Camp is always different, even though it's always pretty much the same. But the 2016 edition of the Sovereign Grace Youth Camp somehow managed to be very much both alien and familiar. The subtitle of this post comes from a little-known song of
Keith Urban's, from his album
Be Here.
For one thing, families were allowed to stay the week, too; that worked out fairly well, for the most part. All 12-year-olds were able to come again this time, and while it was probably too soon for some campers, others had no trouble adjusting to the rhythms of SGYC life during the week at Beth-Eden.
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| I snapped this one morning in 2012, but it works well as a stock photo. |
It was a little unclear whether we would even be
having camp this year, as only three people had signed up by the deadline. So families were allowed to stay the week as well, which added several more faces to mealtimes. 44 campers signed up total, an even number of guys and girls, which was convenient during the Virginia Reel. 14 of those kids were rookies. Only two of the three wings of the guys' cabin were used, and the girls said that about three-quarters of their bunks were empty. For the Tournament Challenge, only four teams were used, which resulted in a rather awkward restructuring of the schedule, and neither Team Black nor Team Yellow taking part this year.
From Tulsa, our group consisted of returnees Mattie, Caleb, Trenton and Hope, plus our rookie Seth. Lydia Alpert rode with us, too. Lots of people said that it was just too expensive for what they paid for(especially compared to other camps). The price($170)
did seem a little steep for the experience. Others said that they didn't feel like going because none of their friends would be there. That makes sense, though I would say that that's when you go for those younger than you, to make sure that they have a good experience. And maybe people didn't come because they didn't want to listen to Curtis Knapp preaching all week.
Anyway, other counselors (besides Tim and Terry, obviously) were Tom Henry, Brother Larry, Ryan Butler, his brother Mark, Janets Crawford and Pokorny, Rachel Silverberg, her brother Zach and Abbey Underwood.
It felt extremely strange that Zach Silverberg and Mark were asking me for directions on what proper counselor behavior and camp etiquette is, though it shouldn't have, really. I was there at Beth-Eden for five years as a camper and then this was my fourth year as a counselor, so I knew the procedures and schedule and all that. More just the fact that I was now in kind of a middle rung, between the pastors and the rookie counselors as far as respect and stuff.
My and Mark's cabin was very quiet and well-behaved for the most part. Even Strobe wasn't too terrible. Caleb's cabin, patrolled by Ryan and Zach S., was the wild and crazy (and much more fun) one this year. They threw Jolly Ranchers as grenades at each other, had pillow fights and candy stampedes, and I think I heard something about wrestling and push-up contests.
Another strange thing, though by now it shouldn't be strange at all (and mostly isn't any longer) - The vast majority of my generation campwise is married and/or have kids by now. I knew this, of course, but I think it was driven home since Amanda's second daughter
Elora and Shari's daughter Lucy were born the week before camp started. Kaitlin got married this summer, and Matt got engaged. Jon has a girlfriend now(which is awesome and teaseable), the list could go on for miles - I think there's maybe three folks I knew well who are single. And that's all good. It's part of the stage of young-adult life that we're all at now...but in the beautiful misty morning Missouri light cleaning the showerhouse, it really hits home that we didn't pay attention to
Taylor Swift's advice.
Mom and Mrs. Cox drove us up there, and except for getting slightly lost in Springfield looking for a Casey's, we got there all in one piece without anything strange going on. Uh, well, okay....not quite. Caleb and Hope began a staring contest at the Missouri border, and it ended in a draw thirty-six miles (and twenty-five minutes) later. They're still arguing about Simmons' merits as a character on
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., and that argument began roughly last November. (FYI: I side with Hope on this one. Simmons is amazing.) The boys also chomped through twelve sticks of gum at a time, for some reason. It looked disgusting. But they had fun.
There were an overwhelming number of Batmans and Captain Americas for theme night(Superheroes), and Markie won the costume contest, as she has every year that it's been held. I was a S.H.I.E.L.D, agent, since I doubted anyone else would fill that niche. But maybe there was a bit of Hydra lurking around the edges - there always is, on the show. And something just didn't quite add up this year, for some reason. I couldn't quite put my finger on it, exactly. Maybe that the routine was almost too
routine; most of us could follow the day's progress in our sleep. It's a nice blend of mental and physical exercise, yeah, but maybe the schedule needs a change.
