Thank You Bill and JoAnn Dinsmore
Today was Bill Dinsmore’s last day with SpringHill. Bill’s been VP of our Indiana overnight camp for the past 6 ½ years and has answered the call to become the Executive Pastor at College Park Church in Indianapolis, Indiana.I, and the whole SpringHill community, will miss Bill and his wife JoAnn being a part of our staff team. During Bill’s tenure there’s been significant growth in the ministry of our Indiana overnight camp. Bill’s lead initiatives that focused on the quality of the experiences we provide campers and their parents, improved the camp property in significant ways and built key partnerships with supporters and other organizations. Each of these initiatives has not only improved our Indiana overnight camp they’ve had a positive impact throughout the rest of SpringHill.
But what I’ll miss most will be working with Bill in an effort to reach more kids more effectively with the SpringHill Experience. Part of the joy I have in my job’s the opportunity to work side by side with quality people like Bill and JoAnn to make a difference in kids’ lives.
When one of those friends, such as Bill, leaves SpringHill it’s like a family member moving out of the house. It’s both a sad day and a day of expectation. The expectation comes because we trust in God’s sovereignty and in doing so we look forward with anticipation to the days ahead as we witness what God will do in and through Bill and JoAnn and what He’ll do in and through SpringHill.
So thank you Bill and Jo Ann for your faithful service to SpringHill on behalf of kids and Christ. May God continue to increase your fruitfulness for His Kingdom in the days ahead.
“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.
Working Together on Behalf of Young People
GCC Counselor & SpringHill Staff encouraging a camper on the solo challenge Three hundred junior high students and their leaders from Granger Community Church (GCC) are in the middle of their annual summer experience here at our Michigan overnight camp.
It’s a key part of GCC’s junior high ministry, something they’ve done for years. But it’s the first time SpringHill’s had the privilege of hosting their camp and we’re excited and thankful for the opportunity.
Over the last few years GCC and SpringHill have developed a ministry partnership that has as its goal to help young people know and grow in their relationships with Jesus Christ. Our partnership includes GCC hosting two weeks of SpringHill Day Camps and SpringHill hosting their junior high summer camp.
Church partnerships like GCC’s are the cornerstone of SpringHill’s work. SpringHill exists to create life changing experiences for young people, yet not in isolation, but instead doing it in context of the wider Kingdom of Christ.
On the other hand the local church’s mission’s to be involved in a young person’s life on a daily and weekly basis. God’s ordained the local church to be the place where the ongoing nurture of God’s people takes place. So we see SpringHill’s responsibility as coming along side the local church and helping it fulfill this mission by creating these experiences.
Thus relationships such as the one between SpringHill and GCC are absolutely critical to the spiritual development of young people. Because when the local church and ministries such as SpringHill integrate their efforts to serve young people the results are long-term, memorable, eternal and ultimately life transforming.
From a Place to an Experience
This past week Todd Leinberger, great friend and our VP for our Michigan overnight night camp (soon to be VP of the Great Lakes Region) stopped me in the New Frontiers Dining Hall and said to me…“Isn’t it amazing that this week we’ll have 1000 summer campers in a SpringHill Experience and none of them will be here at our Michigan camp” (because of school calendars our Michigan camp starts a week later).
Yes it’s amazing because it wasn’t that long ago that SpringHill was just one place in Evart, Michigan.
In my first summer at SpringHill, 1998, we had about 500 – 600 kids per week and they were all at our Michigan camp – our only SpringHill camp.
Today, the summer of 2011, SpringHill will create life changing experiences for nearly 2000 kids per week in 6 locations around the Midwest. It’s an incredible change (and quite the ride) in a relatively short period of time.
But understand the change hasn’t been just about the numbers and the locations it’s been about the change in the perspective we bring to our work. Today we don’t see SpringHill as a place, though places are very important to our work, we see SpringHill as an experience.
But SpringHill’s even more than just an experience – SpringHill’s a talented and committed team of people creating these experiences that Christ uses to transform young lives.
It’s who God’s called us to be and what God’s called us to do. So we’ll continue to build into a great team of people who’ll keep creating SpringHill Experiences where ever and whenever there are kids to reach and there’s an opportunity to serve.
