It all started with a dare, basically.
One of the biggest tools God's used to shape me so far into who I am now, so much so that it's hard to imagine what life would be like without it, I didn't really want to try at first.
Okay, let me back up. It's late 2007, early 2008, I'm in eighth grade, and of the few people I'm friends with at our church, Marie and Josh are the closest. We were the young kids, just into the youth group, and scared to death to breathe, pretty much, in there, afraid we'd get made fun of or ridiculed. So we banded together for protection. Well, it comes time for our annual trek to church camp in Missouri, and she's trying to convince us to come along. Like, week-after-week-after-week sales pitches. We finally halfheartedly agree to the plan, a "I-will-if-you-will" sort of thing. (She's very persistent that way.) Turns out she can't come because of a family vacation, so that leaves Josh and I without any backup when it comes to figuring this camp stuff out.
So we, along with three other guys(who all left the church in the next year, we didn't really know any of them) named Bryce, Noah and Jeremy, hit the road in one van with our pastor, Dennis, driving, while the girls(Adriana, Josh's sister Kerra, and her friend Sprite; all of whom had been before) rode with Ana Marie in her van.
I knew that if I could just get myself to leave, in a few hours I'd be fine and I'd have the time of my life(how much this was based off Marie's sales pitches, Mom's tales of her times at camp, or just intuition, I'm not sure, but all three of those were factors). Just the only thing was; could I force myself to go? I'd never been that far from home for that long, would I be able to make it without my family nearby? My stomach is really sensitive, highly attuned to my stress level, it was upset. This line from the FFH song "I'll Join the Rocks" kept running through my head: "My ship is sailing now/Into an ocean, I can't tell/What's on the other side/But I know if I don't leave/My heart will never forgive me, and I'll be left behind."
I finally decide to go through with it, since we're already in Tulsa, and already paid the fee and everything. But still...it was scary. There was five young guys that didn't have a clue what to expect out of this thing, it made for a tense five hours. At least Josh had a little help, in stories of people Kerra knew that she'd met there. Dennis was busy trying to A) Remember how to get to the camp, and B) Trying to resolve a dispute in the church over the raising of hands during worship. (And we were also remodeling the church building, too, but that's kind of a different post. But, like all construction projects, what was supposed to end in March lasted til late October, and til then, we met at first an empty warehouse, and then at the library.)
We go through Joplin and past Springfield about 45 minutes, until we get to this cute little town called Conway, and some of the prettiest country I've ever seen. Everywhere you look you want to take pictures, it's just so perfect, kinda like Thomas Kinkade's paintings ran into Norman Rockwell's. There's this ridiculous stretch of hills that we freak out on, being nervous already, unexpected dips and rises aren't very pleasant. When your nerves are shot, you really don't want to have to ride a roller coaster on the way to an adventure you can't predict.
We found the camp, lying on a dirt road six minutes off the highway, get our name tags, and a guy with a mustache named Kevin points me and Josh "All the way to the right" to drop our stuff off. We take a look around. There's a huge barn that has been converted into a cabin and a chapel, the bathroom, a shed used for storing tools and mowers, and this long building that looks a little like a motel, which is probably a bunkhouse.
We take another look around. "Farthest over on the right, he said?" "Yep, think so..." "That one over there?" "Looks like it..."
The two of us make our way over the farthest room in the long building over on the right, and look around. Four sets of bunk beds, everything looks very white and clean. "Looks kinda empty." "Yeah...I bet the other people will be here in a minute." We set our stuff out, then hurry over to the dining hall for lunch. It was an interesting experience. About the length of a football field, concrete floor, with four rows of wooden tables and benches, a stainless-steel serving table acting as a divider, and then four ping pong tables on faded blue-and-white checkered linoleum, there's an air-hockey table, too, and then the snack bar. We ate barbeque sandwiches, baked beans and chips, then listened to the orientation speech by the director, a guy named Tim. (The key points: 1; Guys, don't go in the girls' cabins. Ladies, vice versa. 2; Follow the rules, or get sent home. 3; Do not go near the buffaloes in the pasture over there. 4; At cheer camp, you cheer. At golf camp, you golf. At band camp, you play music. At church camp, you study the Bible. That comes first, remember that. One of the most fun things is making new friends and hanging out with people you know, but that's not why we're here.)
