Where God Has Blessed (Part 2)

Programing:
Programers organize people. They dictate the schedule for the day and run most of the large group activities including ambushes. Most of their activities are in the background setting up for events, although they take a lot of photos/video and spend a lot of time with microphones.

I worked as a programer on the east side for week 8 of the summer. It was a lot less physical labor than I had been used to from Engineer Counseling, but it required more thinking and planning. I also spent a lot of time on the zipline. It turned out to be nice that they brought me in for the week because the lead programer on the east side was gone for most of the week. I liked being back on the forefront of the activities, getting to talk to campers and ensuring that their week was going smoothly.

Team Leading:
Again, an explanation is necessary. If you’re not familiar with camp, they split the campers up into tribes of 7-10 kids. For high school week there is a totally different program than usual and they take the 13 tribes and make 3 teams. Each team has a leader that is kind of their cheer leader, mascot, and president. The whole week takes on a very competitive vibe, and the high school campers really get into the theme, which was the Amazing Race this year.

I team led for the Codesterican (sounds like Costa Rican) Cunning Crocodiles. We ended up getting 3rd for the week but our team tried really hard and had fun at every activity. At the end of the week there is a Firebowl session where the competition is over and the campers gather together to share what God has done in their life that week. It’s really something to see the struggles and triumphs that a week of camp causes in their hearts. Firebowl is always a reminder of why we do camp as campers share the impact that the week has on them spiritually.

His-Ability Week Counseling:
Hisability week is during week 10 of summer camp. People with various types of disabilities come to camp for the week. It’s an opportunity for them to participate in the camp experience and some of them have been doing it for longer than I’ve been alive. Most camp activities are still available in a toned down presentation. Handcrafts is moved outside under a tent, and it’s general favorite of most campers.

The flip side is that it’s a major week of growing for the counselors. After 9 weeks of camp most of the counselors will admit their weariness, but the focus is to finish strong. The slower pace of His Week is appreciated, and the whole camp settles down for a nap after lunch. There are also 2-3 counselors per room, so everyone has at least one wingman to work with.

I learned a lot from this week. The Gospel was presented every night by a faithful group of puppeteers and it was refreshing to see how the campers responded in different ways. Many of them understood the messages and wanted to pass it along in any way they could.  They really liked one of the songs that says, "Walking down the street tell everyone you meet that God is Love."

Conclusion:
So that was my summer at Camp Barakel in a nutshell. It’s impossible for me to relay everything that happened over the summer, but it’s clear between campers and staff many lives were changed. I touched almost every position that I could between YAP, STEP Counselor, Middle School Counselor, Junior Counselor, Programer, and Team Leader. I prayed before the summer that God would surprise me with what He could do in 3 months and He really came through. I learned a lot about where kids were at spiritually, but the surprise was at how far He could stretch me. I have a pretty big comfort zone, but God really pulled me outside of it.

To God be the glory for all that was accomplished at Camp Barakel this summer!

Where God Has Blessed (Part 1)

After our trip to Colombia I drove back to Camp Barakel straight from Detroit. If you don’t know my driving habits, leaving for a 3 hour trip at 12:30am is not too abnormal. I was excited to get back into the swing of summer, and I started out helping as a Young Adult Programer (YAP). I worked on the zipline and as a lifeguard for a couple days. I thought I’d be doing a lot of YAP work over the summer but it turned out that God quite a few curveballs planned for the summer.


Counseling:
My first 4 weeks were spent counseling on the West side of camp. Three weeks with junior campers (3rd - 6th grade) then a week with middle school kids (6th - 8th grade). Counseling was great. God really blessed me with campers that I felt responded well to my style of counseling. All the speakers were excellent and they each had unique angles to teach the kids with.

 
A day of counseling starts at 7:30am with the camp bell. Usually counselors are up even an hour earlier than that to prepare for the day. Tribes go out into the woods to have a “tribe talk” teaching about the summer memory verse, 1st John 1:3-6. Then flag raising and breakfast, chores, followed by morning clubs.  Clubs are a rotation of activities including soccer, a mystery trail, Wecandoits (team building obstacle courses), and lakefront. After the clubs, campers would go to a morning chapel and a 12:30pm lunch.

