Seasonal Staff at Camp Barakel

If you’ve asked me what I’m up to any time in the last 8 months the answer has had something to do with Camp Barakel. For 3 of those months I was a member of the summer staff and I performed various roles along with a side trip to Colombia. The other 5 months I was seasonal staff, and that’s what I’ll be doing for the next 2+ months. Since I don’t always do a very good job describing what I do on seasonal staff, I’ll try to expand on that here.

 

During the week (Tuesday - Friday) I work in the maintenance department. We cut down a lot of wood that keeps all the buildings supplied with fuel for the fires that are such a favorite during fall and winter retreats. We work on various projects around camp including the newest building, Crosscut. One project we’ll be working on a lot this fall is shingling the East Side Dining Hall. While keeping up on these projects we work through various maintenance requests and keep up on our weekly cleaning assignments.

The Great Room of Crosscut Lodge

Camp starts buzzing for retreats on Friday mornings as we get the final preparations finished before campers start arriving in the afternoon. During a normal weekend retreat I work the zipline, thunder express, life guarding, dishes, and cleaning. Other stuff can come up including resetting circuit breakers, jumping car batteries, pumping up tires, and sometimes trouble shooting on finicky water heaters. All the staff at camp fill a wide variety of roles in order to help things run smoothly. We say goodbye to campers on Sunday afternoon and we take a breath before the next week starts.

All this information about seasonal staff, but I’m really missing the most important point. Everyone that works at camp is diligently working towards the same goal of spreading the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Campers attend four gospel packed chapel sessions, but we try to show Christ to campers at every activity, meal, or even if we’re resetting the circuit breaker in their cabin. We’ll see all kinds of people at camp over the next week, but God knows the story of every camper who steps on the property and He has a purpose to work into their weekend at Camp Barakel.

Please pray that God’s will would be done in all the lives that are touched by Camp Barakel during this beautiful Fall season He has given us.

The first thing to know, is that I live in a trailer. Most people arond here cringe at the thought of living in the trailer because it's not exactly a penthouse suite. Over the years the trailer has lost some of its luster, but I love to call it home. It has 2.5 bedrooms, a living room, kitchen, and 1.5 bathrooms. I get a couple food staples from camp for free. Namely, peanut butter, bread, and milk. I’ll end up eating PB&J for about half of my meals. Again, maybe most wouldn’t desire this diet, but it’s a little slice of heaven for me.