After that, we then had group sessions(grouped by age of campers), and sing/swim time. The girls swam first, so us guys walked down a river-gravel path to a building called the "tabernacle", which was mentioned in some of Mom's stories. (She'd been to the same campground when she was a teenager, though it wasn't run by the same people. One of the stories was about how the tabernacle didn't have any air conditioning, so it got really hot in there. But it's July in the Ozarks, it's always hot. Anyway, it didn't have A/C, so everyone was sweating like crazy(we still do). This one preacher, he always wore a dress shirt with a tie, and you could always tell how much longer his sermon would last by watching his tie; when he was nearly finished, the entire thing would be soaked through and dripping sweat onto the floor.)
Well, now, it had air-conditioning. A good-sized building, empty save a bunch of chairs and a few tables, has some of the best acoustics I've ever heard. The singing there...it's indescribable. I love the people I've met there)some of my best friends), and the whole experience in general(ask my pals), but I think if I had to pick one favorite activity, it would be the singing. It was led by Tim, with a guy named Jed on the keyboard.
(Interruption here to note the schedule: Everything from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. is arranged, and you're supposed to move from one place to the next when it's time. Some people hate it at first. Me? I love it. I like knowing what's what, and when and where the next few things are going to be. I like organization.)
Next was the girls' turn to sing, which means we could swim(or, if we didn't want to swim, throw a ball around, or whatever. Only hour of free time laid out during the day), so it was time to check out the pool. About ordinary size, I suppose, nothing extraordinary about it. Not being much on water, I went in for about twenty minutes, and have never stepped foot inside it again. So I was wandering around, watching people. Some guys were kicking a soccer ball around, a few others were playing catch. There was this one kid, he was just standing there, tossing a Frisbee and then walking over to pick it back up, then throwing it again.
"Can I play?"
He looks up at me, not knowing there was anybody there. "Yeah," he shrugs. So the disc comes sailing in towards me, I try to grab it, and miss. I then throw it back, it hooks in a crazy spin and lands thirty feet away from my intended target of the other guy. Repeat five or six times. "You might want to try throwing it like this..." He demonstrates, snapping his wrist like it was holding a skipping rock. "Okay...I'll try that." "And to catch it, you kinda use both hands to slap it, like this." "Uh-huh....thanks." "Sure." "My name's Wesley." "I'm Matt."
Soon enough it was dinnertime, of spaghetti, garlic bread, and chocolate cake. At mealtimes, in order to feed about sixty to ninety people at once, they go in shifts. The way these shifts are selected is by a series of basic questions, e.g. "If you're wearing a blue shirt, go ahead." "If this is your first time to be here, come on up. " "If you are from...Mississippi, it's your turn!"
Next, it was time for the Tournament Challenge. Now, that's the "Fun and Games" part of it, consisting of archery, Bible trivia, cabbage ball(which will be explained later), mini golf, ping pong, Ultimate Frisbee, and volleyball, each team(there's six) plays each sport once, and two Worst-to-First wild card sports. Your team is awarded one point for each victory, and the team with the most points at the end of the week wins the prize, which isn't anything much, just a Mad Libs book or two, or a free run through the snack bar, but the winners also get bragging rights, which are must longer-lasting and fun to tease others with. The Worst/First challenges work like this: The team in last place gets to challenge any team they want, in any of the UVC sports they want, and then the next-to-last team gets to pick one of the other teams in one of the other two choices, and then the two remaining teams play each other in whatever sport hasn't been selected yet.
