The Cost of Camp

Matuszapalooza.  You've probably never heard of it.  You shouldn't have at least.  Cause it's a get together that my college friends have organized for... a long time.  I've been around it since 2005 probably.  It's been a while anyways.

 

In the good old days we'd play video games for hours, then go swim in the lake, then video games, then sleep, then video games, then swim, then Frisbee.  Kind of random mix of whatever laziness you feel like.  There was always one instance where a new game bloomed out of nothing.  Like you had a couple tennis balls, a whiffle ball bat, and a stuffed duck and before you know it you have the world series of duckball happening in a little college in Waterford, MI.  OH!  And then the fan game.  We always get the ceiling fan going and throw anything and everything we can into it while taking cover all over the living room. 

 

Yeah.  No one was ever majorly injured.  And this year we discussed the fact that we have yet to break anything in the house.  Not so much as a random hole in the wall or anything. 

 

Now everyone has video games right on their phones/tablets.

I knew this year would be different (it's been 3 or 4 years since I've been available for it because of camp).  I drove up to about 6 very new looking cars of various makes and models.  Much different than the junkyard we used to park around the cottage back during college years. 

Then once inside the same core groups were there, playing a game like Apples to Apples.  That was after I showed up at about 12:15 AM.  We played some random mini hockey stick and foam ball game until about 3 AM while people dropped off to sleep one at a time. 

In the morning we went to Subway/Tim Horton's for breakfast/lunch at about Noon.  I figured I'd just eat a foot long (gotta celebrate Subtember) for lunch along with a  doughnut for breakfast.  We played a new game (to me) called Munchkins that took several hours and then they played "Giant Beer Pong".  Very little beer was involved, and there was no ping pong ball.  They did have 5 gallon buckets filled with lake water and mini soccer balls. 

Giant Pong.  I enjoyed the game and dialing in my throws.

After that I headed over to Brad's.  Didn't want to go to Waterford without seeing him and we watched a couple movies and caught up.  I left early Sunday morning to get back for church.  I like being able to keep up with friends all over the state, but I also get frustrated when I feel like I've not been around for church hardly.  In fact, I spend more time with the church during the week than on Sundays in an average week. 

After church I jumped into the Cleland van ad went to Maribel's soccer game.   She plays for BC Fire and I've heard a lot about this travel soccer team over the years.  They still struggle with typical soccer issues like passing and seeing the field well (anticipating where to be, even when they don't have the ball), but they are much better than the average Junior High aged girls. 

Maribel played forward and midfield in the harsh loss (5 or 6 to 0). 

After soccer there was dinner with the Moody's (another Subtember foot long) and then the Children's Musical at church with Mom.  We brought our canned goods and enjoyed the kids jumping around and singing.  Nasko Cleland as Nebuchadnezzar was a very funny part.

This weekend I thought a couple times about my time at camp.  Meeting up with college friends and catching up got me to be a little reflective.  When I first walked up to the cottage I mentioned that I noted all the new cars sitting there.  In talking with some of the friends it was interesting to see what they'd accomplished and bought over the years. 

It shed unexpected light on an aspect of camp I'd never thought of.  Lost earnings.  I knew when I went to camp I'd be living off of my savings and the gifts of my friends and family (and folks that just wanted to help people out at camp).  Never thought about the engineer salary that I was dropping for what eventually became 3 years.   

The way my mind works is that I had to check it out and some quick math showed that I'd have a lot more in my retirement accounts and I'd probably have enough to buy at least half of a nice house (all of many of them in Battle Creek).  That was assuming some frugal saving, but that's something I'm good at generally.

Well all that is to say I don't regret giving that up.  Would I like $100,000 to spend on whatever?  Yes.  But it's very difficult to compare the experience I had at Camp Barakel with that much money.  I can easily say that the world would think this is foolish, but the world doesn't know what happened at Camp over those years.

I never missed a retreat in 3 years.  I met countless campers of all ages at every place that they can go on the property including the zipline, water front, thunder express, dining halls, lodges, medicine tepee, and the chapels of course.  Throughout that time I learned how to lead a crowd (in announcements, games, or whatever is needed... even just stalling), and how to engage with all types of people in short spans.  I learned how to do all kind s of maintenance tasks that I won't even try to go over in this post.

Even better I met the Bakers!  And the Harris'!  And the Alchin's, Haines', Shaw's, Vanorman's, Boeve's, Gardner's, Douglas', Linsley's, Brown's, Marilyn, Kathy, Shedlbauer's, Ford's, and Proper's.  Plus a slew of Seasonal and Summer staff that I miss almost every day. 

I met Adela too!  And she's pretty cool. 

Finally I was doing work for God.  Nothing can be more rewarding to me than that.  I've given tithes and offerings since I was a kid and my Dad started working that process into my system and I've almost always enjoyed it.  Now it's 20 years later and whatever I've give to God in money and time I don't regret any of it. 

The Bible says it best:

"He who honors me, I will honor him".