Abstract
This essay highlights some lessons I learned during the summer of 2014 as a counselor at Bethel Camp in Clayhole, Kentucky. I spent a week leading a group of 8 middle school campers through their camp experience. I went into the week expecting to teach the kids about maturity and responsibility but by the end of the week I was the one challenged to work on my maturity and responsibility. I use two stories to examine my time at Bethel Camp. These stories help the reader understand what camp is like and they give specific examples of lessons I learned.
Bethel Camp, found in the hills of Eastern Kentucky is the place I found myself in for the first time, as an uncertain yet slightly presumptuous 17 year old, the summer before my senior year of high school. As a camper that first year, I never imagined I would be back two years later as a counselor but that is exactly where I found myself for a week this summer.
Bethel Camp, as pictured below in figure 1, has transformed the lives of kids since its beginnings in the 1950’s all the way through this past summer, the summer of 2014 by “challenging youth with the message of Jesus Christ” (Voth, Focus on Jesus, 2014).
Bethel Camp takes desperately broken kids and guides them into healing and Bethel Camp takes hopelessly lost kids and gives them purpose. Bethel Camp changes people because changed people work to make the camp happen every single summer.
One of the people who makes camp a reality is a guy named Roger Voth. Roger is the camp director. I recently had the opportunity to speak with Roger and I asked him a question.
I said, “Roger, tell me why you do what you do. Why do you put all this time and energy into camp? Why do you invest so much of your life in these kids?”
Rogers answer: “I do this because I believe relationships are the source of passion and purpose in life and at camp I get to help people experience that, not only with each other, but also with Jesus.”
Unfortunately, unlike Roger, when I began my week as a counselor I went into the week expecting to help immature, high maintenance middle school kids become more mature and more responsible. I anticipated having to expend all of my energy and time getting these kids to build mature, healthy relationships. Little did I know what was in store for me.
By the end of the week my head was spinning and my eyes bulging when I saw how well behaved and respectful the kids were. There were many instances during the week where my preconceptions of the level of responsibility middle school kids were willing to handle were kicked into oblivion.
One of these instances came on the final night of camp. We left a camp-wide campfire and to meet as a cabin to discuss the week and life after camp. We sat down and my co-counselor and I began asking questions when one of the kids spoke up. He was a little teary eyed but spoke clearly and carefully; “God has been talking to me and I haven’t been the brother I should be to my siblings. My family adopts kids from other places and I have been jealous because they take time for me to spend with my mom and dad but what would they do without my family? They don’t know what love is and I have been mean to them. When I go back home I want to be a good role model and I want to love my little brothers and sister.”
“Wow,” I thought. “This is the same kid who has been the goofiest and most mischievous kid all week.”
This was the same kid who took my pillow pet and hid it every day, licked half of the crummy, muddy, sweat soaked cabin floor because of a bet, put rocks in my bed and sprayed shaving cream all over my face while I was asleep and now he was being open and vulnerable and honest. I was humbled by his authenticity and the brokenness he had over what he felt he was doing wrong. That night I learned that each of us has the potential, somewhere inside, to genuinely love.
Of course there were also times where I was less impressed with my campers. In the middle of the week of each camp there is a gigantic shaving cream fight. Everyone has a lot of fun and goes crazy on the slip-n-slide that goes along with it. At this point in the week my cabin had become pretty comfortable around me, maybe a little too comfortable. At some point one of them decided it would be a grand idea to spray the shaving cream all over my face including my eyes. They also decided that my face would be the only suitable target from that moment on! If you have ever had shaving cream in your eyes you will understand why I was less than impressed with this idea. It burns. A lot.
So as I was busying trying to spray the shaving cream on my friend and co-counselor whom I happened to have a crush on, they were busying ruining it by covering my eyes with the stuff! It’s rather difficult to see, much less find someone when your eyes are covered with shaving cream and feel like they are burning up so I gave up and got revenge on my campers like any good counselor or big brother would! Being a little bigger than my campers enabled me to grab two or three at a time and whether they wanted to or not, take them down the slip-n-slide with me. This experience taught me how quickly solid, health relationships can be built simply by spending time together. I realized building relationships takes time but it is worth every second of that time to feel the love and comradery that is built.
From memories of an epic shaving cream fight or a kid licking the cabin floor, to memories of a kid sharing his heart; all the memories made at camp are a blast and they stay with you forever, but they cannot and will not change you. What will change you is the lessons you learned. In my case it was lessons I learned from my campers. I went to camp expecting to play my part in changing middle school kids but I came out more changed than the kids because of the lessons they taught me. I learned to give up my preconceptions and stop limiting people. I learned that age does not determine the maturity or wisdom of a person. I learned that relationships take time but it is only in relationships that real love is experienced.
Reference Page
Voth, R. (2014, January 1). Focus on Jesus. Retrieved September 23, 2014.