Up first for the Red team was Ultimate Frisbee against Yellow. Ultimate is pretty much hockey, basketball, soccer, and football thrown together in a blender, it's insane to play, but once you play once, you become addicted. You play with from five to eight players per team, and the object is to score more points than the opponents. There's two end zones, and no end lines, so anything past the goal line is fair play and a touchdown, as long as it's within the sidelines, too. TDs are worth one point each. The Frisbee can only be moved by throwing, you can't move with the disc, but you are allowed one step, or a pivot, or, if receiving, however many reasonable steps needed to slow your momentum. You have to get rid of the Frisbee within ten seconds of receiving it, play switches hands after a touchdown, throw out-of-bounds, interception, or imcompletion.
Using the newly-gained insights from Matt, I found myself enjoying this game, and the fact that we had two guys(Cody and Daniel) over 6'2" helped a lot, we could just fling it as hard as we could about eight feet off the ground towards the end zone, and one or the other of them'd leap up and snatch it. Easy scores. Maggie kept up a steady stream of encouragement, both on and off the field for her teammates, it helped. And also the fact that Patrick the counselor, an ex-Marine, current cop and all-around good guy, hadn't ever been overseeing a UF game before and wasn't for sure on some of the rules, that didn't hurt either. We got to be the guinea pigs. And we sure did the right amount of squealing and scurrying, the final score ended up being Red 20, Yellow 18, earning us one mark on the dining-hall scoreboard, and setting up the interesting task of forming a mix of friends and strangers into a better understanding of siblings in Christ. That was the highest-ever scoring game of Ultimate played in the last five years that's been recorded, and since I'm kind of a walking encyclopedia of camp facts(those same pals both love and hate me for it), noting every miniscule detail from each separate day, including menu of meals, average miles walked, and most of the Tourney Challenge scores, I'm happy to have taken part in it, and doubt anyone else will ever care. Or they'll just laugh and roll their eyes at my retention of memories. Blue won volleyball 14-7, 2-15, 15-10 over Yellow, Green beat Black 16-15 in cabbage ball, a girl named Haley had her toe broken when someone stepped on her foot.
Josh and I talked for about an hour that night after heading into the cabin for the night, about just about everything, it seemed like, and listening to the crickets chirping very loudly.
Tuesday morning started with devotions at seven, then breakfast at eight, general session of preaching at nine, and then Tourney Challenge. Black beat Blue in cabbage ball 9-7, Red won over Green in volleyball 15-5, 8-4, it was interesting to learn how to play. Yellow beat White in cabbage ball. Then in the BPG section, Blue topped Green in both golf and ping pong, Yellow won Bible trivia 10,000-8,500 over Black, and Red was facing White in archery. It started raining slightly, and since only half of each team could shoot at once, the rest of us watched and talked to each other. I got to chatting with Daniel and Ray, two of my first friends from camp. Never having shot a bow before, it didn't go that well, launching three arrows into the dirt, from two feet, four feet, and seventeen feet away from where I was standing. White won 214-183, I noticed this girl on the other team, she had brown hair and a tan, she reminded me of someone. (Okay, well, actually, nearly everyone I meet reminds me of someone else I know, because as Miss Marple says, "Human nature is much the same everywhere.") She looked kind of like a girl I liked named Maddie, who had just moved two months before. During reading and rest time, right after lunch, I looked her up in my camp book, and found out a few interesting things: This girl was from Mississippi, she had a twin brother also at the camp, her and Maddie's birthdays were a day apart, and they even shared the same name, though it was spelled differently. Her name was Madelyn, it said.
