Letters

At the end of each week of summer camp each counselor is given a list of their campers with mailing addresses.  It's a great tradition that encourages us to keep in touch with our campers.  Even with the list it's still hard to write all the letters.  Hard for me at least.  To help motivate me I've decided to break it up a little and send to 2 campers per tribe until I finish everyone.  With 4 tribes that adds up to about 32 letters before the new year.  I've found that 8 letters is manageable in about an hour.  Then I just need to stock up on stamps.  All that said, I've sent out 10 letters so far, and have heard no responses.  I think it's good for me to learn to pray over a letter and just trust God to handle the rest.  I'm sure some letters won't reach campers, and that if they are read the camper still may not respond.  I'm praying that God will use the letters with the kids that may need to refresh their memory of what they experienced over the summer. 

This process also reminds me of the different needs of my campers.  Most of them claimed a relationship with Jesus when I spoke to them about it, but some had some unique situations.  Writing these letters reminds me to pray for their relationship with God.  Several of my campers didn't come from homes that attend church, and some didn't even know the emphasis we put on establishing and growing a relationship with God when they sent their children here.  One particular 5th grade boy found us on the internet and chose our camp because we offer 2 chapels a day.  He comes from a family that has never been to church, yet chose us mainly because we have so much teaching.  Another camper invited his unsaved step brother and asked his family to pray for his salvation.  After talking on the bus ride this 5th grader had his step brother prepped and ready to talk to me about accepting the Gospel on the second night of camp. 

Glory to God for working in the lives of these kids!  After the effort some of them put into spreading the Gospel at their schools and with their families I feel it's an important part to try to encourage them through letters. 

Whatever season it is, we're always trying to proclaim the Gospel here at Camp Barakel.  We had about 350 men up here this weekend.    Many of our campers invited their friends to camp so that they could be exposed to the Gospel and Tom Harmon carries that task very well.  It's amazing to see so many men singing and worshipping in one room.  Their excitement is contagious and you can see it spread to many of the staff that just love having such a big group of men gathered in the name of Jesus.

Fun in Fairview

As Seasonal Staff at Camp Barakel I stay very busy all day, then I try to figure out ways to fill my evenings.  It's not hard!  I spend a lot of that time driving kids to town, and watching local sporting events.  In the Spring I helped to coach the under 18 AYSO soccer team and now I help to run the clock at the Varsity games this Fall.  Basketball is kind of the main sport around here and I've watched staff kids play.  There is also a pick up group that plays basketball on Friday mornings.  It's great to get out and run around for an hour, even if it's at 6:30 in the morning.  Having grown up in Athens, it's a blast to be involved in this community that comes together around their kids at the local sporting events.

As for Camp, we've been working on the roof of the East Side Dining Hall.  It's one of the largest roofs on camp so we only do a quarter of it at a time.  A summer work crew finished a quarter of the the roof and had leaking problems that led to a big mess in part of the dining hall.  Well this week we were able to finish and clean up a whole quarter of the roof so that campers wouldn't have to deal with the construction in progress.  I was able to strike back at the bees in the progress too as we found 3 nests in some of the venting. 

We were planning to start the roof last week, but with the fire we were hopping for the whole week.  We were thankful for all the help we received from programers, a staff kid, and even a part time staff volunteer that got here early on Friday.  God chipped in with some beautiful weather, I even got a little bit of a sunburn.  Now we'll take a week away from the roof to catch up on wood cutting before trying to find another week to try and roof another quarter of the roof. 

We said goodbye to our last women's retreat this weekend and we'll now welcome two completely packed men's retreats.  We'll be spending time trying to finish outdoor projects and preparing for the winter.  Join me in continuing to pray that God would work in the lives of our campers.  Thanks for reading!

Ghost Camp

The Fall retreat season is quite a change of pace from Summer.  We go from having campers 7 days a week, to 3 days a week.  Over the summer a day off is a misnomer, it’s really about half a day off.  Now in the retreat season we get a full day off on Mondays.  In these down times I find myself walking around camp and thinking of the summer.  I can almost see camp humming along around me, even when no one is here.  I see campers playing horseshoes, buses pulling around to drop kids off, and benches where I was able to have sweet conversations with campers.

It reminds me that the summer is the focus around here.  Programers are already working on all the events and activities of the summer, leadership is preparing to staff the camp with an army of volunteers that will work here for a week or even the whole summer like many of the college aged summer staff.  Most importantly the staff and many supporters are praying that God will provide the workers that will proclaim His Gospel next summer.

You also might have heard we had a fire this week.  There was a small fire in one of the bathrooms in the cabin I clean.  God came through as the fire never really got started because there was a fire retardant spray that was used throughout the cabin.  We were able to put it out and quickly clean and remodel the area so it was ready for retreats about 48 hours after it started.  Almost every family was represented in the cleanup and repair.  There are a lot of things to be thankful for, but thank God especially for safety and for providing the workers to clean and fix everything so quickly.

It’s getting cold up here and I’ve been replacing the screens in the trailer with another layer of glass to keep my trailer a little warmer.  Retreats are getting colder too, and you can tell because the coffee mugs are flooding in during snacks and at every meal.  We’re happy to welcome retreats for the rest of the month.  It was quite an exciting week here at Camp Barakel, thanks for following!

Signs of Fall

The trees are starting to change up here in northern Michigan.  

Little patches of color show up, but we haven’t seen the dazzling display we’ll get over the next month.  One sign of Fall is the staff hay ride last week.  Mike Alchin drove the tractor as we rode around most of camp.  We had word puzzles up on some of the trees and the pre-school kids would start yelling “Clue!” while the elementary kids would guess at the puzzle.  |R|E|A|D| would be read between the lines for example.  It was a nice night for riding around, not too cold but crisp for sure.

