SpringHill Alumni
There have been tens of thousands of SpringHill campers and summer staff over our 42 year history which means there are SpringHill alumni literally all over the world.
I had this reality driven home during my “pastor day” this past Tuesday when I ran into two former SpringHill summer staff, one who’s now working for Kensington Community Church and another serving Mack Avenue Community Church.
First I had the opportunity to reconnect with Cameron Underdown who’s the high school and college director for Kensington’s Orion/Rochester campus. Cameron’s playing a key role in a significant ministry. Talking with him reminded me of the part SpringHill play’s in the spiritual, personal and professional development of college age people.
Later that day while touring with Eric Russ I had the opportunity to talk with Kristen VanderPlas Selle. Kristen and her husband Scott live in one of the poorest communities in Detroit (and thus in the country) where they’re both involved in the Mack Avenue Community Church family. In particular Kristen leads Mack Avenue Community Church’s literary and tutoring program designed to serve the young children of the Mack Avenue neighborhood. As I watched Kristen working with some of the students I couldn’t help feeling a bit of pride knowing that a SpringHill alumnus is serving the “least of these” in this way.
These two friends represent the literally thousands of SpringHill alumni who’ve committed their lives to the service of others and to expanding Christ’s Kingdom. We, at SpringHill, pray every summer that God would use us to help our summer staff and campers grow in their faith as well as to develop as people and leaders who’ll make a difference in Christ’s Kingdom.
So “pastor day” had a second blessing – to see our prayer answered in two SpringHill alumni.
Being a SpringHill Camper for the Weekend
What do you have when you combine over 600 women and a camp designed, built and loaded with activities for kids? You have a SpringHill Women’s Retreat.
We’ve been doing women’s retreats for decades including this weekend and I’m always amazed, amused, honored and humbled that we have this incredible privilege to serve so many women in this way.
I’m always amazed because so many women want, for a weekend, to become campers just like kids. They eat, sleep, and do all the things our youth campers do on a weekend retreat or in a summer camp program.
I’m also always amused, because as good campers, these women participate enthusiastically in every activity SpringHill offers, from our ziplines to riding horses to trap shooting to scaling one of our climbing walls. It’s literally one of our busiest activity weekends of the year.
I’m honor that we can provide these women a SpringHill style worship experience with engaging speakers such as this weekend’s teacher Liz Curtis Higgs.
And most importantly, as with any SpringHill Experience, I’m humbled that the combination of all these elements help 100’s of women know and grow in their relationship with Jesus Christ.
The Weight of Glory
It’s SpringHill’s Labor Day Family Camp weekend at our two overnight camps. There are nearly 300 families and 1500 people enjoying family time, pursuing fun and adventure and worshipping together with great music and inspiring speakers.
Our Michigan camp speaker is Clint Dupin, a Teaching Pastor for Kensington Community Church in Troy, Michigan. His theme for the weekend is the “weight of God’s glory and its significance in our lives”.
As he was speaking on Saturday morning I couldn’t help but think about some of my favorite words from a sermon from one of my favorite authors, C.S. Lewis, titled “The Weight of Glory“.
Since you might not be listening to Clint this weekend I thought you might be blessed and challenged instead by C.S. Lewis’ words.
“The load, or weight, or burden of my neighbors’ glory should be laid on my back, a load so heavy that only humility can carry it, and the backs of the proud will be broken. It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you can talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare.
All day long we are, in some degree, helping each other to one or other of these destinations. It is in the light of these overwhelming possibilities, it is with the awe and the circumspection proper to them, that we should conduct all our dealings with one another, all friendships, all loves, all play, all politics.
There are no ordinary people.
You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilizations – these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit – immortal horrors or everlasting splendours….
Next to the Blessed Sacrament itself, your neighbor is the holiest object presented to your senses.”
Telling the Story
This past week I had the chance to do a part of my job that I just love – telling the SpringHill story by giving golf cart tours of our camps. Actually I got to do it twice. The reason I love doing tours is because we don’t just show off our property, instead we use the property to “tell the story” and show how we create the SpringHill Experience.And what made these two tours even more fun were the people I had the chance to share the SpringHill story with.
The first tour was with my former boss, mentor and longtime friend from Steelcase, John Fynewever. He made an effort to reconnect with me by offering to ride his Harley up to Evart to see SpringHill. I learned more from John about organizational leadership than anyone else I worked for at Steelcase. So for part of our tour I was able to share with him how we’ve implemented many of the leadership practices he taught me.