About three o'clock, I was putting my stuff away in my cabin and walking out, when I heard a voice say sternly, "What are you doing in there?" "Um...I'm putting my stuff away?.." "Well, I could see that. Why are you putting your things in there?" "Because that's where I'm staying, me and a friend-my friend Josh and I, we were told to go there." I stammer, quaking in fear and confusion at apparently breaking some rule that I didn't know of. "By who?" "Uhh....I don't know his name...a big guy, with black hair and a mustache. He said for us to go all the way to the right, so we did." The man nods, thinking. "That must have been Kevin. Let's go over here, we'll get this straightened out." I follow the man, who I find out later everyone calls Brother Larry. Apparently some signals had gotten mixed up, and we were placed in the wrong cabins by mistake. But what was really amazing was that nobody had noticed until then! Of course, we had never been there before, so no one knew us, but still...our new, right, cabin was on the outer left wing, Jed the pianist was in there, so were guys named Nathan and Taylor, and Cody and Taylor's brother Andrew, who were two of my teammates. "We were wondering who those two guys were..." Cody remarked, seeing my stuff being moved into one of the few empty beds.
After that, I scooted into the dining hall, where I first began to understand one of the passions that wrapped itself around the fabric of these people: Ping Pong. It had always seemed like a game that cool teenagers played, and my aunt loved the game, but I'd never really played it all that much. These guys were amazing! They treated it as an art form, almost; customizing paddles with neat drawings, and then to watch them go at it - Your jaw dropped at their skill. They were moving that ball so fast, hitting it so hard, and spinning it just along the corners of the tables, with as much effort being put in as if they were playing basketball or something. Tim was spectacular, Jason, Jed, Nathan, Rich, Matt, Daniel F. and Jake were terrific. Once every meal was complete, there'd be a stampede for the tables, and then more battles would commence. Jed's mom Terry was even better than he was, also a girl named Lauren was great. I studied them, and made it a goal to beat at least one of them next year, or if I couldn't, to at least stay within about ten points.
The first of the Worst/Firsts was that night, Green beat Yellow in Ultimate 12-6, White beat Black in volleyball, and Red won over Blue in cabbage ball, 13-9 in five innings. A cabbage ball is technically known as a 16-inch softball, it's slowpitch rules, without gloves. My first thought when we played? "This is so camp..." And it is. What that means, I'm not sure, but it was interesting, even though I was terrible at it. Around 10:05 or so that night, Cody and a few other guys were playing catch with a football, somebody threw it just a touch too high, it skimmed the ceiling, and then destroyed a light bulb. I've never seen anything shatter like that before. From an ordinary light bulb, it went to a hole in the ceiling, with the wires gone and everything. Shards sprayed everywhere, it took a while for them to get that cleaned up.
Same routine Wednesday morning, there had been some talk about "Who you gonna ask to the dance?" here and there. Matt was like "Go ahead and ask her! Worst she can do is say no thanks, you know? Now, get going!" So after general session Thursday I wander over to where Madelyn is sitting. "Um....Madelyn...could I ask you something?" "Yeah, I guess so." "I was wondering....umm....ahh....well.....if you would.....uhh....." "Yes?" "If you would - ah, if you would go with me tomorrow night. To the dance. Over there." (I point to the grassy area near the ampitheatre unnecessarily.) Somehow, she's managed to keep a straight face and not laugh me into a hole in the ground. "That sounds great, I'd love to." I go flying to the cabbage ball field,where Blue beat us 9-7 in three innings the day before, Yellow wins over Black 25 points to 22, and Green wins over White 8-3 in Ultimate Frisbee. Red and Black split golf and ping pong, Yellow tops Blue in archery, 260-160, and Green wins 16,000-15,700 in Bible trivia.
That day, Tim says "If you want to do something in the talent share, come see me about signing up." I figure, "Well, I'm here, this is already an adventure, I may as well do something else wild and crazy, go sing in front of strangers, to see if I can do it." I sang "Amazing Grace" that night, somewhere between Todd Agnew's version and Billy Ray Cyrus. I wouldn't know whether it was any good or not, but people seemed to enjoy it. A girl named Olivia told me the next morning that all the girls loved it, which was odd to hear, but kind of neat.