Another sign of Fall is the yearly zipline refresher.  We train in the Spring with an outside company that sends a trainer, but in the Fall we like to make sure everyone is fresh on the procedures.  It’s all to make the zipline a safe and smooth experience for campers.

On the first trip up the tower we experienced some excitement.  And when I say excitement I mean about 3 seconds after that picture was taken a wasp stung me about 3 times.  It turns out that the second deck of the zipline had a large wasp nest under it.  Training went on well after that though.

It’s probably for the best that I got stung.  We were able to knock the nest down, and kick it into the woods.  That could have ruined a campers weekend.  As for my hand, it's almost normal after 5 days of the club.

This weekend we said hello and goodbye to a Ladies Retreat and a Father/Daughter retreat.  It was nice to see Fathers that want to work on their relationship with their daughters.  Thanks for your interest in my ministry!

Wood and Stuff

If a tree falls at Camp Barakel, will Mike Baker cut it into pieces?  The answer is almost always yes.  Not only that first tree, but any dead ones that we find in the area.  So we'll often find a fallen tree, then end up taking about four trees to the wood pile.  Leaving with two chainsaws, a can of gas, a bottle of oil, a pick up truck, and the sky track, we'll make short work of a lot of wood.  Just last week we started the day by cleaning up a tree that fell on the bike path, along with some trees that were leaning over the path.  In about 45 minutes of work, we gathered a good load for the sky track.  We add the big pieces of wood to the pile that the high school Engineers will work on next summer and we'll burn some of the brush in the new burn bunker.

Speaking of the sky track.  It's kind of the "do all" around camp.  Any job you can think of, the sky track has an application.  It helps us change high up light bulbs, move large pieces of wood, push stuck cars out, clean up trails, and lift the zipline carts.  You can probably see how it becomes a favorite tool around camp.  I'd personally love to use it for a temporary rope swing at the water front.  The possibilities are almost endless,  although this week we experienced one of the rare occasions where the tree was so large it was just easier to pull it with a truck.

The sky track can also be a glorified ladder sometimes.  So much so that you wonder how you did jobs without the sky track before.  We've been working on demolishing a small portion of the garage that was damaged over the summer and replacing it.  We used the sky track to reach the top of the 14 foot section we needed to tear apart.  Mike Baker pulled off the paneling and we discovered no less than 20 bats, and a wasp nest that was about 9 inches in diameter.  After taking care of the damaged wall we've framed the new section of the wall and started filling in the gap with paneling.  

Well, when I mention that we cut a lot of wood around here that's a little summary of it.  We also have a lot of little projects that we dive into throughout any given week, like reconstructing a corner of the garage.  This weekend saw about 150 campers go through camp during a Couples Retreat and a Mother/Son retreat.  It was a lot of fun seeing sons having a blast with their mothers on Thunder Express and on the Zipline.  Thank God for a place that people are able to rejuvenate their relationship with Him.  

A Full Rich Day

In the tv show M*A*S*H they have something they call a "full, rich day". In the episode they have a ton of off the wall emergencies, and other issues that come up. Well I had a day without emergencies, but filled with off the wall activities this last week at camp. And when I say "at camp", I mean not at camp at all really.

Fisherman's Chapel:
The plan was to start the day off with Paul Gardner and Titus Brown at the Fisherman's Chapel to spend some quiet time alone with God. The Chapel is about 10 minutes east of Mio, then about 5 miles into the woods from there. We stopped at McDonalds on the way out to it, which is quite the treat for Titus and me. I didn't have my camera, so you'll notice a lack of pictures, but it's kind of a good thing. The feel of this beautiful building on the banks of the AuSable River can't really be captured on a camera. We read John 20-21on our own, then met on the dock under the chapel. We looked the chapel over one last time and Titus tried to climb a very tall tree, then we headed back out. Paul insisted on another trip to McDonalds to try their smoothies and before we could even pull out I got a call from Mike Baker. Mike said he'd pick me up at McDonalds, but I had no idea what he was doing in Mio with Mike Alchin and Randy Harris.

Tigers Game:
It turned out that Randy and Mike B had decided that they'd go to the Tigers game for the day and they planned to bring me and Mike A along for the trip. So we drove down to Detroit and while we waited in line for tickets a woman came up and offered us really good seats at a discount. It's hard to not take ticket offers outside a stadium without some skepticism, but they looked legit and we went for it. They got us through the gate, so we really started looking at where our seats were. We found our section, started to walk down and we all realized it was going to be 6 rows behind the Tigers dugout, directly along the 1st base line. Just perfect seats! The weather was great and so was the game, especially as the Tigers won 6-3. We headed out of the stadium at 3:30pm, right on pace to make it back by 7pm. That's not even 12 hours after leaving!

Bed, Bike, and Boeve's:
We arrived back at camp just before 7pm. Shortly after returning, Phyllis Douglas showed up with queen sized sheets for my bed I sort of inherited from a departing seasonal staff person. Maybe not a big deal to most people, but I've never had a Queen sized bed, and it was just fabulous to have sheets that fit it properly. At this point the day has just been awesome. I'm not sure what else I could really do, but then Titus showed up on his bike and we decided to go for a ride. It was a good thing that we brought headlamps along because it was quite dark before we came back into camp, deciding to stop at the Bouve house on the way back in. We ended up watching a video that they'd just received after going white water rafting in Virginia.

We left the Boeve's after my bed time, so Titus and I parted ways and I headed for bed. The whole day was an exciting adventure, but throughout the day I was reminded to thank God for the people I've met at Barakel and for the blessing they've been to me over the past 8 months. I thrive on interacting with other people and it was really something to spend the day with all the dear people that God has placed me right in the middle of.

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.