Be Prepared!
As a Boy Scout the motto Be Prepare was drilled into my psyche. It became a part of who I am and there’s not a thing I can do about, not that I really want to.When I pack for a trip I tend to over pack. Why? There’s this still small be prepared voice in my head that’s saying “you might need that.”
On my annual Canadian fishing trips I carry a “survival kit” when I go back into the bush. Why? It’s that be prepared voice asking me “what if you get lost or someone gets hurt or you just can’t get back and have to spend the night out there?”
And each time I hear that voice I respond, as any good Boy Scout would do, by saying “on my honor I will do my best to do my duty… to be prepared for anything that might happen.”
It’s the same voice that has pushed SpringHill day by day, week by week and year by year to continually be prepared by improving our emergency planning and safety efforts. Emergency Preparedness Plans (EPP’s), Safety Councils, near miss reports, etc. aren’t the sexiest, most exciting parts of camp but they, accompanied by a well prepared and committed staff, are absolutely essential to providing an outstanding SpringHill Experience.
You see we consider the care of a child the highest trust given to us by any parent and caregiver. It’s our commitment to provide children with a physically, emotional and spiritually safe camp experience.
And, like my obsessive packing, we can do nothing less than live up to this trust and listen to that still small voice that tells us to always be prepared.
Sometimes the Questions are More Telling than the Answers
“Which SpringHill camp’s your favorite?” asked of one of our mischievous Indiana overnight summer staffers.The question was part of an informal Q&A I’m having with each of our summer staff teams. The goal’s to get to know them better and for them to get to know both me and SpringHill better. It’s the first time I’ve done this in training and my first session was with our Indiana staff.
It’s amazing what you can learn about people by the questions they ask – and the questions they don’t ask. Questions reflect the circumstances people are in, their values, their perspectives and their observations. Questions are revealing, sometimes more so than the answers.
In addition to the question above here are some of the other questions that came my way. See what they tell you about our Indiana summer staff team:
“How did you come to SpringHill?”
“Did you feel called to SpringHill and how did you know?”
“What’s the vision for SpringHill?”
“How do you feel about the fact that people stop going to church after graduating from high school? What can SpringHill do about it?”
“How can I combine my business degree with my interest in overseas missions?”
“How do I know I’m called to a particular work or field?”
The most personal question of the night was…
“How did you propose to your wife?” My answer spurred on a whole litany of follow-up questions.
And finally the most challenging question was…
“Will you do ‘Brown Squirrel’ for us?” This was the hardest question because it took the most courage for me to answer. If you know the camp song “Brown Squirrel” and its accompanying motions you understand my trepidation in answering yes.
And of course I did answer “yes” and concluded our evening together, with the help of Carey Edgren, performing a little song and dance.
The Significant Difference Between Critique and Criticism
Over the last year I’ve attempted through trial and error to improve my photography. I’ve been using a Canon Rebel mostly on auto focus because I didn’t know a thing about the camera nor very little about shooting a quality photograph.I’ve read the camera’s manual as well as a photography book in an attempt to improve. As a result I knew just enough to be dangerous but not enough to be better.
What’s worse the reading and practice had given me a false sense of confidence in what I thought I knew and could do. So in hopes of making some improvement I decided to sit in on a training session for our summer photographers and videographers facilitated by Chris duMond from our marketing firm DesignVox.
The key learning element required us to shoot photos of people at camp, picking our best ones and sharing them with the group. The group then critiqued our photos by having each person provide something they liked and something to improve.
As the team reviewed my photo (the one above) I realized critique was the missing piece in my attempts to become a better photographer. If I was going to improve I needed input and perspective from others, especially those experienced in photography.
I also thought about the positive impact critique can have in other areas of my work and personal life. Critique, as Chris pointed out, is different from criticism. Critique builds up where criticism tears down. Criticism comes from people who’ve never done the work (think film critic) while critique comes from people who’ve been in the same place doing the same kind of work. Critique’s helpful criticism’s judgmental.
So if your desire’s to improve some aspect of your work or personal life, find others who’ve accomplished what you’re attempting to accomplish and ask them to provide you some critique. It may be just what you need to become better. Click here to see some of the other photos I shot.
