This is my eleventh summer serving as the director of Baptist Park, a church camp in northern Maine with an 83 year history. From the best I can figure, I am the second longest serving director this camp has ever had, as a director in the 70's and 80's served 13 years. We recently dedicated a basketball court to his memory. While I'm not ready to think of what my legacy will be or what might be done in my memory of the camp, I'm also not sure if I'll surpass Director Conley's record of service, either. I do know, however, that the summer of 2015 has been very good so far.
For the first three weeks my wife Sue and I were without any of our own children. Jo and Naomi are both on their own now, and our 13 year old, Rose, was with Youth with a Mission in Jersey City, New Jersey. Her return to camp mid summer was truly a cause to celebrate, and, apparently, her experience with YWAM was, too. She experienced a lot of good things (and God things), but it is so nice to have her back. She has had a life long summer-friend named Catherine. Catherine is someone she only sees a week or two a year, but they also had a sweet reunion. Also, Catherine lives close enough to camp to have visited Rose a couple of times since their age group's camp session ended. Rose's older sisters had these types of camp friends, too, and they are an important part of their childhood memories.
While we were without Rose for three weeks, we had Lauren and Tammy with us. Lauren is a recent high school graduate and radical believer who has been part of our extended spiritual family since she was in my 6th grade math class years ago. Tammy goes back even further, having been a counselor here at the Park back when I was just a camp speaker a week or two each summer. Since then, Tammy has lived with us, taught with me, moved to Florida, hiked part of the Appalachian Trail, and moved to West Virginia where she is again teaching. Having her summer free, she reapplied to camp, and of course I hired her back. Along with these ladies who are practically family, out niece, Lindsey, is also working for me again. She's my brother's youngest daughter, and a strong, confident kid.
The thing that comes to mind first when I think of this summer so far is how well things are going. There has only been one emergency room trip so far, when Liz, another counselor, fell backwards on the slip and slide and hit her head. There was a lot of blood, and it took two staples to close up the wound, but she was back at camp that evening working with the kids. As for camper injuries, nothing worse than a tetherball induced bloody nose.
Of course, being director entails a range of responsibilities which can often be summed up "as whatever needs to be done next." But I still enjoy doing the morning camp service most weeks. I use this time to teach from God's word using juggling and magic. This is always a lot of fun. This most recent week there was a wise guy in the front row who announced "Epic fail" every time I dropped a juggling prop (which, the prideful part of me needs to point out was not too often!). Quite honestly I found this rather annoying. I had to temper this emotion with what I always tell the counselors about disciplining in love and with forgiveness. I held off addressing it for the first two days. Then it came to me that 'epic fail' is a great synonym for sin. When I got to the service where I address sin, I used this phrase to explain it. no scolding, no punishment, I used his words to make my point. Interestingly, I never heard that phrase again when I dropped (which, remember, wasn't all that often!)
My favorite week, and I think most of the staff would agree, was the week we had 11 through 14 year olds. Our theme was Narnia. A group of staff people, led by Sue, literally turned the tabernacle into a replica of Narnia. To enter for chapel everyone literally passed through a wardrobe of old winter coats. The local branch of the Catholic Charities of Maine loaned us nine Christmas trees, and we came up with three more from within the staff. Some white sheets and cotton turned these into the evergreen forest where it was always winter, but never Christmas. Sue even rigged up a working lamppost that was always lit whenever we entered the wardrobe. We made sure everyone knew the story as we showed the 2005 version of the movie the first night of camp. We had a variety of campwide Narnia related activities including one day where we turned the dining hall into the Beavers' home, and our two cooks (a couple of 50 something ladies) dressed as Mr. and Mrs. Beaver. We played games about the stone table and the thawing ice river, but the best was the final battle. The camp was divided into the witch's army and Aslan's army. Counselors and campers alike played the game. The teams faced off, and four at a time they came out onto the field. The twist was, everyone wore pantyhose on their heads with sponge balls in each foot. By swinging the pantyhose, they tried to entangle their enemy's pantyhose, then pull them off of each other's heads... no hands allowed. It was crazy fun!
Other memorable moments include:
>Three days when the area Cub Scouts rented our facility and we shared the camp together. It worked very well, and as usual, the Supreme Court Jester was asked to do a show for the young guys.
> Two former counselors, Dan and Taylor, volunteering to lead classes, join us for improve comedy, and reprise their roles as Simon Cowell and Blake Shelton as judges in our weekly talent show.
> Rose doing beautiful pointe routines in some of these talent shows.
> Staying up way too late with Taylor, the senior counselors and some board members telling funny stories of camp seasons past. Best night in a long time!
> A male counselor getting thrown up on by a car sick camper as they returned from using the local University's rock wall.
> Another male counselor getting peed on twice in one day during a four to six year old day camp.
> Joseph and the Amazing Technocolor Dream Coat as a way to kick off our drama camp, which had the theme of the life of Joseph.
> A squirrel living in the tabernacle and the world's fattest mouse living in our kitchen.
> Sue's beautiful banners that she makes to commemorate each session of camp.
> Sue's memorial banner for Pastor Fred Shapiro, who died last fall. A faithful speaker (he postponed chemo for a week last summer so he could come back one more time) an a true disciple of Jesus. He inspired me, challenged me, and I miss him so much.
All these memories and countless more, and we still have a week to go.