Fall Youth Retreat

Well, we’ve had a busy weekend here at Bethel Camp. Friday evening 62 campers, 23 staff members, and 7 “camp kids” converged on the campground. Lloyd and Pat Burns (Lloyd is the father of Bill Burns our camp cook) get the award for traveling the farthest. They came from southern Michigan. Duane & Desiree Ramey get the award for traveling the shortest distance to camp (They can see camp from their house and have only about a half mile trip in the car to get here.) There were campers here from Ohio and North Carolina, and campers from Lexington, Buckhorn area, and of course Breathitt County and Perry County.

With all that combined energy we were in for an exciting weekend. Darren & Kendra (Miller) Fisher led us in some great worship. We sang some good ol’ camp songs as well as some really meaningful songs of praise. Victor Shiro did some neat “magic” tricks (or illusions) that first evening and his wife Linda used chalk to draw an incredible picture illustration of Christ’s payment of sin’s penalty (see Romans 6:23). She even sang some songs while she was drawing the picture! If you want to see her artwork you’ll have to come to camp and see it in the chapel some day. We (along with the angels) rejoiced when one of the young people asked Jesus to be their Savior that first night.

However the night was not done when chapel was over. After a time of reflection on the evening message, everyone put on dark clothes to play capture the flag. There were a lot of flags (glow sticks) taken from behind enemy lines and safely brought back across the line without being caught or captured in the process. When the game was over the west team had 4 more glow sticks than the east team did. And there were a lot of stories told about some amazing captures and stealthy sneaking through the woods to get into position to get a glow stick without being discovered.

The weather was perfect for a fall retreat. Cool mornings and warm afternoons allowed us to really experience the out of doors at its finest. I (Roger) took a group of 9 hikers on an optional sunrise hike at 7:00 Saturday morning. We left the campground just as the sky was getting light and reached the top of the hill about 10 minutes before the sun peaked over the eastern ridge of the mist covered mountains. There are some talented artists in this world but no one can paint with light like God can as he creates a unique new sunrise every morning.

Victor and his son Evan did a bunch of juggling with everything from balls and bean bags to flaming torches at the campfire. They had some little things like a giant open yo-yo that was controlled and caught on a string, I think they are called a diabolo. The one they used at the campfire was burning while they spun it around. At that campfire, Evan had all of our attention as he spewed flames out of his mouth. At the evening chapel on Saturday Victor escaped from a straight jacket to illustrate the need for us as Christians to not remain in bondage to the will of the Devil but rather experience freedom in Christ. At each session Linda drew a different picture to illustrate the lesson from the Bible. She even had her son Nathan help her on the picture about a prophet who talked to a donkey. If you’ve never had the privilege of seeing them minister the gospel, you’re missing out on a treat. You can visit their website at www.otbusa.org or call them and find out about their schedule (606) 464-3481.

But with all the fun and activity of the weekend, I bet if you ask some of the youth who were here for the weekend what their favorite part was, I’ll bet that their answer goes something like this: “I really enjoyed hanging out with some friends.” As a camp director, I really enjoyed seeing a bunch of young people interacting. Friendships are powerful. The relationships we make with those around us have a lot to do with the quality of life that we experience. One of our prayers is that time spent at Bethel Camp will make each of us better able to communicate with those around us. We pray that it will make us more mindful of the needs, feelings, and emotions of those people we meet every day. By our attitude each of us has the potential to encourage someone to do more than just endure life. We have the opportunity to challenge each other to rather make every day an investment in eternity.

Remember to live life to the max. It is possible if you understand what grace is all about.

Auction

 Hello again! There have been lots of things happening lately. A church in Ohio (United Bethel) sent a group of about 40 people down to camp for a week to do a bunch of work projects. They painted the chapel, re-shingled and painted Miller Hall, built a really cool addition to the creative playground (my kids call it the “tree house”), built shelves to organize rec equipment, built a fence out by the road, and poured a concrete pad for a porch. They were a good group to have around. We’re thankful for all of their hard work!

We’re also thankful for the safety of our neighbors, Eldon & Ella June Miller. Last weekend they were in a car accident that totaled their vehicle. They were in Pennsylvania, on the way to a family reunion, and not far from the home of some friends when it happened. They made it safely to the reunion and even found a relative who offered to drive them home afterwards. They’re still unsure about how they will replace their car, but they are safe and sound, with only a few bruises and scratches from an incident that could so easily have ended in death.