The second tour was for my parents and their life-long college friends Art and Judy Koller and Ken and Jeneanne Reasor. Like John, the Koller’s and the Reasor’s have never been to SpringHill and didn’t know much about our work, so the tour provided me an opportunity to introduce them to SpringHill.
My Mom and Dad (left) with the Reasor's and Koller's Because my goal for any tour’s for people to understand SpringHill I look to see whether at some point they “catch” the essence of our ministry. I know this is happening because people will start to anticipate what I’m going to say at a given stop on the tour. Thankfully in both cases I believe we meet the goal.
So as summer comes to a close it blessed me to be able to “tell the story” to longtime friends and in process, maybe make new friends for SpringHill.
Dave Matthews Band and Closing Rallies
Someone once said “music’s the language of a generation”.This is the reason we make music such an integral part of the SpringHill Experience. Our goal’s always to connect with those God’s called us to serve by communicating with them in “their own language.”
This doesn’t mean we’ll use music just because it’s popular. We’re intentional about the music we select so it won’t distract from our mission but instead advance it.
But our intention’s also, if possible, to redeem music and use it to connect with people in a deeper more spiritual way.
One place we’ve been able to do this has been in our closing day rallies. For years we’ve created a drama that depicts the Gospel story and performed it to a recognizable song.
Our goal’s to use the “language of music” to grab the attention of parents, family and friends in attendance so they’ll have a glimpse into the life changing message their kids heard and experienced at camp. The impact of this combination of music and storytelling can be profound.
I remember one summer we performed our drama to Dave Matthews Band’s Ants Marching. It’s a song that engaged many parents and campers and thus gave us an opportunity to present a captivating picture of the Gospel. Almost without exception at the end of each rally we’d have parents and campers asking if we sold this CD in our Trading Post (as you might imagine we don’t carry Dave Matthews Band’s music in our camp stores).
It demonstrated the power of music and the ability to engage and create a new association for people so that every time they heard Ants Marching instead of thinking of Dave Matthews they would once again saw in their mind’s eye the story of the Gospel.
“There’s Just Something About this Place”
“Every time I arrive at camp tears come to my eyes. There’s just something about this place….” one of our long time volunteers said to me Sunday evening as we sat on the porch of SpringHill Indiana’s guest houseI responded that “I totally agree and that even after 12 years of coming here I have the same experience”.
Then I thought to myself if we had a nickel for every time I or one of our staff heard a similar statement we’d be able to build another SpringHill camp somewhere.
One of the common threads between all these statements is the fact that no one’s been able to express just what makes this property so moving.
Yes, it’s incredibly beautiful but most people who come here have seen places at least as beautiful if not more so.
I’ve wondered if it’s driving to the main lodge and having your car pass through the tunnel of trees and then seeing this incredible 55 acre lake suddenly appear and taking your breath away that stirs the heart?
But I’ve seen that same view many, many times as have so many others and yet it still moves us.
So it’s not just the physical property. No there’s more to it than that.
I believe it’s because this property has been slowly and lovingly developed over the years by the Rust family and then SpringHill for the one single purpose it’s now being used – to be a part of life changing experiences where young people and their families and can know and grow in their relationships with Jesus Christ.
And if you think about it when use and created purpose align the result’s always a moving and spiritual experience.
The Legend – Enoch Olson
Today we had the privilege to have Enoch and Joan Olson at SpringHill as they picked up their grandkids from a week of camp. As I watched the closing rally I couldn’t help but feel thankful for the incredible vision and foundation we’ve inherited from Enoch as SpringHill’s founding director.Enoch’s been called by many of our staff the “Legend” because his fingerprints cover almost every facet of SpringHill. Anywhere you turn, whether at our overnight camps in Michigan and Indiana or at our Day Camps, you’ll see Enoch’s influence in our approach to ministry.
Enoch built SpringHill on an innovative and creative approach to summer camp. In addition to his concept for “camps within a camp” (click here for more on this philosophy) Enoch created a camp experience that integrates “faith and fun”.
At SpringHill there’s no “chapel time” and then off to play. No, we bring together both the spiritual and the fun into a powerful combination that makes the biblical themes of the day “stick.”
You see every part of SpringHill, whether an activity, housing area or even meals, become object lessons and teachable moments that point campers to these spiritual themes. So a zipline isn’t just an exciting ride but becomes a tool for reinforcing the Biblical truths being taught.
At the end of the rally, just to affirm Enoch’s continuing influence at SpringHill, a parent said to him “you know you look just like the founder of SpringHill.”
To this Enoch answered “what’s his name?”
