Oh Summer Camp

Summer camp…

Summer camp is why I work for WMU. Being a staff member at Camp Mundo Vista so powerfully impacted my life that I gave my life to serving God through WMU.

I didn’t know it at the time—that nurturing campers, cleaning vomit, playing games, jumping in the pool, working to ensure safety during thunderstorms, making up rainy day crafts, adjusting schedules, writing letters, walking through nature, leading songs, handling conflicts, making friends, arguing with the sound system, and scraping plates was permanently forming me into a flexible, well-rounded, observant, and passionate person of peace.

I didn’t know it at the time—that my goals and dreams were centering in on what WMU calls “growing spiritually toward a missions lifestyle”—that my deepest desire would become helping young women be the persons God has called them be—serving this world with the love and hope of Jesus Christ in whatever they do, however they are called.

But I know it now (and have seen it clearly for years, actually)—just how much summer camp has shaped my life. I guess that’s why I come back year after year—doing whatever needs to be done to help create the space for other young girls and staff members to be so powerfully changed.

Train on worship? Okay. Teach about personality type and love languages? Okay. Talk about healthy communication? Alrighty. Help in the shirt store and canteen? Done. Occupy the entire camp of campers for 45 minutes during a thunderstorm? I can do that. Help sort and clean? Check. Spider suck with the Shop Vac? Sure. Listen? Gladly. Accompany a staff member to visit a camper? No problem. Play in worship? Absolutely. Be a missionary? Super. Be a prayer partner and encourager. There’s little I would rather do. Wear closed toed, closed healed shoes? Okay. I’ll do it. But only because I love camp :-).

I know that summer camp doesn’t influence everyone the same way it has me. I know that some people don’t like summer camp at all. I know that the organizational work that I do today will come undone and have to be done again in the future and that interactions with most campers and staff members will quickly be forgotten. Yet. I’ll keep organizing and training and speaking and listening and handing out ice cream and braving thunderstorms and singing and praying. It’s in my fabric. My spiritual DNA. The very core of who I am. And I know that, somehow, in some way, I am connected to countless other people who carry summer camp in their core of being as well.

Who knows. Maybe some of those people are at Camp La Vida with me now. And maybe my presence in their lives, like their presence in mine, is helping them grow spiritually toward a missions lifestyle on this journey of faith.