And now there are just a few days left til our big fundraising auction at the Jackson True Value. Becky Stoltzfus and Mary Eash put so much time into getting everything ready for it, and they (along with everyone else who helps) do such a great job of keeping things running smoothly. The auction starts at 12:00, and lunch will be served starting at 10:00. There will be baked goods tables (full of good Mennonite baking…) and treasure tables (where you can purchase some smaller items without waiting around to bid.) There will be lots of doorprizes throughout the day – have you seen the final doorprize on the counter in True Value? Some lucky person will get to take that beautiful basket home at the end of the day. The food is outstanding. Wendell Kurtz comes all the way from North Carolina to smoke chicken for us on auction day. And as you pick up your auction number Saturday, you’ll be tantalized by the aroma of John Yoder’s burgers, sizzling on the grill.

The list of auction items is a varied one. There are full-sized quilts, baby afghans, furniture, a 5’x8’ drive-through trailer, baby quilts, book shelves, a toaster oven, quilt stands, 2 apple stack cakes, and some beautiful items to decorate your home with. The list is too long for me to write everything here – you’ll just have to come and see for yourself. And if you can’t come, maybe you could say a little prayer for a cool day with no rain.

Congratulations to Darren and Kendra Fisher!! We’ve enjoyed watching your relationship grow during the time you’ve spent together here at camp – your wedding was beautiful. May the Lord bless your marriage richly.

Camp’s Over

 Well… one day we’re asking ourselves, “How did camp time get here so fast?” and it seems like the very next that we’re saying, “What? Is camp already over with? Where did the last 8 weeks go?!” I don’t know where they went – the same place that every week goes, I guess – but I could tell you what they were full of: campers. Campers moving into cabins, cleaning them every morning for the mysterious cabin inspector to score, gathering together after lunch and just before bedtime to goof off and (hopefully) have some more meaningful moments of drawer closer to the Creator together, and collapsing into their bunks at night to sleep off another day full of activity. Campers on the ballfield— running and dodging in games of ultimate frisbee, bucket ball, dare base, and the intensity of a mud struggle or the weekly shaving cream fight. Campers in the chapel— jumping around to active songs, raising their hands in worship, listening intently to a Bible speaker, or taking a 30-minute slot in the “12 hours of praise and worship.” Campers in the rec hall, loading up on sugar and caffeine, or trying to make the highest score in the hoops game – or just hanging out with friends. Campers in the dining hall— drinking gallons of Kool-Aid, saying Bible verses to receive a piece of mail, ganging up on a staff member to try to force them to sing a song, determining who has the longest fingernails or the most alliteration in their name to decide which camper has to scrape the plates.

The weeks were also full of staff members who poured their lives into these kids for a week at a time. There were so many kids who gave their hearts to Christ during these 8 weeks of summer camp here. We’re so thankful to Christian Word Ministries who gave full scholarships to 48 of our campers, even provided them with sleeping bags, pillows and Bibles – we’re thankful that they were able to experience a week of camp that they might not have been able to otherwise.

With camp over, the pace doesn’t really seem to slow down that much. There’s a youth group from Ohio due to arrive on Monday the 6^th – 30 people who have no idea how many projects there are waiting for them! And we’re getting down to the last few weeks of planning for our annual fundraiser auction. On August 18^th, hordes of people (we hope) will be gathered in the True Value parking lot (probably praying for clear skies and a cool breeze) enjoying tasty food and spending our money on a cause that we believe in. All of the money that’s raised on that day goes towards providing eight fun weeks of summer camp, plus a couple of weekend retreats, all planned specifically to bring kids closer to Christ. I hope you’ll come join us.

If you have prayed for the people at Bethel Camp this summer –a single time or on a daily basis– thank you. We have felt the effects of those prayers; we’ve needed them and still do. I wonder… could the ministry of Bethel Camp be effective without the quiet prayers of people behind the scenes?

