We Love Our Job But It Isn’t Always Fun!
People think that working for a camp like SpringHill is all campfires, singing songs, hearing inspiring stories, riding horses, working with dedicated people and eating smores.
But the reality is when you serve 14,000 campers a summer from all over the world and every walk of life there will be sad stories to hear and situations we become involved with.
This week we have 2000 campers plus 700 summer staff in our camps. Enough people to be a small city. And like a small city, there is hurt, heartache and brokenness.
Yesterday I spoke to some of our leaders from around the ministry and heard a few of the camper situations from this week. I share them with you to give you an idea of what we become involved in and also so you can pray more effectively for us and our campers.
We received a call from a mother who just found out her husband and the father of her two kids died suddenly in an accident. Our staff facilitated this mother coming to camp and breaking the news to her two boys. Then our staff followed-up with their cabin mates to help them through their own sadness for their new friends.
One of our campers shared with her counselor that she has missed her cycle and believes she maybe pregnant. Now we are working through all the implications of this potential situation so we can help her make the right decisions.
Another camper we decided, after working with him for 3 days to adjust to camp, needed to go home. It was obvious from his behavior that camp was not the best place.
Finally there is a young woman who has been sexually abused by a trusted adult.
Every week we become involved with stories like this. It is a part of our work. We don’t like it and it’s certainly not fun. But we count it a privilege to be available to help these campers find the greatest Hope and Healer in the world – Jesus Christ.
On a different note here are a few photo’s from my visit to our Indiana camp.
Indiana Campers enjoying some after dinner activities. 
Campers taking the "long dive" from the Party Barge into Rust Lake. A Walk Around the Lake!
If you have never been to SpringHill’s overnight camp in Indiana you are really missing something. It is one of the most gorgeous places on earth. And better yet, we have some of the best staff here creating life changing experiences for over 2200 campers this summer.
Campers enjoying some time on the lake. My wife Denise and I are spending the week here, staying at the guest house – Acorn Pointe (check out the view we have from the house), and watching camp happen. We do this each summer. It gives us time together and also the opportunity to be with our Indiana staff, campers and supporters.
Our view from Acorn Pointe in morning as we have coffee. One of my favorite things to do while I’m here is to walk around the our 55 acre lake. I’m able to see, hear and feel camp. I’ve learned over the 13 summers with SpringHill that I can gauge how camp is going by walking around and observing.
I watch and listen to staff and campers as they are walking to and from their activities. I look to see their countenance, how are they interacting with each other, are there stragglers, is there a pep in their step?
Campers spend their entire day with their cabin mates and counselors. Our goal is to create an intimate community within the cabin area. These relationships are the context within which we share spiritual truth with our campers.
This week, on one hot and muggy afternoon walk around Rust Lake, Denise and I could hear singing coming from across the dam. As we looked we could see a group of TSTer’s (our high school campers) walking towards us. There was certainly a pep in their step. They were obviously enjoying their time together.
Walking, singing and laughing together. A sign of community being formed. It’s in these simple moments that the relations, so key to the camper’s openness to spiritual truth and ultimately to Christ, are developed. As we walked by these campers and their counselors Denise and I quietly prayed (another thing I can do as I walk) that God would use this community to help these campers to know and grow in their relationship with Jesus.
“48214”
48214 is the zip code where our inner city Detroit day campers live. It is another world from the more famous zip code 90210. In contrast 48214 is the second poorest zip code in Detroit. This is remarkable because this community includes some of the “wealthiest” neighborhoods in Detroit. So in reality 48214 has some of the neediest and poorest citizens, not only in Detroit, but in our country.
Playing the famous Skittle Skattle Battle - a SpringHill version of capture the flag. Yet it was in this community and with these campers that we were affirmed that this is one of the places we are to serve kids, their families and the local church. Let me just share a few of these affirmations with you.
One of our staff told me that these campers are very thankful and appreciative of their experience. For example, we have an ice cream social for the campers and their families as part of our closing ceremonies. When one camper was told they would be having ice cream he said “really, we get ice cream, really we do?” A glow was on his face as if he was just told he was going to Disney.
By the second day campers where calling their counselors “auntie”, “uncle”, “mommy” or “dad”. They clung to our staff and in a sense adopted them as their parents. Many do not experience this kind of love, the love of Christ, at home.
During the mini rally on closing day one camper would not let his counselor stand. He wanted to be on his "auntie's" lap. On the last day the kids from Hope Community Church, http://www.hopedetroit.org/homepage.html , said to Monique Holliday, the Hope coordinator, “can we come back next week?”.
