8 things I learned from being a church-camper, OR 8 reasons you should make your kids go to camp [Part II]

Yesterday I shared about my love of  obsession with church camp. I said that church camp deeply and profoundly shaped who I was as a teenager, and who I still am today. I began sharing the top 8 things I learned from being a church-camper, and what I think are the top 8 reasons you should make your kids go to camp. Be sure to read yesterday's post for the first four. Here are the last four:  

// I learned how to be a mentor. 

I quickly discovered that if having a mentor was so important, then that meant I was also called to be one. And camp provided me the perfect opportunity to take steps in that direction. From the moment the kids were dropped off with their luggage, I was there to welcome them. I was there to appease their homesickness. I was there to laugh with them. I was there to listen to them. I was there to show them the love of Jesus.

You would be amazed at how quickly deep bonds can form when you open yourself up to this role-- when you step into that sacred space of letting Jesus use you. Over the years that I served as a counselor, I held some broken girls in my arms. I prayed with some girls who were meeting their Heavenly Father for the first time. And I learned how to get myself out of the way of the work of Christ.

In the real world, you don't simply sign up, and you aren't simply handed a list of 18 girls that you know you're specifically going to pour into. Sometimes you have to seek this role out. Sometimes it will happen naturally. But, if we are taking the call of Christ seriously, we will be making disciples in some way with our life always. Church camp showed me how to walk with someone into the sacred space of their life, and how to point to Jesus through it all. And that is all that mentoring--that discipling-- really is.

// I learned how to worship. 

I grew up going to church. I held a hymnal in my hand on Sunday mornings, Sunday evenings, and Wednesday nights. But it was in a little brick chapel building at camp that I learned how to truly worship. I finally understood why people reached their arms up to God while they sang-- it wasn't because they were showing off, or crazy-- it was because they wanted to exalt the King of Kings. When you immerse yourself in Christ and who He is all week, and you surround yourself with people who are doing the same, you start to get a grasp of how truly awesome He is. And when you begin to grasp that, you have to worship. 

The chapel was one of the few air conditioned buildings at camp [back in the day], but I know my goosebumps weren't from the chill, they were from encountering a God who was reaching down to me and rejoicing over me with singing [Zeph. 3:17]. But I also learned that worship wasn't just about music, or lifting my hands, or praying. It was a way in which I lived. Worship was how I could wake up in the morning. Worship was how I could clean. Worship was how I could interact with others. 

When you have a God who is always with you, and in you, worship becomes a part of breathing. And my very breath learned how to worship while I was at camp. 

// I learned about community. 

I mentioned yesterday I was/am social. Friends were and still are important to me. But at camp I learned the difference between friendship and community. I learned what it meant to do life with people. I learned that in community you hurt together and you heal together and you laugh together and you challenge and you encourage.

When you are walking with people in this way, when you are washing each others feet, you constantly are reminded of how faithful your God is. A lot of the people I entered into community with through camp are still in my life today. And when I say "a lot", I mean that. And there are many, many others that are no longer as close, but whom I know I could still call in a heartbeat, and whom I know would still respond in whatever way I needed them to.

And that is community. To live messy with people. And it is something we all ache for and should seek out and find. Since camp I have gone through seasons in my life where I have had really strong community, and other times that I have been thirsty for it. And it is no coincidence that the times in my life I am closest to God are the times when I am doing life with people. I may have never known I was missing it had I not gone to church camp.

// I caught a brief glimpse of a heaven. 

Okay. I know that sounds cheese-ball of me to say. But really, you guys. If you haven't been I can hardly explain. Here is what I think it is: camp is bathed in prayer. I am learning more and more just how powerful prayer is. And I know that every single person who entered that camp ground was prayed for. And I know that every single building and area of that camp ground was prayed over. And I know that every single lesson and devotion was prayed about. And prayer is powerful. And that camp ground is holy because of it.

At camp our minds were constantly being pointed to Christ. At camp we worshipped with our very movements. At camp we didn't worry about social class [or hygiene!], or makeup-- we were the body of Christ. And when everyday you wake up thinking about and worshipping God with others, that's a little bit of heaven, I think. Small scale, I understand, but heaven none-the-less.

When you gather around a campfire under the stars and worship for an hour or more and don't want it to ever end, you begin to understand the lyrics to Amazing Grace that say, "When we've been there ten thousand years, bright shining as the sun, we've no less days to sing God's praise than when we first begun." And I think that church camp is the reason that that line of the song is my favorite. God's grace is amazing, and I once was lost and I am found, and grace relieved my fears, and grace will lead me home. BUT, the part I am most excited about? When I've no less days to sing God's praise than when I first begun.

Church camp showed me the beauty of an eternal God, who is not in heaven so that I can have a wonderful eternity, but who is on the throne so that I can worship Him forever. 

***

I learned a lot more. And there are more reasons you should send your kid to camp, but that scratches the surface. I am so thankful for the wonderful camp I was able to go to, but I know it was not the camp or the people that were ultimately special, because I have friends who have these same stories that lived across the country from me growing up-- It was Jesus. 

And here is a little hint: a small Christian college was like AN ENTIRE SCHOOL YEAR OF CHURCH CAMP but with homework and deadlines. It. Was. Awesome. I think during puberty and during college are important times to be immersed in community, and have mentors, and expand your world, and learn social skills, and worship. And I am so thankful I was immersed. 

What did you learn from camp? 

And I hope you have awkward film pictures of yourself as well from that time. [I can't find my big "camp box",  or I would have inundated you with a lot more ;). You're welcome.  ] 

8 things I learned from being a church-camper, OR 8 reasons you should make your kids go to camp

When I was growing up, summer meant a lot of things to me. It meant late evenings playing in the fading sun and getting sticky from humidity and dirt. It meant bike rides and vacations. It meant the swimming pool and skin that smelled faintly of chlorine for weeks. And it meant church camp.