Graduation

 We’ve been waiting for this weekend for awhile now, and I’m not sure we’re ready for it! But ready or not, we’re celebrating Bethel Camp’s 50^th Anniversary over Memorial Day weekend. We’ve got lots of activities planned, good food on the menu, and quite a few people registered who make up some of Bethel Camp’s history. One thing we’re working on that we’re excited about is a Camp Memories booklet. We’ve gathered stories from past directors (and people who played other roles in the running of camp) along with an overview/history of Bethel Camp, and Wendy has put them all together into a booklet form. We’ll be giving them out to everyone who attends this weekend. If you’re not able to make it but would like a copy of the booklet, please let us know. We’d love for you to have one.

One day last week, 5 women from Turners Creek and Bowling Creek came over to help us get the campgrounds ready for the anniversary weekend. They cleaned and cleaned, got rained on, and cleaned some more. I thought it would be interesting to add up how many years of housecleaning experience they have between them. I’ll go with a low estimate. Between the 5 of them, they’ve cleaned homes for well over 200 years. That’s the kind of people that I trust to get our buildings ready for guests. J

As I sit here in my room and type, I hear the hammering of rocks being broken into the right sizes to fit in the chimney that Roger and Shaun are working hard to finish before guests start arriving. When the old boys’ dorm was remodeled, a fireplace was added in one of the new guest rooms, and Roger had the dream of building a beautiful rock chimney outside. That dream is so close to completion. It won’t be long until we can back our van out without having to watch out for a pile of rocks. It’ll also be nice to be able to use the wood stove in the basement to keep that building warm this winter instead of paying for the electric heat.

Roger and I had several invitations to Breathitt’s graduation this year, and we wish that we could have been a part of that. But Wesley graduated from Kindergarten at Riverside that same night. It’s not nearly as big of an accomplishment as finishing 12^th grade, but we couldn’t miss seeing that curly-haired boy of ours shake Mr. VanSkyhawk’s hand and get his diploma! Thinking about Wesley graduating from kindergarten brought back vivid memories of my own kindergarten graduation. Until then, I didn’t know I could remember anything from 25 years ago.

Congratulations to all the graduates. May you have a summer of peace and relaxation, before the next level of responsibility that life brings to you.

Spring Youth Retreat

 Wet. That’s the first adjective that comes to mind when I think of how to describe this youth retreat weekend. The second one, following closely behind, is – cold. When Micah Parkerson stood up to speak during chapel on Saturday, he asked everyone, “How many of you think this is the fall retreat?” It did feel like a wet autumn weekend, but somehow the weather never seems to take the fun out of a weekend at camp. Youth retreats are always more or less memorable, but this one will become a part of history: “Remember that youth retreat that we all got flooded in at camp?”

Friday evening was really nice weather and after a hot dog roast and the chapel service that evening we all enjoyed a game of capture the flag in the dark. (Actually two games since one team captured all the flags in about 15 minutes the first game). When I went to bed on Friday, the mist was just starting to come down, and I don’t think it stopped misting and raining until sometime Sunday.

Saturday after a super breakfast of pancakes, baked oatmeal, and bacon, Keith Byler led us in a time of worship and Micah shared a message titled “You are here.” He challenged all the campers to look at where they were spiritually just like you look at a map at the mall with the big “x” showing where you are. Then after taking a good look at where you are, follow the example of Isaiah after God touched his tongue with a burning coal from the fire – say, “here I am, send me.” God has some really cool plans for us if we are just ready to follow him.

The rest of the day was filled with activities like making a Bible story video, playing basketball and volleyball in the rain, hiking through the woods, eating Bill’s wonderful pizza, making raffia baskets or a leather key fob in the craft room, archery and riflery, or seeing how high you could build a “water tower” out of 100 coffee stirrers and a roll of tape. One of the highlights for me (Roger) was a wet and muddy game of Ultimate Frisbee. Even though my team lost, I enjoyed the exercise and challenge of the game. Seth Showalter (son of Jon Showalter who lived here with his family in the 1960’s) was the high scorer on his team making some awesome catches in the end zone.

During the Saturday evening service the Big Rock Players entertained us with some poignant skits challenging us to be ready for Christ’s return and be involved in reaching people with the good news of God’s love and hope for salvation.

