biblical worldviewing

Here’s me (second from the left) with a group of camp chums around the lunch table. Some of my best new friends are here! It’s amazing the way that it’s nearly impossible to go anywhere and find yourself totally out of friends (unless that’s your deliberate goal)! I’m not saying that I have never felt like I had no friends at all and was the most unpopular person ever (3 years of middle school), but that friends are everywhere you go. They are not like other things that you need to transport; they are not like stamps you put in your collection until it’s full up–they are always a constant supply. This has made going to any number of new places, schools, jobs, church groups easy for me because I just know new friends will probably come out of it.

Today started off pretty grueling with a work-detail that was later nick-named the “death march”, but this evening has been glorious! Immediately after dinner, we put on skits that we have been practicing for each other and they were great, then after that, just before the sun went down, a few of us got the impulsive idea to go swimming for the last 15 minutes of daylight! So we ran off to swing on that rope swing that goes way out and up over the river, and we were joined by about 5 others and we swam for about 30 minutes (into the dark even) before getting out to dry. Then I had a wonderful phone conversation with my parents and then my beautiful girlfriend who I am courting named Sarah. It was such a blessing!! All this was laying out in the field here, looking up at flashes of lightning all around me. That lightning grew more and more furious till almost all the guys turned out to view the spectacle, and there was romping and singing loudly in the face of the approaching thunderstorm! Right now, I’m sitting up late in the cabin with it all raging outside, and coming fast! It’s great because we need rain, and God’s power is displayed in his fireworks!

God moves in mysterious ways,
His wonders to perform!
He plants his footsteps in the sea,
And rides upon the storm.
-William Cowper

This is the funniest thing said today (after a long day of work detail involving the aqueous weeding of certain disgusting river weeds, and in a circle of counselors around a fire on the top of a bluff):

The question asked of the group: “Why are you here at camp to be a counselor?”

The answer, given by a guy named Garreth fresh from New Zealand: “Well I saw this movie called Brokeback Mountain, and really wanted to have some of that experience.”

Result: Much laughter

Howdy. That’s right, out of all the places I could have chosen this summer, I end up here in Hunt, Texas. There’s a pretty long story behind all of this. What happened to my beloved summer camp in New Hampshire that I have worked at for the last 2 summers? I’m not wanted back. I’m not that surprised either. As I wrote to my friend Luken who worked with me, and who is also not coming back:

so I thought I left on fine terms last summer and I know I didn’t
express any desire to leave. but when it came to be the end of march
and I still hadn’t heard a thing from camp, I thought something was
up. so I emailed Bob and told him I would love to work this summer if
he’ll take me, but there was no answer. 2 weeks later I called him
and he seemed a little surprised to hear from me. he said he thought
that I wasn’t going to be coming back and what’s more, they really
don’t have a place for me at camp anymore. we talked for about 10
minutes, and here’s some rough quotes of things Bob said:

“you have your super-Christian, church-type camps that are always
about teaching Bible and worship, and then your camps that say they
are Christian but you wouldn’t even know it to go there–Brookwoods
falls in the middle of those two, and we feel that you would fit
better at a church-type camp”

“it’s not a knock on you and its not a knock on camp, you could just
work out better somewhere else”

“we think you were too in-your-face with your message and well, we are
about that here but we still want the kids to go to sleep at night”

“there are parents who would ask me why you were here again”

and I told him I wasn’t exactly surprised, and that he’s mostly right
about me. but I also told him that I know my conduct last summer and
I’m not ashamed in any way of the ministry I was doing with those
kids. I told him that I still love Brookwoods and that I would be
willing to come back and try again and even be more open, and he said
I was a “classy guy”.

So I don’t want to say that I’m being persecuted for the Gospel, because Brookwoods is a Christian camp. I don’t know how to feel about it, exactly, because of well a lot of things. That summer I was coming back from 6 months of ministry in Asia and I was burning with passion for doing ministry. It isn’t hard for me to imagine myself being over-zealous because of this, and going strongly forward with the Gospel. However, I did say that I know my own conduct and I think I know my own heart. My head was swimming with the Gospel, with being approved to God and not to man, with being a laborer in the vineyard, but at heart I just wanted to please God with my life and be holy.

And I feel like I can’t even talk about that attitude anymore because of how far I’ve come from it. Sometimes I feel like I’m barely hanging on to and coasting out that wonderful grace given to me in the gift of missionary service.

Simply put, my enthusiasm was too great for Brookwoods. Now, I’ve lost a great deal of that enthusiasm, but it makes no difference for Brookwoods. What good came from this is that the director at Brookwoods still highly recommends me to all other directors. I had 4 or 5 job offers in the week after speaking to him. Then I posted a short resume on a national camp staffing website and included a bit of my philosophy and experience in camp counseling. I also included under “other skills” that I had experience as a “Bible study leader”, and that I was interested in being at camp “for ministry”.

My phone was ringing OFF the HOOK. In the next few days, I had phone calls and offers pouring in faster than I could handle! My phone would ring, I would look at the screen and see a distant area code and say “oh looks like another camp director!” to whoever was standing by. After talking a minute or two, I would whisper something like “this one’s in Maine” or “they want me in Minnesota”. A sailing camp on the Chesapeake Bay, Virginia really wanted me, and I was in negotiations with a sea camp located on Catalina Island. I was considering a number of things in my choice. Of course, I said my first priority is ministry. When pressed, I confessed to myself that I wanted a high status camp, a gorgeous campus, a fun staff and high pay (well actually, that’s not true. I didn’t care about the pay nearly as much as my mom does, and it was her voice on this matter that was loudly speaking in my mind in the decision process).

Then I got a call from Camp Stewart. The director was beaming over the phone about how much he thought I would fit here. Something about it being “Christian based”, in Texas and being all boys caught my attention. I talked to the director, did a lot of reading on the website, and decided to fill out an application. The more I found out about the camp, the more I saw it for being a rugged, manly kind of place. I don’t know, something about Texas Hill Country, at the headwaters of the Guadeloupe river was really alluring. Then I heard the salary and it pretty much made me decide it was a go!

So far, it’s pretty good here. I find it’s a bit more rugged than I first thought, but all the other counselors seem pretty good natured and friendly. I think it’s going to be a good summer.

… maybe in a while I’ll tell you about my exciting travel from Chapel Hill, NC to Hunt, TX which cost about $65 total and took an total of 11 hours.

And check this out! Praise the Lord for thesee encouraging grades–perhaps this is to show me that I should do as my professors have told me and continue studies in Religion on to grad school at Yale or Princeton.

Not too bad, huh? That’s with 18 hours of courseload, a part time job, AND a really awesome girlfriend!