The second Worst/First was first thing Thursday morning in Tournament Challenge, Yellow won over Black in Ultimate 8-2, White overcame Black on the volleyball court 15-4, 15-6, and playing cabbage ball for the third time in three days, Red was hammered by Green, losing 12-2. In golf and ping pong, Yellow swept White, Black squeaked out a one-point win over Green 201-200, and Red won in Bible trivia over Blue 18,500-16,600.
It's played like Jeopardy, with the questions in the form of answers, and answers in the form of questions. All these obscure facts from the Old Testament and memory verse-related questions, somehow I knew most of the answers when I had a chance to answer. It was fun, and it felt good to actually be able to help my team in something.
There was this voting for Most Valuable Person on each team, I missed our vote by hurrying out of the dining hall too fast, not wanting to get in trouble for being in the wrong place again. My teammates picked me, for some reason that I still don't understand. That was neat, though, and I was able to get something from the snack bar for free that night.
The square dance was right between dinner and the general session, it was interesting. I'd never tried square dancing in my life, but Madelyn knew the Virginia Reel, and she was able to help me learn it without too much trouble. Once that was over, it was time for a new dance called the Gay Gordon, where everyone got in a circle and partners were exchanged all throughout. We had to pick somebody new to dance with, so I watched everybody else, to see how they were doing this. Matt asked Madelyn, so I asked the girl he had been dancing with, a glasses-wearing blonde named Ash. She'd seemed like a friendly kind of person, from what I'd seen over the week, kind of quiet. It took awhile for everyone to get in their right places, and even longer to get the steps down right, so there was a lot of time to talk. She was also the oldest child, she had three siblings to my four, and we both enjoyed sports and reading, and wore glasses. I had an idea that she'd show up later in my life, somehow, probably at camp, but I couldn't have guessed what a friend she'd become, one of the five or six camp people I'm closest to. Despite some guy stepping on my foot and causing me to trip, the dance went smoothly, I sat out the next one, it was hot and humid, I was tired, and it looked complicated.
Then there was the book signing, which was a crazy experience that was really fun. I'd always enjoyed reading through my mom's old scrapbooks, full of memories and pictures of her and her friends in high school, and her yearbooks were neat to pore over, too. I'd always wondered what it'd be like to have something like that, to sign and have your own book signed, to be able to look back and relive the memories. I kind of found out.
For breakfast Friday morning we had the most gigantic, best-tasting cinnamon roll I've ever had, then the last general session, and then after we packed up we could do whatever we wanted. So I went back to the volleyball court, since that was really fun and I wanted to get better at it. What happened was I ended up drilling Ash about four times trying to serve the ball over the net, she returned the favor a few times, also unintentionally.
My goal was to try to survive the week. I did that, but more than that, I had the time of my life. I knew even before I left that I wanted to come back next year. And I learned a ton of great new songs.
# # #
(CAMP BOOK NOTES)
(Notes on counselors)
Elisabeth C - Patrick's wife.
Michele M - Camp nurse, real nice lady
Kevin B - Jed's dad, stuck me and Josh in wrong cabin by mistake
Patrick C - Neat guy, ex-Marine
Larry D - Kept score during cabbage ball
Tom E - Camp photographer
Tim N - Funny, amazing ping pong player, can juggle
(Notes on campers)
Sprite A - That's her real name! One of Kerra's friends, nice
Ashton B - Great pitcher (She was a Red teammate)
Madelyn D - Looks like Maddie's twin, she's Marshall's. Really good singer, nice archer, great dancer, awesome personality (Yeah, I totally went overboard. But that's what I wrote in the margins back then)
Haley D - Broke her toe playing cabbage ball, good dancer
Brittany G - Good athlete, model pretty (Red teammate)
Ash H - Real good dancer, good personality
Maggie H - Very positive, good at encouraging us Red team
Ray P - Ray's going to fashion school soon (She never did, I don't think, just was hoping to)
Kathy S - Nonstop talker, pretty neat, though
Andrew A - Neat guy (Red teammate)
Taylor A - Neat guy
Cody B - Sort of crazy, good with girls and sports (Red teammate)
Jed B - Unbelievable pianist!