The hard rain hit Saturday night after midnight and like many of you, we woke up to high water in the creek. In our case we were completely blocked in and started calling parents to let them know that they wouldn’t be able to get here to pick up their kids like they had planned at 2:00 PM. (The water finally went down below the bridge around 6:30 PM). We had a super worship service Sunday morning. The worship time was awesome – we truly felt the presence of Jesus in our midst. As a response to the message, the kids were asked to write a letter to themselves which will be mailed to them in a month. The letter was their chance to write down some things they wanted to remind themselves to keep on doing after they leave camp and get back into the routine of life.

Our kitchen staff did an impressive job all weekend, but they had the added challenge of fixing a totally unplanned meal for everyone Sunday evening. They took what we had on hand and fixed a fine meal and I know none of us went hungry. We probably ate too much all weekend – what with 3 good meals a day and two times to buy stuff from the snack shop on Saturday we had more than we needed.

Looking back on the weekend it is amazing to me how much fun a group of kids can have. Rain may have changed some of the activities, and caused us to have to wash a few loads of clothes to keep the campers dry and warm, but the rain added a new element that made this spring retreat memorable. It seems we remember better the times when we are faced with a challenge and overcome it. Why in the world do we spend so much of our time trying to make ourselves comfortable when 50 years from now we will never remember the times we spent in an air-conditioned room watching television and drinking a pepsi.

Have a great week! -Roger & Ruthie

Justin & Julia

 We have new (old – but young) friends at camp for awhile! Last Friday, Justin and Julia Kurtz moved up from Asheville, NC to spend 5 weeks helping out while Julia does her nursing clinicals in Hazard. They met for the first time here at Bethel Camp when they were young, then got to know each other better over several summers while they were on staff together. It’s good to have them here.

We are so grateful to Martha Stoltzfus and Pauline Yoder who, earlier in the week, spent most of a day cleaning Miller Hall so it would be ready for Justin & Julia to move into. At one point during the day, we were talking about the idea of an “age factor.” Everyone has an actual age, but there’s another “age” too – the age that you look or act; the age that other people may think of when they see you. Those two ladies must have a pretty low age factor. Either one of them could be a grandmother to my girls, and yet at suppertime, Malin referred to them as “the girls that came to Miller Hall today.” And earlier in the day, after spending time with Martha & Pauline, Avery came up to the house and asked for a snack to share with her “good friends.”

And that was just the beginning of the spring clean-up process… This past weekend, a youth group from Delaware – about 30 people – came down and got all kinds of stuff done around here. They have kind of a tradition of coming down every other year – doing work projects around camp on Friday and Saturday, then doing an Easter program at the Turner’s Creek Mennonite Church. We didn’t get to see their program at Turner’s Creek, but we had the chance to watch one of their practices. Excellent.

I spent most of my weekend in the kitchen preparing food and catching glimpses of progress from the windows. The camp pick-up and golf cart were kept busy hauling leaves, trash, tree limbs and workers who were efficient enough to catch a ride. A couple of girls were kept busy all day Friday feeding a fire that consumed tree stumps and fallen limbs. Another group cleared a trail through Larkin Holler to the top of the hill. They cleaned leaves out of ditches, emptied out the wood shop and moved everything to another building, hauled rec. equipment up to the old wood shop, set posts for a fence, cleaned out gutters, and put shingles on a roof.

With all of the work that’s gotten done, we feel ready for the spring youth retreat that will be going on this weekend. It starts at 6:00 with registration and a hot dog cookout. There’s still room – if any of you (in 7^th-12^th grades) have been wanting to come but forgot to preregister… come on over!

Faith, Hope and Backhoes

 When Judah was 4, the only thing he wanted for Christmas was a backhoe. I didn’t quite understand what he liked about backhoes – or even how he knew anything about them. I should have realized. A little boy only has to watch a big yellow machine one time to get it stuck in his head. Last Monday I spent some time watching a backhoe at work. Earl Gabbard and Arthur Back came over to the camp and did a bunch of work for us. I was fascinated by the power and the flexibility of the machine. I missed those days of homeschooling when I would have sent the boys outside to watch what was going on. My girls were slightly interested when we watched the backhoe together, but mostly they were concerned with picking dandelions (“lion-dils”) and rescuing mismatched, ancient flip-flops (“flip-shoes”) that had been left on the playground. When I was driving the boys home from the bus stop, I was telling them about watching the backhoe push a tree down. I’d never seen anything like it, and I thought it was extremely interesting. Judah offhandedly said, “Oh, I’ve seen that before.” Burst my bubble… Guess who spends more time outside around big machinery. Obviously not mom.