Standing in line for lunch one day, Mrs. Boyer complained that she was starving, and wondered why, since she'd eaten breakfast a couple hours earlier. Ryan and I pointed out that we'd all been running all over the place, and keeping Super Alert at the same time, which drains a lot of energy. Courtney asked once we got back what the level of focus was, and so I tried to explain it: About the same as for watching Amy, but multiplied in general by however many campers there are, more specifically divided by gender. End result? That takes a lot of energy.
Curtis's first sermon was on the Ten Commandments, running through a fire-and-brimstone list of all the ways humanity in general could be sinful. It wasn't quite as squirm-inducing as Jeff Johnson's use-the-Bible-as-a-sledgehammer messages, but it wasn't easy to pay attention to, either. And this was made worse by the fact that the counselors' and visitors' benches along the back wall weren't there. So we had to make several rows of chairs, which helped from a discipline standpoint, but made it harder to get rested, too. (If you look at pictures of previous camp years, the counselors in the background of general sessions always look half-dead, due to the constant focus and hustling from place to place. It doesn't matter how good the sermons are, that's just what happens. You take notes if you're feeling particularly awake.)
The second sermon was a further listing of further sins, and beyond that I had to look up the subject matter on
SermonAudio, because I had forgotten the rest of them. The next two sermons(Tuesday night and Wednesday morning) were titled "The Justice of God in Dealing with Lawbreakers," with a main text of Revelation 20:11-15, and "The Justice of God in the Damnation of Sinners," from Luke 16:19-31, the story/parable of the rich man in hell and the beggar Lazarus. All of those are topics which probably should be taught when appropriate, because they're covered in Scripture, but an audience of teenagers and small children seems like the wrong place for those particular sermons. After the talent share things got a little better, "The Mercy of God in Propitiation"(Mark 14:32-36) and "The Mercy of God in Justification"(Philippians 3:1-9). The final two sermons on Thursday night and Friday morning were on the healing of the paralytic from Mark 2:1-12 and the leper in Mark 1:40-46. From experience, I know that no camper listens all that well on Thursday night because of the anticipation of finding out who won the Tournament Challenge and the book-signing time(and being allowed to stay up late). Then on Friday morning there's the dread of having to pack and leave and not see these people for a whole year.
Brother Larry's tabernacle group sessions to the 18-and-19-year-olds on the need for righteousness were terrific, based on the one I heard on Thursday. Ryan taught a group session on the need for discernment, which I sat in on in the chapel on Wednesday when he was speaking to the 14-and-15-year-olds. That was a good one, too. Tim's group session message was a lightning overview of the Bible's overall storyline, particularly dealing with the Old Testament. The 12-and-13-year-olds paid a lot more attention to that than they usually do.
Among the family members attending were Ryan's wife Mandi and their sons Eric and Jonathan. I played a lot of air hockey with the boys while supervising swim-time table tennis, and tried to teach them (and campers) ping pong, with varying degrees of success. The Butlers are still a bit too young to learn the game, but the campers did well. Tim's wife Angie and kids Jenna, Caleb and Ben were also there, along with Curtis' wife Catherine and about a million small Knapps. Noah and Ali Johnson were tagging along for the third year in a row, thrilled about going back to Indonesia in September, and another family from Ryan's church in Arkansas were there, a mother and the two politest kids I think I've ever met. The older boy, Chris, latched on to me just like Eric and Jonathan did. That was kind of fun.
Among the guys I played ping pong with were Nathan Knapp, Michael Henry, Zach Hill, Nathan Underwood, Ethan Stewart, Jon Kobb and Hunter Bebout. And I taught Christopher Underwood how to add topspin to serves, only later realizing how frightening the results of that could be, being as he's an Underwood, and therefore brilliant by genetics at table tennis.
Dylan and Grace Underwood came to visit Wednesday night during the talent share, bringing their (adorable) sons along to visit with their (many) uncles and aunts. (Further proving my point about us all growing up, as they met as first-year counselors and were married by the next July.) And naturally, those uncles and aunts dominated the talent share, as Jacob, Brett, Markie and Rosie teamed up as the Dischwood Quartet for a couple harmony-filled songs. Also visiting were Alexa and Zach Hankins; it was great to see them again and hang out for a bit. Autumn Brashers also visited.
I was in charge of cabbage ball again this year, and that went pretty well. It was only twice that I had to call an automatic out for throwing the bat, and I didn't get anywhere near as much flak for my umpriing calls as I did last year(that I could hear, anyway). And most of that flak was good-natured teasing, not disgruntled bitterness. Mark helped out a lot with close calls at first and second bases, and Ryan watched third base when he had time.