Monique answered “no SpringHill is moving on to another location.”
Kids responded “but can we go where they will be?”
Monique told them “they are going far away.”
In which the kids responded “we will just go with them, they will take us.”
Although we can’t physically take these campers with us there is no doubt after this remarkable week, that in a deeper way, they will never leave us. And our prayer for them as well is that the love of Christ they experienced will never leave them.
“This is The Best Place Ever!”
“This is the best place ever” yelled one of our inner city Detroit day campers. It was Wednesday morning during our hottest week of camp and Danae Durling, our Detroit Day Camp Director, worked her magic and recruited the neighborhood fire station to fill our water activities with water (this was faster than doing it by a hose).
C.I.T.'s thought I needed some cooling off. Then the fire fighters followed this gift of kindness with another – they sprayed all the campers and our staff with their hoses. Campers and staff were gleefully running around under the mist of cool water. It was one of those moments we can’t orchestrate at camp. They just happen and we run with it.
During this spontaneous moment of fun, Liz Taylor, our Detroit team administrator, heard one of our summer staff cry out “This is the best job ever!”.
Liz, one of our counselors, presented a character quality trait award to one of her campers. “This is the best place ever” and “this is the best job ever.” There just might be a correlation between the two. Take a look at the photo’s below of the neighborhood in which this day camp took place. Now align those photo’s with the statement “the best place ever”. Being “the best place ever” is more than a location. It’s staff who love their job and love those they serve, who believe they have the “best job ever.” This is what creates “the best places ever”.
It was a remarkable week for these campers and staff. I will share a couple more stories over the next few days.
A home across from our Day Camp. 
Another burned out home across from our location. A Calling at age 8
- “We make a living by what we get, we make a life by what we give.” Sir Winston Churchill. Friday afternoon Denise and I were at our Grand Rapids Christian School Day Camp closing ceremony. Closing days are always inspiring whether at a Day Camp or one of our overnight camps. And this one was no exception.
Camper singing a song at closing rally. One young camper, about eight years old, was interviewed during our closing rally (in front of 400 or so campers and parents) by one of our staff about his week of camp. Here is loose transcript of the interview:
Staff – “What was your favorite thing you did this week at a camp?”
Camper – “To study the Bible and learn more about it.”
Staff – “What are you going to do with this when you get home?”
Camper – “I want to tell people about Jesus”
Staff – “Now you told me this afternoon what you want to be when you grow up, will you share that with everyone else?”
Camper – “Yes, I want to become a missionary so I can tell lots of people about Jesus.”
One of the life’s best kept secrets is the fact that, while at camp, more people receive (and later follow through on) their vocational calling than any other place else on earth.
Blog Note: This week I will be doing a four-part post about one of the most amazing stories I have had the privilege of being a part of while at SpringHill. The story will reach an important milestone over the next few days and I want you to share in the blessing of it.
Location, Location, Location
I ended my day last night sitting on the deck of our house with a close friend over looking a couple hundred acres of woods (we own only 5 of those acres which is a great deal – pay taxes on 5 acres and enjoy 200), watching the sun set and listening to a few campfires at camp. Yes I said “listened to a few campfires”. Because at SpringHill a campfire is not just burning logs but is 20 or so kids and their counselors singing crazy camp songs and sharing stories about their day at camp.
Last night I think there must have been a contest between some areas (groups of cabins) as to which area could sing the loudest. It was fun to hear the crazy songs, songs like Funky Chicken, You Can’t Ride My Little Red Wagon, One Dark Night-Fire-Fire-Fire and one of my old favorites Flea.
After my friend left I thought about all those kids and the potential spiritual impact this week may have on their lives. How last night’s campfire may have been the place where a camper made a significant decision concerning their faith and their relationship with Christ. All those funny, loud, goofy songs and yet, at the same time, such a powerful and moving experience, a true milestone in people’s lives. And frankly it’s not just campers at SpringHill but campers at camps all over the country and around the world who had those same experiences around a campfire last night.
There is something powerful about being in God’s creation, sitting around a campfire, singing funny songs, having s’mores and sharing lives together. And I have the privilege and the pleasure of being a witness to so much of it in my work and, of course, from the deck of our house.
Our home is a testament to the old real estate adage – location, location, location. There are only a handful of homes in the world where the backyard entertainment on a summer evening is as spectacular as ours.
A Tradition Like No Other!
“A tradition like no other”, sports announcer Jim Nantz’s words describing the Master’s golf tournament could just as easily be applied to 6 square at SpringHill. Yes 6 square. Everyone has heard of 4 square but at SpringHill we play a faster, more competitive and highly skilled game of 6 square. It is a long-standing tradition that campers highly anticipate each year.