If you were a church camper, like I considered myself a church camper -- devout and passionate-- then you'll understand it when I say: church camp deeply and profoundly shaped who I was as a teenager. And not just in the ways you might think.

I started going to week long camp in fourth grade. Week long! In fourth grade! Now that I am a mom, I can't imagine sending my FOURTH GRADER to a week long camp. But my parents did. And I am so thankful. That first year was a little tough. I was homesick, but my sister was in my cabin and that first night that I didn't know if I could make it she crawled in my bunk with me and scratched my back and sang me a song. I felt safe, and at home, and I fell asleep. And I never looked back.

From that point forward, I counted down to church camp. And when I say counted down, I mean I put it on my calendar the instant I knew the dates, and then on each square until it arrived I wrote how many days were left. 88 DAYS UNTIL CAMP! 75 DAYS UNTIL CAMP! In neon gel pens. Until the date in June or July arrived. Obsessive. One year I even took a notebook with me and recorded every moment of camp. Everything. What I ate for breakfast. The names of everyone in my cabin. Their birthdays. And of course their addresses. What activities we did. How I felt each moment. What songs we sang every night in chapel [and what I wore!]. Who the "mission moments" speaker was each day. What silly joke Leroy shared in line for the cafeteria. What cabin got to go first for lunch for the best "cabin inspection." Everything. It's comical.

I kept any papers I received at camp in my bible until the next year. I developed my film immediately upon returning home, and that week of waiting to get the pictures back was excruciating. I cried when I had to say good bye to the camp grounds and my friends every year. I cried again the summer after my junior year of college when I realized I couldn't be a counselor due to my schedule, and would therefore NOT be going to camp for the first time in 11 years!

But beyond the FUN and the JESUS, there was a lot more about camp that shaped me. Here are the top eight things I learned from being a church-camper, and what I think are 8 reasons you should make your kids go to camp. 

// My world grew exponentially. 

I grew up in a small town. My class in school consisted of roughly the same 50-60 kids from kindergarten until graduation. To say my social experience and choices were limited is an understatement. And for a girl who is social, learning that there were people beyond my town was crucial to my ability to make wise choices when it came to my friendships. Let me try and explain: Friendship and social interactions were super important to me. And if, in my adolescent mind, my choice of friends were limited to the 150 kids that were in my high school, then I would have felt "forced" into making some poor choices just to have a social outlet. But by going to camp, I was exposed to a whole other world. There were kids in ALL the small towns around me. And a lot of them were like me! And some even shared my passions-- for sports, for reading, for being a good friend, and most of all for Jesus.

I found that kids my age really could pursue Christ, and that discovery allowed me to be okay with a social level of friendship with my friends at school. I still had great friendships within my town, but the deepest and most lasting friendships were ones I developed outside of it. Church camp exposed me to this bigger world. That lesson has stuck with me: there are always experiences and people and places beyond my "reality," and if I put myself out there I can discover them.

// My social skills developed.

Like I mentioned, I was/am a very social person. I was an extrovert from early on [my mom would argue I was NOT an extrovert as a young child, but I would counter that I think I was just rude]. Church camp gave me a safe place to learn the art of conversation. Every day, at any given moment, I could strike up a conversation with anyone I wanted. I learned how to ask questions about them. When you only have 5 days to get to know a person, you learn how to get past small talk pretty quickly. If I wanted an opportunity to speak or lead or share, I could do that.

As I got older I realized the beauty of this super-intense week of close social contact. The "real world" isn't like that. You can walk past the same person at work all year and never say more than, "Hello," or "How are you doing?" without really listening or speaking to them. Even for, and maybe especially for, an introverted person, a place like church camp, though exhausting, is a place to push yourself beyond what makes you comfortable in a conversation. It was there that I learned to ask, "How are you doing?" and really mean it, and really listen.

// I learned how to be a "long-distance" friend. 

This ties in closely with the first point, but if I wanted these friends that I made at camp to be my people, I had to learn how to pour into them all year until we made it back to camp.  So I wrote letters. To people who lived fifteen minutes away from me. One year I literally hung every letter and envelope I received from my friends on my wall. Later, when email and instant messenger were easily accessible, I could connect with these friends every day. And a small few I could call every once in awhile, even though it was long distance rates.

We celebrated birthdays together. We had sleepovers. And when we could all drive we went to bible study together and had Fourth of July celebrations with bonfires. The addresses we had written when we were just 6th graders became tangible places we could drive our beat up cars. We prayed with each other. We went to prom with each other. And when we left for college we returned to our emails and phone calls. And then Facebook was invented.

And I kept learning how to ask them about their days. Why did you decide on that major? How is your relationship with your mom going? What are you learning about who God is? 

And one of those long-distance friendships developed into THE long-distance relationship I had to keep putting effort and time into. And I'm so thankful that I had learned that art because I had friends beyond my town's boundaries.

// I learned how to seek out mentors.

Church camp is probably the first place where I saw the importance of and the reality of what a real mentor is play out. For a week there were these people who were older than me that were pouring into me and giving their time to me and listening to me and challenging me. I clung to that. I saw the beauty in that and I wanted it for the rest of my life.

I had older women pull me aside in the middle of the day and say, "Kelsey, let's pray about that thing we talked about earlier." I had counselors who would stay up with me until midnight just to hear my stories and share theirs. And these women would keep in touch with me, and check up on me, and pray for me throughout the year- and some beyond that.

To know there is someone in your corner that is not a parent is incredibly powerful. At every stage of my life since then, I have sought our mentors.



           //stay tuned tomorrow for the last four…