Mattie, Hope, Lydia, Seth and Trenton's Green team stomped all over Blue 10-2 on Tuesday morning, and Caleb's White team pounded Blue 18-7 that night in Worst/First play. (In other events, Red beat White in three sets on the volleyball court, Blue defeated White 14-7 in ping pong and Red topped Green in both Bible Jeopardy and archery.)
Wednesday's cabbage ball game was won by Green, 9-3 over White, and other even final scores included Red winning volleyball over Blue, Red winning ping pong over White, and Green defeating Blue in volleyball by a 11-5, 8-11, 11-1 score.
Thursday's cabbage ball action featured Green soundly thrashing Red 12-1 and then Red crushing Blue (to an embarrassing extent) 10-1. It got so out of hand that at one point when Blue asked me about a possible strategy, since they were trying so hard to catch up and we were rapidly running out of time, I said "You're behind by a million miles. Y'all can do whatever you want!" This caused giggles in the assorted fans watching. Also cheerfully laugh-inducing were Abigail's valiant efforts to inspire her team: "We're Blue, team! Like the sky! See that sky?
Millions of people have been inspired by skies just like that one to do amazing things, like paint pictures and compose brilliant music! We can win this game! Team Inspiration!!!!" In other events, White beat Blue in archery, Green beat Red in ping pong, White beat Blue in Bible Jeopardy, and Green beat White in volleyball. This set up a tie for first place, as both Green and Red had six points each.
Stats for the Tulsa folks, which I figured up while bored one day once we got back: Mattie was 7-11 with 3 RBIs and three runs scored, Trenton was 9-11 with two home runs - including a grand slam - and four doubles, a triple, 6 RBIs and four runs scored. Caleb was a perfect 7-7 at the plate with an RBI and three runs scored, Hope was 5-7 with two doubles, two RBIs and two runs scored, and Seth was 3-9 with a double and a triple, three RBIs and four runs scored.
Book-signing time went well, there was a lot of ping pong, several chess matches and games of Jenga, plus lots of scurrying here and there, but not very many pictures. There weren't hardly any taken all week, which was unusual. And there were definitely no Nerf gun fights. Mrs. Boyer ran the girls out of the dining hall about 11 p.m., and I let the guys play ping pong for another hour before switching off the lights about fifteen minutes after midnight. Most all the guys were asleep by one; apparently a couple girls stayed awake talking til four, according to a rather disgruntled Mrs. Boyer at breakfast.
On Friday morning, while the rest of us munched on cinnamon rolls and finished signing each other's books, the final Bible Jeopardy tiebreaker was given to the teams: Name the seven things Jesus said on the cross. After some figuring, the answers were these: committing His spirit to the Father, asking the Father to forgive the people, asking for Mary to be taken care of, forgiving the thief on the cross, asking for water, wondering why He'd been fosaken, and finally "It is finished."
Both sides got the answer to this question right. (So did Janet Crawford and Mississippi campers, after Googling on her phone.) So the
backup emergency tiebreaker had to be put into play: What were the
Hebrew names of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego? (Nobody had any clue on this one.) The answer, apparently, was Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah. The winners were Green, as they got all three right. So they won the Tournament Challenge this year with seven points, while Red had six, White three and Blue one.
Some of the rookie campers definitely shouldn't really have been there. Some of the family members probably shouldn't have been there. But there will always be a couple people like that. Lord willing, they'll have picked up something along the week that will change their behavior. Until then, as a counselor, the best you can do is scribble "You are moderately evil. But I hope you have a good year anyway" in their camp books. And then pray for them throughout the year, as you pray for all the kids.
You always ask yourself, "Was it worth it? Did I actually make a difference in these kids' lives?" The immediate answer, I think this year, for me, was a resounding "No, you didn't. It wasn't worth it this year." But it is still a worthwhile endeavor, I think; it's just that this year was more about survival, with only 44 campers. Mrs. Boyer and Tom Henry were the only folks from St. Louis; even Robin wasn't there this time. At some point everyone will decide that healthwise they just can't do this any longer. Hopefully some of the younger kids will be back as campers when they're old enough, but the number of participating churches has shrunk over the years, and the amount of kids from each church has plummeted. I don't know what the future holds for SGYC, any more than I know what it holds for me personally. But it's been a wonderful ministry in the past, and the Lord has worked very much through the camp. Looking through all these camp-book signings, as it's literally written cover-to-cover again, maybe I did make a difference. It's hard to tell sometimes.
