This week has been staff training week at Baptist Park ( check us out here: http://www.baptistpark.net/ ) , the camp in northern Maine where I am the director, Sue runs arts and crafts, Jo and Naomi are counselors, and Rose is… well… Rose. We have a staff of seven senior counselors, 13 Counselors in training, as well as maintenance and kitchen staff and a bevy of volunteers form area churches. Ray Gough, our head of maintenance, has been on site for a month and a half already, working very hard to get the grounds ready. He is invaluable.
This week, our time has been split between getting the camp facility ready (i.e. setting up the archery range, weed whacking, etc.), workshops on working with kids (behavior management, ministering to kids, the special needs camper, etc), planning and preparing activities for upcoming sessions, chapel services and team building activities. We have a hard working, close knit and enthusiastic staff. In fact, all but two have been campers here when they were younger, so they have a real love for the park. I can’t wait to see how God uses them this summer.
Some of my personal favorite times have been the brainstorming sessions when the staff comes up with as many ideas for activities we can do during the various sessions we’ll be holding this summer. This is a very creative team this year!
At our campfire last night, a few of the staff spoke of how one or more of our evening services were real spiritual turning points for them. One specifically mentioned getting a deeper understanding of grace than he’d ever had before. Our worship team seems better than ever both musically and in terms of helping create an atmosphere and mindset of true worship for all of us. They had a special workshop with Mark Shaw, who had been our worship leader for years in the 1990’s.
Today we started our day with a prayer walk, in which we walked around the entire camp praying specifically for what happens in each of those areas in the course of a summer at Baptist Park. We prayed over each activity area, the Tabernacle, kitchen, maintenance area, campfire, nurses’ station and cabin areas. This was a meaningful experience for the staff. Our newest CITs who have camped here so many years as younger children, were surprised to see how seriously we take the spiritual as well as physical preparation of the facility.