 
In the afternoon the campers have time in the cabin to memorize verses and write letters home. This is followed by free time when campers get 3 hours to work on archery and riflery awards, swim in the lake, purchase toys and snacks at the trading post, or time to check out Man Crafts (Handcrafts). Counselors use this time to talk to their campers about their relationship with God. This is big stuff at camp for a lot of kids that haven’t been challenged, or just want some help sorting out Biblical truths. Supper follows free time, and after that we go to ambush. Ambush is a surprise game that involves all the West Side together, usually on one field. It’s amazing to watch 160 kids and counselors playing one game at the same time. The evening is rounded out with evening chapel (everyone gets dressed up!) and a tribe talk before bed time. The evening tribe talk is a time for the campers to ask questions, and many good one on one conversations happen on the porches of the lodges.

Counseling is the focus of all of camp because it is where the Gospel is delivered in the most personal way. It was a lot of fun to see kids try to stretch and grow in their relationship with God and many take that first step, putting their faith in Jesus Christ as their savior.

Engineer Counseling:
This position needs some explaining of the Summer Tech and Engineer Program (STEP). All summer there is a crew of about 30 high school kids that help clean up after meals, work the free time activities, and perform maintenance work around camp. They usually work a week at a time, and they are arguably the hardest workers at camp. Techs are girls, and engineers are guys. There are 2 tech counselors and 2 engineer counselors that coordinate the work and fun for each week.

An average day of engineering at Camp Barakel includes doing dishes for all three meals, about 6 hours of labor (usually cutting wood), and some type of game for the night. The day starts and ends with bible studies and there is a STEP chapel every evening.

Counseling for High School kids was challenging in some ways, but overall it was a lot of fun. Their schedule is so tight that it’s hard to fit in much needed showers and even personal Bible study. I stepped in as an engineer counselor for one of the regular guys who was getting a week of rest. The engineers are generally well behaved kids who just want to grow with God and they know that Camp Barakel provides that opportunity. Even if it takes a lot of work to do it.

Colombia Trip to CRAN Orphanage

It’s been a long and exciting summer. Since some people didn’t get to hear about the Colombia trip, I thought I would post up a quick overview of what we did there. We started out with excitement when our flights were cancelled due to a pilot strike for Spirit airlines. The strike ended and we were able to get flights for the next day. 

Most days followed a fairly normal schedule. We’d arrive at CRAN (the orphanage) in the morning and spend the morning running a vacation Bible school type of program. It would end at about lunch time and our team would help serve lunch to the children. They were usually pretty tired by then, so we’d chill with the kids for another hour or so and then head off for an evening excursion. These varied from day to day and included Colombian markets, landmarks, and restaurants.

Our program included 4 groups of kids and 4 stations for them to rotate through. We had an art room set up with daily projects as well as a group time for the kids to hang out with their counselors. My area was the games. We played a variety of games with a lot of repeats for the more popular games, like the trip rope game pictured below.

The focus of our trip was all in the class sessions. We taught all about Moses and his exciting adventures in Egypt. Can you guess our medium for teaching? Flannel board of course. The kids loved seeing everything stick in place, and they really enjoyed the accounts of Noah’s life. We were concerned about their attention for this session, but we aimed our prayers at this point and the response of the children was remarkable. They went from shredding the art room and driving our teacher there nuts to staying silent and listening with anticipation to the Bible accounts.

The trip back was smooth, although stressful at some of the airports. Our impact on the children was immediately evident in some ways, but the relationship between our church and this orphanage will go on. It’s not a Christian orphanage, but by offering them help for even a week of the summer we are giving the kids a glimpse of the Gospel that they might not get otherwise. Garrison Hills plans to continue this relationship and continue proclaiming the Gospel in Bogota whenever possible.

It was great getting to know the kids and I know that many of the team wished they could bring a couple orphaned children home. The trip really helped me see the culture first hand. I was surprised at how much Spanish came back to me, although I was much better at speaking it than listening. Usually I was about 10 words behind the locals. Overall it was just a great experience and I was thankful God allowed me to be minister to those great kids.