Bethel Camp [Print Photo]. Retrieved from https://fbcdn-profile-a.akamaihd.net/hprofile-ak-prn1/c13.12.155.155/s148x148/936948_10151547637223567_982573686_a.jpg
This essay highlights some lessons I learned during the summer of 2014 as a counselor at Bethel Camp in Clayhole, Kentucky. I spent a week leading a group of 8 middle school campers through their camp experience. I went into the week expecting to teach the kids about maturity and responsibility but by the end of the week I was the one challenged to work on my maturity and responsibility. I use two stories to examine my time at Bethel Camp. These stories help the reader understand what camp is like and they give specific examples of lessons I learned.
Bethel Camp, found in the hills of Eastern Kentucky is the place I found myself in for the first time, as an uncertain yet slightly presumptuous 17 year old, the summer before my senior year of high school. As a camper that first year, I never imagined I would be back two years later as a counselor but that is exactly where I found myself for a week this summer.
Bethel Camp, as pictured below in figure 1, has transformed the lives of kids since its beginnings in the 1950’s all the way through this past summer, the summer of 2014 by “challenging youth with the message of Jesus Christ” (Voth, Focus on Jesus, 2014).
Bethel Camp takes desperately broken kids and guides them into healing and Bethel Camp takes hopelessly lost kids and gives them purpose. Bethel Camp changes people because changed people work to make the camp happen every single summer.
One of the people who makes camp a reality is a guy named Roger Voth. Roger is the camp director. I recently had the opportunity to speak with Roger and I asked him a question.
I said, “Roger, tell me why you do what you do. Why do you put all this time and energy into camp? Why do you invest so much of your life in these kids?”
Rogers answer: “I do this because I believe relationships are the source of passion and purpose in life and at camp I get to help people experience that, not only with each other, but also with Jesus.”
Unfortunately, unlike Roger, when I began my week as a counselor I went into the week expecting to help immature, high maintenance middle school kids become more mature and more responsible. I anticipated having to expend all of my energy and time getting these kids to build mature, healthy relationships. Little did I know what was in store for me.
By the end of the week my head was spinning and my eyes bulging when I saw how well behaved and respectful the kids were. There were many instances during the week where my preconceptions of the level of responsibility middle school kids were willing to handle were kicked into oblivion.
One of these instances came on the final night of camp. We left a camp-wide campfire and to meet as a cabin to discuss the week and life after camp. We sat down and my co-counselor and I began asking questions when one of the kids spoke up. He was a little teary eyed but spoke clearly and carefully; “God has been talking to me and I haven’t been the brother I should be to my siblings. My family adopts kids from other places and I have been jealous because they take time for me to spend with my mom and dad but what would they do without my family? They don’t know what love is and I have been mean to them. When I go back home I want to be a good role model and I want to love my little brothers and sister.”
“Wow,” I thought. “This is the same kid who has been the goofiest and most mischievous kid all week.”
This was the same kid who took my pillow pet and hid it every day, licked half of the crummy, muddy, sweat soaked cabin floor because of a bet, put rocks in my bed and sprayed shaving cream all over my face while I was asleep and now he was being open and vulnerable and honest. I was humbled by his authenticity and the brokenness he had over what he felt he was doing wrong. That night I learned that each of us has the potential, somewhere inside, to genuinely love.
Of course there were also times where I was less impressed with my campers. In the middle of the week of each camp there is a gigantic shaving cream fight. Everyone has a lot of fun and goes crazy on the slip-n-slide that goes along with it. At this point in the week my cabin had become pretty comfortable around me, maybe a little too comfortable. At some point one of them decided it would be a grand idea to spray the shaving cream all over my face including my eyes. They also decided that my face would be the only suitable target from that moment on! If you have ever had shaving cream in your eyes you will understand why I was less than impressed with this idea. It burns. A lot.
So as I was busying trying to spray the shaving cream on my friend and co-counselor whom I happened to have a crush on, they were busying ruining it by covering my eyes with the stuff! It’s rather difficult to see, much less find someone when your eyes are covered with shaving cream and feel like they are burning up so I gave up and got revenge on my campers like any good counselor or big brother would! Being a little bigger than my campers enabled me to grab two or three at a time and whether they wanted to or not, take them down the slip-n-slide with me. This experience taught me how quickly solid, health relationships can be built simply by spending time together. I realized building relationships takes time but it is worth every second of that time to feel the love and comradery that is built.
From memories of an epic shaving cream fight or a kid licking the cabin floor, to memories of a kid sharing his heart; all the memories made at camp are a blast and they stay with you forever, but they cannot and will not change you. What will change you is the lessons you learned. In my case it was lessons I learned from my campers. I went to camp expecting to play my part in changing middle school kids but I came out more changed than the kids because of the lessons they taught me. I learned to give up my preconceptions and stop limiting people. I learned that age does not determine the maturity or wisdom of a person. I learned that relationships take time but it is only in relationships that real love is experienced.
Reference Page
Voth, R. (2014, January 1). Focus on Jesus. Retrieved September 23, 2014.
Bethel Camp [Print Photo]. Retrieved from https://fbcdn-profile-a.akamaihd.net/hprofile-ak-prn1/c13.12.155.155/s148x148/936948_10151547637223567_982573686_a.jpg