Spring and Summer Reflection

Well it’s fall now, and there are a couple of good things that come along with that.  The first is the beautiful scenery that I will get to enjoy for a couple of weeks this fall as leaves change colour.  The second is that I have a bit more free time to reflect on what happened this spring and summer at camp. I have to admit that this past season (spring and summer) was actually difficult for me.  It seemed that there was some kind of disconnection between myself and a lot of the staff that were here this past season; however I couldn’t figure out what it was.  I’m pretty sure that most of us had the same goals in mind, those being to create true relationships with campers and deepen their walks with God through those relationships.  I mean of course people come to camp for a fun summer and to be with friends of your age and your lifestyle, but I rarely felt that this was anybody’s primary motive for being at camp.  So what was the disconnection? I took some time the other day to sit down on my porch, which has one of the best views around in my opinion, and spent some time thinking about this issue.  The answer that came didn’t come to me easily; but oddly enough it gave to me a lot of faith in the future of Red Rock Bible Camp.  Our staff have/had very strong views on how things should be done.  If there was an issue with something that was going on, or there was a policy that we have that they weren’t comfortable with, even if it was just a little one, they wouldn’t  just leave it alone or accept it, they wanted to see things changed.  Often this would present a problem for myself.  How could I deal with this kind of a situation and come to a good clean conclusion?  Especially when I can’t change or make policies, I can just make sure they are followed?  This was the disconnection But the thing is that the summer is over and done with.  These issues I had weren’t anything that big of a deal in the long run.  In 5 or 10 years I probably won’t even be able to recall a single one of the problems I had.  In that same 5 or 10 years however it is going to be this group of people that will be running this camp.  They will be the ones coming out to help camp professional abilities, volunteering, being on full-time staff, and even being on the board of directors.  This year’s spring and summer staff will  gain wisdom in the coming years, and will be the ones leading this camp.  If they can maintain that fiery passion they had this past summer that led to disconnection for me, I can only try to imagine what Red Rock, and other ministries they get into will look like in the future.