Some skilled 6 square campers playing a game following a visit to the Trading Post. On my walk around our Michigan overnight camp yesterday afternoon I stumbled across a couple of hotly contested 6 square games being played in Copper Country. I was reminded of what makes camp so much fun and memorable. Kids are able to do things that they normally don’t get to do at home (who plays 6 square at home?) in a place that is different from their day-to-day enviroment, within a community of new friends and fresh voices that can speak into their lives in transformative ways.
We love 6 square because it provides the maximum number of kids participating while a smaller number of kids are in line waiting to play. Kids are in the game longer before being knocked out and on the side line for a shorter period of time. Many of our cabins are 7 campers and 1 counselor meaning only two are waiting in line to fill a spot of someone who is knocked out. In other cabins it is a 5 to 1 ratio which means the entire cabin can play at the same while any other extras can join in.
If you have never played a game of 6 square you need to try it. It is “a tradition like no other”.
No More Boring Staff Meetings
Monday’s always make me think of those weekly staff meetings I had when I was in the corporate world. Reality is most of them, though may have fulfilled their purpose, were boring and certainly did not ignite excitement and enthusiasm for the week ahead.
When I came to SpringHill I saw a whole new way to look at the “weekly staff meeting.” SpringHill’s weekly summer staff meetings are fun, inspiring and informational all at the same time. There is an almost a pep rally feeling to the entire meeting and for certain a great way to start a week of camp.
Three of our staff singing a song they made up for our high schooler campers and their staff (TST) So if you want to re-invent your staff meetings here are some suggestions, based on my SpringHill experience, on how you can take a weekly (or monthly) staff meeting and make it a kick off to a great week (month):
- Use music before and after the meeting.
- Have your most creative people put a plan together to share information in a fun and memory way.
- Build an agenda on the needs of the organization as well as input from the staff.
- Highlight and recognize staff as much as possible.
- Use laughter, even on more serious issues. People get it and will remember it.
- Allow the humor to flow naturally and not always be rehearsed.
- Use video, especially home done video with some of the team as the actors. Video is a memorable way to communicate ideas.
- In smaller teams food and beverages is always a plus.
- Save the serious moments for the truly serious stuff (if you don’t use serious moments often then they can be very impactful).
- Meetings should not just reflect the leader or leaders but the organization, who you are what you are about.
If you ever want to see one of our staff meetings, they are every Sunday mornings, 11:30, all summer long at either of our overnight camps. You are welcome to join us.
Do As I Do Not as I Say
“Lord, I am thankful that Molly is your friend.” This was the prayer of one of our elementary campers shared by her counselor – Molly – at our weekly staff worship. This little girl was praying for Molly because Molly had become her role model and her hero during her week of camp.
Molly explained how this little girl never left her side and began imitating her through the week. This included the habit, starting on Wednesday, of carrying her Bible with her everywhere. Why? Because she knew that Molly had her Bible with her. Also this camper, in faith, committed her life to Christ. Why? Because she knew Molly had done the same with her life. And, although Molly did not say this, I’m sure this camper prayed for Molly why? Because she had heard Molly pray for her and the rest of the Molly’s campers throughout the week.
“Do as I say not as I do” is a good line but in reality people, especially kids, do not hear us as well as they see us.
Welcoming Campers to Camp
I spent yesterday doing one of my favorite things in the world – helping welcome campers and their families to SpringHill. It was week 1, opening day for our Indiana overnight camp which made it even better. Not only are campers a bit nervous and excited about camp but on opening day of week 1 all the staff, including myself, have a few “pre-game butterflies”.
TSTer's welcoming campers and their parents at the luggage tent. I’ve been a part of our camp in Indiana for 10 years and thus spend a big part of my summers in southern Indiana. Two people said to me “you are always here on Father’s Day”. And as I thought about it I realized that maybe true. What those comments made me realize though was the depth of relationships I have had the privilege to build with our staff, campers and their parents over these last 10 years.
My work allows me to be in contact with, work with and become friends with some of the best people. People from around the mid-west and from all over the country. And here is what occurred to me as I thought about these relationships. Christ’s Kingdom is truly every where. God’s people are everywhere, and the power of connection between His people makes for a very visible and transformational expression of His Son in the world.
Even though I was not home with my kids for Father’s Day I was able to spend it with friends doing something I truly love and being a part of something, a Kingdom, which is much bigger and more transformational than any single person or organization.
Campers being brought to their cabins via the SpringHill fire truck.
