers 2017 and 2018 we improved parts of staff training, intentionally sought ways to provide more support for staff, and had better and more frequent meetings to improve communication. These improvements have been continued this last summer and we look forward to the forthcoming 2019 research study results.

It is encouraging to have data to inform our decisions and confirm what we are doing is consistent with our mission. We were able to see that staff was improving in areas of spiritual growth, leadership, and resiliency similar to other camps and pinpoint what we could improve the next year. We feel both affirmed by the research and able to identify potential areas for improvement next year. We will continue pursuing these research opportunities because they have been and will continue to be part of making Bethany Birches Camp better at achieving our mission to help young people develop their relationship with God.

~ Patrick “Rupert” Graber,

Office Coordinator and Facilities Manager

Matthew 25: BBC Style

Matthew 25:34 reads: ‘When I was in prison you visited me, when I was hungry, you fed me, when I was stuck on Lynds Hill Road, you pulled me out…’

Actually that last phrase isn’t in the Bible. But the phrase does describe how the Bible came alive last week at Bethany Birches Camp.

I was getting ready to feed Susie when I heard a knock on the sliding door (a common mission impossible destination for many – knocks are not uncommon!). A man I did not know stood outside our door, looking cold and tired. I opened the door a crack.

“Hello, can I help you?”

“Uh, yea,” the man replied. “I’m from VTEL, I’m stuck down the road. Could I use your phone to call a tow truck?”

“Oh, I’m sorry. Yes, you may use the phone, come on in.”

“Do you have the number for a local towing company?” The stranger asks sheepishly.

“Uh, sir, you’re in Plymouth, VT. the middle of nowhere. Nothing is local… Let me call my husband at the camp up the road, he’ll know who to call.”

” Oh, just up the road, I can walk up there.”

And after a bit more conversation the cold, tired man trudges up the road towards camp.

About 15 min later, I see Chick on the tractor and Tuna and the stranger in our car driving down the road.

15 min later I see the tractor, the car and a mini van come up the road. The stranger gets out and gives Tuna a hug. The man gave Chick the certificate pictured here.

He wasn’t naked, hungry or in prison. He was stuck. And Chick and Tuna helped him get unstuck.

The words of Jesus continue to come alive at Bethany Birches Camp. Join us on the hill (work days, winter camp, summer camp, volunteering) to experience Jesus for yourself.

-Cheeks.

Why Camp Has To Be Challenging

This is an excellent article from American Camp Association!

In summary, it promotes the fact that at the heart of camp are the things that build up people. Hardships. Failures. Homesickness. I would add, fun, relationships and the outdoors go a long way in this building of a person.

You simply must read this article:

https://acacamps.org/campmag/1311/tried-true

Tuna

BBC Teen Campers to Ethiopia

Campers will teach you just as much as (if not more than) you teach them. I share this mantra with staff often throughout orientation. Staff and campers prove the saying true for 8 weeks every summer at Bethany Birches Camp (BBC). A few weeks ago I experienced the mantra to be true for myself as well. Three BBC teen campers reminded me of what it looks like to love God and love people.

About 6 months ago at BBC’s 2013 April Connect for Teens, Annie and Katie Soho told me I should join them on a service trip to an orphanage in Ethiopia in August*. The offer was tempting. I perseverated for about 6 weeks until I finally declined. Recently I was browsing pictures from their trip and reading about their stories (I’m still waiting to hear in person) through an article in the Valley News** and I’m wondering why I didn’t join them. The pictures and comments struck me as love in action. Specifically loving the least – children and widows. The campers were carrying out the beliefs I claim and share each summer.

For the past 10 summers I’ve shared God’s 2 most important commandments: Love God and Love People. As each summer concludes the post summer blues inevitably sink in. I miss the excitement and energy of young people at camp. I miss the staff. I feel like the beauty of camp is wasted on the emptiness. I wonder if any campers heard anything this summer that will change their lives. Over the course of their summers at BBC – Annie, Katie and Flossie heard something. These 3 girls have been hearing this message for a long time from camp, from their churches and from their families. These BBC campers not only heard a message to love others but put the message into practice. They sacrificed 2 weeks of their summer to serve in Ethiopia. Campers continue to teach me.

Annie, Katie (and their mom Sandy) and Flossie inspired me. Following their journey to Ethiopia and back again has inspired me to not just stay on the hill of a lonely camp but to move into the world (or invite the world to me) to love God and love people. I don’t know that I’ll be heading to Ethiopia anytime soon but right now I’m inspired by these 3 BBC campers to consider how I can live out now what I share all summer. How do I love the love and serve the people around me now? I’m learning more from these campers than they are from me.

*Selamta Family Project is an organization that seeks to place orphans in forever families. Find out more here.

**I waited too long after the article to post this. You can’t seem to get to the article anymore online. If you’d like to read it in full let me know, I think I can get my hands on a copy.

Newsletter 2013: Snow Camp!

A lot of snow + campers + BBC= SNOW CAMP!! Undoubtedly campers love going to camp: to see friends, to see the staff, and at BBC- to learn more about God. We (a group of volunteers) had a great time with the campers in a non-stop action packed weekend, but the focus wasn’t necessarily on snow – It was on God.