Jake B - Can't miss his sideburns.
Kurt C - Fell out of bed and didn't wake up
Marshall D - Madelyn's twin, showed how to kill somebody with tae-kwon-do moves(in talent share)
Matt F - Really cool guy, showed me how to throw a Frisbee better, sister Hannah's writing almost identical to his
Tommy H -Something wrong with him, can't figure out what
Tanner J - Pretty neat guy
Rich L - Really good ping pong player
Daniel N - 6'6" of niceness
Joe P - Annoying
Caleb R - Dressed up as part of the "Hawaiian Mafia", oh brother! (The theme night was Hawaiian stuff. Trench coats are not Hawaiian.)
Matt W - Likes Adriana a LOT (That was freaky, I tried to stay away from them both when I could.)
(CAMP BOOK SIGNINGS)
Wesley - You are a super nice guy! No matter what anyone says, you're great and so was your singing! Hope to see you next year! - Kathy
Wesley, I had a great time with you on my team! - Hannah Freeland
Wesley, Hey man...you did really GREAT in the talent show. HopeToSeeYouNextYear! Macy
Hey MVP! Glad seein' you this year. It was great roomin' w/you. I'll see you next year. Taylor
Wesley, I'm so glad you came! You are truly an exemplary guy and I think very highly of you. I also got to know you better here, too. - Pastor Dennis
Wesley - You're so great - and loved by all you're around. Thanks for coming! I hope you had a refreshing and wonderful week. In Christ, Kerra F.
WESLEY, You DOMINATED the talent show! Hope to see you next year! :) leah
Hi Wesley! - Jeremy
Hey dude thanx for making this an awesome year! Mr. MVP, Cody Bieber
Hey MVP, See you nxt year Tommy Henry
Hey Wesley have a rocking summer - Andrew
(Indechipherable scribble that Josh swears is his signature)
Hey, it was really cool getting to know you! Good luck! Ray
Wesley -It was great getting to meet you this year! Hope you come back next time! God bless - Rose
Wesley, so sorry about the cabin thing. Come back anyway. Kevin
Wesley, I hope God has blessed you this week. It was great getting to know you. God bless you in the days to come. Daniel
Wesley - It was so nice having you on our team! Go red!! I hope to see you next year. In Christ, Maggie
Hi! I'm gonna see you this Sunday! - Noah Collins
Read your entire Bible! - Mr Tim Thanks for camping with us.
Hey Wesley! You are so talented and can sing so well! It has been great getting to know you! Be very blessed! - Sprite Always :) James 4:8
Wesley, it was great that you were on the awesome Red team. You did good. Ashton Brown
You were a great outfielder in cabbage ball. Matthew Freeland
Hey! I had fun at camp with you! Hope to see you next year! Always, Melanie Rucker
This was an interesting first year - bryce
C ya next year Connor Gillo
You dance realy well! See ya! Ash
hey you are amazing at bible trivia - Brittany
Hey Wes! Hope you had a great year! Nice playing ping-pong w/u! Rich Lange
You did great in the talant share Jorgi Henry
hey! I had so much fun at camp with you! hope to see you next year!!! Shelby Henry
Marshall Davis wuz here -> (Squiggly mark)
You were a great dancer! See you next year! Madelyn D. :)
Hey wats up nice meeting can't wait to come back Tanner Juch
Hope you had an awesome week! Nathan Brown
Hey, hope you had a great year. Daniel Freeland
Wesley! It was great to meet you and I love how you did amazing grace! Keep on glorifying God! - Olivia Wilbanks
Westley, It was so nice to meet you! You did wonderful when you sang Amazing Grace! - Lizzie
(Joe Paxton's signature)
Wesley, you are an incredible guy! Hope to see you next year. Mrs Minner
Hey Wesley! I really enjoyed your singing! Keep up the good work, and remember to give God the glory that He is due! Kelsie C
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