The parent answered “I think Enoch Olson”
Enoch then replied, “That’s funny because that’s my name too.”
The next thing I saw was the campers of this parent having their picture taken with a true “Legend.”
Why it’s Always Been SpringHill “Camps”
I remember arriving at our original SpringHill property for the first time in 1982 as I visited my girlfriend (now my wife) Denise who was on summer staff. I looked at the sign that said “Spring Hill Camps” and wondered “does that mean Spring Hill has more than one camp?”After spending time with Denise catching up on the week she gave me a tour of “Spring Hill Camps.” That’s when I asked her about the “other camps.” She explained that this was the only “camp” but that a key component to SpringHill, dating back to our founding director Enoch Olson’s original vision, was that SpringHill would be small community focused, or then described as a “decentralized camp.”
Denise explained, obviously as a result of good training, that SpringHill didn’t run as one big camp but divided itself into smaller themed camps or villages spread across many acres. These unique housing areas and programs helped create these intimate “camps” where the building of strong relationships between staff and campers happen.
It’s within the context of these small, intimate “camps” and the relationships they foster that the primary spiritual direction was, and still is, provided to campers.
30 years later creating these small “camps” or communities continues to drive how we program, run activities, staff our camps and design our properties. The goal’s always to nurture our “camps within a camp”.
It’s also because of this focus that we’ve been able to reach more kids without compromising the SpringHill Experience. We just continue to divide into small “camps” where intimate relationships are central.
So as I look back to that day in 1982 I’m now convinced that the sign was more than just descriptive it was prophetic – pointing to the day when we’d have multiple camps in multiple places centered on intimate communities where Christ transforms the lives of kids.
“This Week was Different…”
I love SpringHill closing days and in particular our “closing rally”. It’s fun, inspirational and downright moving to hear the testimonies of campers who share their SpringHill Experience with the other campers, staff and camper families attending the rally.It takes courage to share your story in front of 100’s and sometime’s 1000’s of people. But when campers do everyone’s blessed.
This past Friday was closing day week 1 of our Indiana overnight camp. It was a perfect day with incredible weather to celebrate what God’s done in the lives of campers.
I stood at the back of our amphitheater taking in all the sights and sounds of the rally as the InPursuit campers (our Indiana middle school camp) came on stage. One of our InPursuit Area Directors stepped forward with a female camper and asked her…
“Can you tell us about your week at SpringHill?”
The camper replied “I love SpringHill so much I’ve been here 14 times. But this week was different, I sensed God’s presence in a way I never have before. As a result I’ve made a decision to really focus on my relationship with Christ like I’ve never done before.”
Wow! After 9 months of hard work preparing SpringHill for the arrival of campers, hearing these words was a gift greater than any paycheck, perk or benefit our staff could ever desire or receive.
But more importantly I just happen to be standing by this camper’s mom and, as you might expect, it was obvious that this camper’s words blessed her mom more deeply and more profoundly than she’ll ever know.
Watching this mom listen to her daughter was a gift I graciously accepted and it left me more thankful than ever for the privilege we have to do what we do on behalf of kids, families and Christ.
“Because You Were There”
The daily "Counselor Splash Off" at SpringHill/River Oaks Day Camp A young camper, whose mom abandoned her at age five, made her way to the top of the climbing wall. Her counselor encouraged, reassured and cheered as she worked towards and then grabbed the top of the wall.
When this young girl made it back down to the ground she said to her counselor “thank you.”
“Why are you thanking me, you’re the one who made it to the top?” her counselor answered.
“Because you were there!” she said.
“Because you were there.” Think about the significance of “being there” for this young girl whose mom abandoned her, whose life lost the consistent presence of a loving, nurturing adult, who lost that person who could and should have been there to encourage and celebrate with her as she tackled and conquered life’s mountains.
Thankfully the people of Liberty Bible Church provided the needed scholarship so this young girl could attend the SpringHill/Liberty Bible Day Camp. But more importantly the people of Liberty are providing an adult mentor for this young girl through the Kid’s Hope program, someone who will “be there” on a regular basis and help assure that the SpringHill climbing wall isn’t the only successful climb she experiences in her life.The SpringHill/Liberty Bible Church relationship’s the kind of partnership that I spoke about in my last post; it’s the kind that God uses to make a long-term impact on the lives of young people.By the way if you’d like to “be there” for other kids, like this young camper, by helping them attend a SpringHill Experience this summer please click on Kids Need Camp. You may become part of changing the course of a young person’s life that’s both life-giving and eternal.