On Friday, Mark Driskill and Scott Hollan brought Boy Scout troop #185 to Bethel Camp. They camped out overnight and spent much of Saturday doing work projects. They lopped the branches off the tree that was pushed down and hauled them to a burn pile. Someday soon the rest of the tree will be sawed up into benches to be placed around a campfire ring or two. During the summer, we usually have one main campfire service each week, but it’s also nice to occasionally be able to send each cabin of kids out to build their own campfire. There’s just something about sitting around a fire in the darkness with a group of people that brings out conversation and deepens bonds of friendship. And the music around a campfire! Why does it always sound so much better than songs stuck between the walls of a building?

Have you ever listened to a song over and over again, memorized it and sung along with it, and then all of a sudden… you’re listening to it and something clicks… and you understand what the writer meant? I had one of those moments recently with the song “No More Faith” by Andrew Peterson.

Lord, I believe / Only help my unbelief
Till there’s no more faith / No more hope
I’ll see your face and Lord, I’ll know
That only love remains

I realized that he was referring to 1 Corinthians 13 – “Now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.” But what’s going to happen to faith and hope? Why would they disappear and leave only love? You know what I think? Faith and hope are both about waiting for something that is to come. On the day that I see Jesus’ face, there will be nothing left to hope for, and no reason to have faith in anything better to come. I’ll be face to face with the only person who can fulfill all of my desires. All that will be left for me to do is love.

But as to faith… and hope… There’s a little Tonka backhoe around here somewhere that’s spent countless hours in the sandbox, digging hole after hole and moving piles of sand from one spot to another. “If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!” (The present came from his Papaw & Mam-Mam, but I think the same principle applies.) Have a great week!

bunny fun

 Our family is seriously into bunnies these days. We started out (once we managed to keep some rabbits alive for more than 3 days) with a mama bunny and her two big babies. Then we inherited a daddy and another mommy from some friends who had had enough of rabbits for awhile. Now we’ve got a whole bunny colony up under the porch of Krestan Hall. Roger made a bunch of rabbit hutches – he used the metal casing of an old air conditioner for one of them J – and Judah and Wesley have the responsibility of taking care of them. Whenever they sell a bunny, they get to put the money in a box where they keep it until they need to buy rabbit food. Thinking about rabbits makes me want to read “Watership Down” again. Maybe it’s about time to pull that one out and read it to the boys.

A few of the rabbits have names, but I can only think of three right now: Snowflake, Mr. Snugglekins and Go-Up-the-Ramp (Malin chose that name because “it likes to go up the ramp” in its cage.) Every so often, the kids will let one or more of the bunnies out to run around free for awhile. I get a kick out of watching them try to chase them down. If you get to camp this summer, you may get a chance to hold a baby bunny or two. (Or help the Voth and Driskill kids catch them.) Maybe that should be a new team game? The first team to capture all their bunnies (without hurting or traumatizing them) wins the prize?

On a more relevant note (relevant to camp anyway) Darren Fisher continues to diligently tackle the maintenance and groundskeeping issues here. He’s mastered the art of replacing broken and cracked window panes around camp. (Thanks to Mary Gambill and Jeff Watts at True Value Hardware for cutting the glass accurately.) And he made some nice signs to label the main hiking trails on the camp property. Roger took a hike up to Big Rock with Judah and Wesley, and the boys were always excited to spot the next yellow arrow sign along the trail. Darren has also put up new chain nets on the basketball court and some more powerful lights so we can play basketball in the evenings. If you’re ever looking for a place to play ball, or want to bring your kids over to play on the playground… that’s what it’s here for.

stuffing (board meeting) envelopes

 Sometime this winter, Malin (my 4-year-old) and Wesley (my 6-year-old) were playing on the living room floor with a bunch of matchbox cars and a big board. They had lined up 30 or 40 cars in rows on the board, and like the camp director’s kids that they are, they were setting them up for a “board meeting.” Malin was starting to put a red car in line with the others when Wesley stopped her and said, “No, not that one! He’ll get too bored! ..… That’s why it’s called a board meeting.”