Something that stands out in my mind from the weekend was a conversation that a couple of us (volunteers and campers) were having. I remembered one of the campers – he has a brilliant mind but had a hard time processing the existence of one almighty God. He and his family tended to be polytheistic and as we talked about the story of Elijah found in 1 Kings in the Bible, he asked some really good questions – like, “Why did Elijah call upon Baal to bring fire down when that wasn’t Baals ‘gift’ or ‘power’? He wasn’t the god of fire so of course he won’t be able to send fire down on the altar.” Hmm, good point. We continued to go deeper, yet at some point he seemed to reach an impasse, to which he said, “I’m a skeptic…” as if he thought that by saying that I would stop asking questions. We pressed on. He said that it would take a REALLY BIG miracle to prove to him that the God of Abraham is real.

It was a blessing to be a part of that discussion. He was processing the Christian story. He was asking good questions. He has a deeper knowledge now than he had before – whether that translates into a trust in Jesus and eventual service of God’s Kingdom is yet to be seen. At least a weekend at camp filled his heart and mind with knowledge of the truth. Sometimes these conversations can be a challenge, but they’re the ones that can also bring about the most change and can give us the most encouragement to keep going, to keep proclaiming the message of the gospel to a world that so desperately needs to hear it, see it, feel it, experience it – and Bethany Birches IS all of those things to EVERY camper!

Scott Kratz, Volunteer

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

Newsletter 2012: Nye Sees God at Camp

Seeing God at Camp

(counselor Nye delivered this message at the Annual Sunday Service in 2012)

Camp is like an ocean.

If you really think about it, there are only really two types of oceans out there.

First, the Pacific. When Balboa first laid eyes on this body, the only name he could give to it was one redolent of smooth, un-agitated seas, an environment of warmth, gentle sailing, calm and serenity. It appeared this way of course, out of contrast with the second ocean.

Second, the Atlantic.Typically cold, bitter, unforgiving. A sailor can never be at east, at peace in these waters. Not when there could be super-waves, perfect storms. The Bermuda Triangle is in this ocean. These waters claimed the lives of many able-bodied men; even the most famous ship of all sunk in the Atlantic. This body of water earned its name because according to legend it claimed an entire continent, the lost land of Atlantis, in its violent rage and tempest. Waters such as these are not traveled lightly, with a peaceful mind.

It seems to me that life is similarly dichotomized. You’re traveling along in the South Pacific, and before you know it, you’re in the North Atlantic, frantically fighting in a maelstrom of icebergs and mountainous waves, only to just as suddenly end up in the tropics once more.

And this is how camp has been for me. Sometimes I find myself weathering literal storms, but most are of a more figurative nature. Each week of campers is a new voyage. Perhaps this is why we give them names like Pilgrim, Explorer, Discoverer… Voyager. Each week begins, I get a new boatload of children, and I test the air, looking for that red sky in the morning.

But most times, there will be no warning, and lightning will strike. Two polar personalities between campers, injuries in Mission Impossible, a rainy week that gets spirits low. Not all of the weeks, not even half, usually only one, or two. But in those weeks the only sensation I can ascribe my counseling state to is that of a frantic captain, desperately seeking to keep his boat afloat, to ensure that his campers are safe, happy and seeing God.

However, it is on those wild waves, not the placid Pacific, that I see the face of God. One particular bible verse comes to mind: 1^st Kings, chapter 19, verse 11. Elijah, the prophet, is paid a visit by God.

The Lord said, “Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by.”

Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. ¹²After the earthquake came a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper. ¹³When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave.

The strangest thing happens on those weeks. In the climax of the storm, there’ll be a moment in which everything just seems to stop momentarily. One week it was when during a time of singing, a stubborn camper broke down and after not having partaken all week determinedly stared at me, desperately trying to catch the song by reading my lips and listening to my voice and following along. I sang the song to him, looking at him instead of the card, and we sang that way until the song ended, I singing to him, he singing back. I saw God in his face, in that whisper among the tempest.

In another week a camper felt excluded from his friends, and sat outside of the pavilion. I sat with him for a while, and we just looked out at the mountains, admiring their beauty together. We sat talking until he felt calm enough to rejoin the group. When asked what he had learned at the end of the week, he said that the mountains were made by God.

I enjoy the placid weeks for what they offer me: rest and peace. But I have found that it is after the turbulent weeks that I am the most satisfied and spiritually “full”. Last year I was much more exhausted after I had finished a week of difficult campers, but this year I see it more clearly, so I almost relish a difficult group. For it is in the tempest when I hear the quiet whisper, when I see the face of God.

Max “Nye” Halik

Kids Need Summer Camp

Kids need summer camp

“America needs to send all of these kids to camp this summer before this generation loses the values that have driven our country since the beginning,” says author Marc Joseph, CEO and founder of DollarDays International Inc. In a Huffington Post blog entry, Joseph points out that Generation Z (children born since the late 1990s), has never known life before Internet and online connections. Many of these children communicate by text messages more than talking; they spend little time outdoors and have a very different worldview than the generation before them.

Joseph urges parents: “We need to get these kids out playing and communicating and winning and losing so they can take our place in getting this country back to leading the world in economic and ethical ways. Help send these kids to camp this summer.”

You can read the entire article here.

Source: HuffingtonPost.com