Mr. and Mrs. Wilson drove us back to Tulsa, and nothing out of the ordinary occurred on the return trip. We ate lunch at a McDonald's in Elkland, and one of the employees was a man with Down's, which I found interesting and awesome. Enjoyed getting to talk with Trenton while we were eating. As soon as we got home I was finishing my final project for my summer course, and then the following Tuesday Courtney and Mattie left for Florida and North Carolina as they went to see Kerra and go to a new (to us) camp called Snowbird in the Appalachians of western North Carolina, which is something like reformed theology at Falls Creek, from what I've heard. The GBC youth group might go there next summer, if they can raise enough money through fundraisers and stuff. Or they might go to Glorieta, New Mexico. That'll all be figured out over the winter/spring.
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CAMP BOOK SIGNINGS -
"best counselor ever! :) Michael Henry"
(Anna Knapp's signature)
(Daniel Pokorny's signature)
"Great to meet you, Keegan"
"Hi Wesley! It was nice seeing you this year. - Caroline, Isaiah 55:12"
"Thanks for doing cabbage ball! It is so nice to see you each year! Markie"
"Sup, your awesome. - strooobe"
"Dear Wesley, Thank you for being a counselor for such a routy bunch. I had a good time and hope you did to. God bless, Nathan"
"You are the best referee(if that's what it's called in baseball) Hope to see you again next year! Abigail S."
"It was good to see you this past week! Seth" (This was written inside the front cover, as on a different page he had written "Sup dude. You're my sister-" before realizing that Mattie's book was lying right next to mine. We all thought this mistake was pretty hilarious.)
""Hey Wesley, I had a lot of fun having you as a counselor and cabbage ball umpire. I hope you come back next year! - Trenton"
"CALEB!!! YO"
"Wes, good to meet you and call you friend. Zach" (This was Counselor Zach, as his group called him.)
"Hope you had a great week! Abbey U."
"Thanks for letting me slide in cabbage ball and for being a great counselor! - Mary J."
"Wesley, it's always good to see you! Hope you had a fantastic week! Hope to see you next summer. Valley"
"Wesley, you were a great counselor. Thank you! Cara Knapp"
"Your so cool! And a great counselor. - Belynda"
"Gr8 ping-ponging! Jonathan Kobb"
"Wesley, thank you so much for taking time out of your week to counsel us! :) Your a great counselor! Brett"
"Wesley, thank you so much for coming to camp with us again! cabbage ball was a lot of fun. :) - Abbi"
"Thanks for being such a cool counselor, Wesley! - Mattie"
"Had fun during cabbage ball! Zach"
"Dear Wesley, thank you for all you did and for being a great conselor - Lester :)"
"Hey Wes! Good to see you this year! Hunter B."
"Hey Wesley! Thanks for always being such an awesome counselor and for laughing with us tonight. I will pack my slingshot next year :-D - Emily Pokorny" {I had dinner with her and Jon Kobb Thursday night, and somehow we got to talking about weapons, of all things. Emily mentioned that she was a decent aim with her slingshot, and Jon asks, completely serious, "Did you bring it here with you?" She and I dissolve into hysterical laughter.}
"Dear Wesley, Thanks for your love for the Lord & the young people at camp. You have been such a great encouragement to me over the years we've been at camp together. I will never forget the time you sang "
Amazing Grace" and it left me in tears. Continue to seek Him first always. God willing - next year. Love, Janet C."
"Wesley, Great week spent w/you! Always encouraging and never dull - that's
you! Love you! Miss Terry :)"
"You were a great counselor my first year. Thanks! :) Nathan U." (Like all Underwoods, he has amazing handwriting.)
"Wesley, Thank you so much for giving your time this week to make camp the wonderful thing that it is. You're a great counselor! Hope to see you next year! In Christ, Jacob" (He's basically a lock to be a rookie counselor next year, and it'll be great to work alongside him.)
"Press on toward the goal of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus! Curtis Knapp"
"Wes I had a blast doing cabbage ball with you. God bless you :) Mark"
"Great to see you again this year. I pray the LORD will direct your path. Blessings, Mrs. Janet P."
"Wesley, Thanks for being so stinkin' awesome! You are a great friend! - Hope"
"Hey Wes, Good to see you again this year. I'm glad to see you're continuing faithful in your walk with Christ. - Rachel S."
"Wesley, It is always a joy to see you and to serve with you at camp! May the Lord bless you! Ryan"
"It was great having you as a counselor again - Lydia C. Alpert"
"I'm sure many of the kids tell you this, but you're a very fun and great counselor! I hope to see you next year, Lord willing. - Ethan"