I don’t know what your feelings are about board meetings, but I always kind of look forward to the weekends when the Bethel Camp board members get together. True, I may be looking through the rose-colored glasses of the director’s wife who doesn’t have to sit still (or act as recording secretary!) during the whole meeting. But we do have an excellent group of board members. They’re people who we respect and enjoy being with. The board is our decision-making body, and their leadership helps to guide the day-to-day tasks that we’re in charge of. It’s good to sit around a table (for hours on end, even) with people who love the Lord and who work together to plan for the future of Bethel Camp.

Last week we sent out invitations to our 50^th Anniversary Celebration – 1650 of them. (Obviously we’re not asking the elite few to our celebration weekend.) On Wednesday, Pauline Yoder and Ella June Miller spent the morning with me, sticking address labels on envelopes while Roger ran to Ma & Pa’s printing shop to get our papers folded on their nifty machine. Floyd & Beulah Coomer have done a lot of our printing – of newsletters and registration forms – and we are grateful that Floyd was willing to take time out of his busy day to run those papers through his folding machine. Not to mention Beulah, who fed Roger like a king before sending him on his way! After lunch (the 3^rd meal of the day for Roger) the four of us sat and stuffed each of those envelopes with a schedule and a registration form.

Later that evening, I was feeling thankful for the inventor of the little gadget that seals our envelopes. Can you imagine licking 1650 envelopes?? It took more than a cup of water to seal them all. I’m not sure my saliva glands would have been able to keep up…

The last envelope was finally sealed around 9:30 that evening. Thank you, Ella June and Pauline for offering to spend your day here. It meant a lot, and I thoroughly enjoyed the conversation as we worked – as well as Pauline’s amazing brown sugar cookies!

a camp office memory

It’s been a busy week here at camp, but not an exciting one. Roger has been doing lots of the behind-the-scenes part of being a camp director: sending out thank-you notes and receipts for financial gifts, getting letters out to board members, trying to figure out how to maintain the camp web page. (Now there’s a confusing job. He was trying to teach me how to do a few things with web design this morning. I picked up a little bit, but mostly I gained a new respect for web designers! If you’ve never visited our web page, check it out at www.bethelcamp.org. Don’t expect perfection – it’s still being worked on.)

So he’s spent most of the week in the office, which doesn’t give me a lot of camp news to share. But… I can’t help but think of the first time that I remember sitting in the camp office. It was the summer after my junior year of high school, and my family had talked me into coming up from North Carolina with my brother to be a counselor for day camp. I wasn’t that excited about trying something new, but I came, and after spending a week on staff, I was hooked – I didn’t want to go home. The last day of camp that week, Phil Swartzentruber (camp director at the time) told me I could stay for the next week if it was okay with my parents. I remember so vividly sitting in that creaky swivel chair in the office, calling home and asking my dad if I could stay for another week. I was almost in tears, worried that he was going to say no. I remember as he was talking with me, trying to figure out my reasons for wanting to stay, he said, “You’re having a mountain-top experience right now. Don’t forget that you have to come down sometime.” It was good advice – and of course I did come down, but I also got to spend one more week “on top of the mountain” that summer.

I’d spent several weeks here as a camper when I was younger, but I think that first week on staff marks the time that I really started to fall in love with Bethel Camp. Now I see that same thing happening to other teenagers. They come for a week as a counselor, and it’s just not enough. They leave at the end of the week and then send Roger an email saying, “I’m free for the rest of the summer. Let me know if you need me. I would LOVE to come back.” Or we get a staff application in the mail from someone who wants to be on staff every week during the summer. It’s a tiring, 24-hour job, and they don’t get paid for it. But those young adults who pour themselves into the lives of younger kids for a week or more are a big part of the reason why those campers keep coming back, summer after summer.

And now, even in the off-season, when the campground looks dead and there are no sounds of campers running around outside, when the week’s agenda is full of office work and maintenance projects that few people will ever notice, our goal remains the same. We want to be ready for as many kids as possible to spend a week here at camp where they will have a chance to get to KNOW Christ, to GROW in Him, and to learn to SHOW Him to others.