High School Graduation and the Importance of “What’s Next”
Denise, Christina and I at Christina's last Dance Arts Academy recital (click below right under "Links") On Friday June 3rd our daughter Christina graduates from high school. So this morning I drove her up to Northern Michigan Christian School for graduation practice.
Along the way we talked about how she and her classmates were feeling about graduation. Christina expressed, as she has for months, that she’s ready to graduate and move on and start the next phase of her life.
Yet she didn’t think this was true of all her friends. Some didn’t appear ready to move on. Then she said she thought many people she’s known over the years have graduated but never really “left high school.”
So I asked her “what’s the difference between you and these people?”
She didn’t know for sure so I followed up with “so why are you ready to move on?”
She replied “because I can’t wait to go to Butler and meet new people and take my dance career to the next level.”
“What about the people who’ve seemed to have never ‘left high school,’ what were they looking forward too?” I responded.
She answered “I don’t think they were looking forward to anything except maybe just being done with high school.”
“That’s right” I replied “they probably didn’t see their life moving to a more exciting or better place. They even may have come to believe that their best days are behind them.”
Then I shared with Christina that life is full of change, like graduation, and there’s no way to avoid it. So the best way to confront change, as she’s doing, is to have a vision of “what’s next”, a place to be moving toward.
So we when discover “what’s next” in our life and help others to do the same, be it those we lead or just love, change becomes not just an ending but also a bright new beginning with an exciting future.
Lessons from a Farmer
I have one of those jobs that on any given day I find myself involved with really cool and engaging activities and people. And today was one of those days. I spent the afternoon with three of our staff on the Winkel Dairy Farm in Vogel Center, Michigan shooting video.We’re producing a video of farming illustrations we’ll use in our weekly summer staff worship and small group time. Our summer staff theme’s “100 Fold” based on Mark 4:20 which says “But those that were sown on the good soil are the ones who hear the word and accept it and bear fruit, thirtyfold, sixtyfold and a hundredfold.
So it was natural to go to a farmer and talk about yield. We asked Jim Winkel, a friend of mine, if he’d provide us some farming analogies that align with each of our 10 themes. Jim ended up graciously giving us over 3 hours of his precious time as we shot video of him providing agricultural insights on different locations of his family’s dairy farm.
The afternoon was a blast.
First because Jim and our Michigan Events Manger Eric Woods did a great job in front of the camera and our video team of Jason Bultema and John Costakis did a great job behind the camera.Second it was a beautiful day to be outside.
Third, I’ve never been on a large dairy farm and I learned a lot (we all need to be thankful for the dedicated people who’ve committed their lives to feeding the world).
Finally, it allowed me to be a part of creating a curriculum that we pray will help our staff serve well this summer and more importantly grow in their relationship with Jesus Christ.
So I was with great people outside in God’s creation learning new things and doing important work – yes it was a great afternoon.
Cascading Community
I love SpringHill in May because our summer staff begin arriving in cascading waves for training. One of the most important lessons they’ll learns the importance of small communities in creating SpringHill Experiences.Small communities, such as families, are powerful places for life transformation. They’re transformational because they’re relational. And it’s within the context of relationships that the important stuff that God uses to transform people takes place.
We build SpringHill summer camps on this reality. We begin with hiring people that can both thrive and create transformational communities. Then we follow with training that shows staff how to create small communities in a SpringHill way.
For the training to stick we don’t just tell our staff how to create transformational communities we also have them experience it by doing our training within small communities. Our staff learn it by living it for the weeks they’re in training.
To accomplish training in this way requires an enormous amount of coordination, investment in leadership development, trust, and empowerment.
So we start with our summer professional (resident) staff. They’re trained in small communities with the goal of having an integral part in the training of the next staff (summer leadership) to arrive. Summer leadership staff then’s trained to be involved in training the final wave of arriving staff.
This cascading of training in small communities allows us to multiple our trainers which then allows us to multiple our small communities as each new wave of staff arrive. In this way all our staff not only hear but also experience being a part of and leading a small community.So when the 1000’s of campers arrive this summer our staff’s prepared to create 100’s more small communities where young people can know and grow in their relationship with Jesus Christ and thus be transformed.
