Courage to Take Steps to Go Deeper
Yesterday marked the end of week 1 of summer camp and I spent closing day with campers, families, and staff at our SpringHill Indiana camp. There were a number of moving testimonies by campers and staff during the closing rally, but there was one in particular I want to share with you.
Ariel is a returning SpringHill camper and this year she was a part of our Inpursuit middle school camp. According to her area director Sara, Ariel came to camp with anticipation, because she believed that God was going to do something tremendous in her life. In the past she had committed her life to Christ but felt that somehow God was going to take her deeper this summer.
So this week, before her counselor and her cabin group, then before an amphitheater full of campers, staff, and families, she announced that she was going to go deeper in her relationship with Christ by reading the entire Bible through in a year. This young woman, who, like all junior highers, has a thousand things competing for her time and trying to steal her life away, has decided to go “against the current” and to do something that will forever positively transform her life – read all of God’s Word.
So, as I listened to Ariel tell us of her commitment, all I could do was sit back and thank God for her courage, and for the good work of her counselors and her area director Sara in challenging Ariel to a new level of faith.
And like Ariel, after hearing so many incredible stories yesterday, I’m full of anticipation at what Christ is going to do in the lives of our campers and staff this summer.
More than a Photography Lesson
This week I spent some time with one of my favorite photographers and, more importantly, favorite leaders in the world – Mark Beeson. Mark is the Senior Pastor at Granger Community Church (GCC), one of our key local church allies. Mark, the GCC staff, and their middle school students are spending the week at SpringHill experiencing their annual Granger middle school summer camp.
I snagged some time with Mark with the promises we would do a little exploring in the “backlands” so I could glean some wisdom and practical help in taking better photographs. Mark loves photography, takes incredible photos, and in particular, because he loves the outdoors, does incredible wildlife and landscape photography. So getting him out into the woods for a couple of hours wasn’t hard. And I learned a lot, most of which was basic stuff to him, but for me like gold.
Such things as:
“Always have a firm foundation for your camera.”
“What’s a few extra seconds to get the right shot?”
“Perspective is what makes a photo interesting.”
“When photographing a person’s face, capture the eyes, because everyone’s drawn to the eyes.”
“Nobody wants their picture taken, but everyone likes to look at a photo they’re in.”
“Capturing a moment in a person’s life blesses them more than we know.”
As you can see from these morsels of wisdom, my impromptu photography lesson was more than just a lesson in taking better pictures. It was a lesson on leadership because it gave me a glimpse into the perspective and the heart of this passionate and effective leader.
Click here to read Mark’s blog and see some of his photography.
Creative Solutions and Heroic Actions
The Heros – Teri, Joe, Dan, Rose, Dwayne, Chuck, Eric and Josh (missing – Ryan, Allison, Casto, Matt, Jarred, and Jake) What do you do when you’re training 100’s of summer staff and, at the same time, hosting multiple retreat groups, all of which require a lot of meeting space, and you happen to be a camp for kids and not a conference center?
You get creative, and a little sweaty, and sore, and you convert your game room into a meeting room that accommodates over 200 people. And by convert I mean moving pool and ping ball tables, booth seating, chairs, and tables out of the game room and into other locations, and move in and set into place staging, AV equipment, and appropriate meeting room seating.
The game room before the conversion. Photo by Rose Peever 
The game room after the conversion. And that’s exactly what our Michigan overnight camp team did last week. Why? Because we consider it a privilege to ally with other ministries by providing them an outstanding retreat experiences, so we’ll do whatever we can to accommodate their needs, even if it means thinking and do things we’ve never thought of, or tried before.
As someone once said “necessity is the mother of all inventions”, and it’s when you’re committed to serving others, including fulfilling your commitments to them, that opportunity often becomes necessity. So, for our team, it was out both necessity and their desire to create outstanding experiences for our guests, which led to their novel solution, and more importantly their willingness to see that solution become a reality.
So you see, such things as problem solving tools and innovation processes are not enough. Real creativity and problem solving begins and ends with willing hearts and open minds, followed by a commitment to action, even at a personal cost. And how do I know this is true? Because of what our Michigan Site and Retreats team did last week to assure our guests had an outstanding SpringHill Experience.
Paying Attention to the Details
Keith Rudge and Neil Hubers One of the things I love about our Indiana camp Site Team is their incredible attention to detail. Keith Rudge our Site Director, his right hand man Neil Hubers and their team of staff and volunteers make attention to the details a significant goal in all their work. As campers, parents and guests visit our Indiana camp they experience this attention to detail in such things as the care of the grounds, the freshly stained decks and walk ways, and the well thought out safety and security procedures.
Attention to details is important part of the SpringHill Experience because our goal is always to be professional. This means we plan, we implement, we measure and we evaluate every experience as to whether we exceeded people’s expectations. And one of the best ways to exceed expectations is in the attention to the details, because people notice the details. And it’s in the details that people judge the thoughtfulness and quality of our work.
And the amazing reality about attention to detail is this – it doesn’t cost the organization any more to pay to attention to them. Because paying attention to the details is more about habits than money, more a commitment than a skill, more a practice than theory. All of which means there’s no excuse for neglecting the details.
This value of exceeding expectations by paying attention to the details goes back to the earliest days of SpringHill when Enoch Olson, our Founding Director, made sure every detail was just right before guests arrived at camp, including such things as having every sidewalk swept perfectly clean.
But the most important reason paying attention to the details is so critical in our work is because we know that if we can demonstrate to parents our trustworthiness in the details, then they’ll trust us with the most important things – caring for their children.
What Lies Underneath
You never know what you’ll find when you remodel an old building. For example, at our Michigan overnight camp, we’re in the process of remodeling and expanding our New Frontiers infirmary and as our team peeled off the siding from above the front of the building this is what they found (see photo above).
It’s a strategic location for all our arriving guest and staff to see over the next few weeks. And there’s no doubt it was a painted in that spot, by some daring volunteers and staff 40 years ago, because of its visibility, and the laughs it would bring, to those who arrived at camp during the infirmary construction.
And these same daring staff and volunteers have now given our current guests and staff, especially those who appreciate the cultural significance of the television show M.A.S.H. was in the 1970’s, another reason to smile as they arrive at camp.
But time does moves on, and as it does, cultural icons end up buried under old siding, only to resurface again one day, giving us a glimmer of where we’ve come from as well as reminding us of the people who’ve helped bring us to the place we are today.
“If You Don’t Have Time To Do It Right, When Will You Have Time To Do It Over?”
In these busy weeks of May and June, as we prepare for summer camp, all of us at SpringHill reap what we’ve sown over the past 8 months. We’ve either prepared well and have a manageable, yet challenging schedule, or we end up with an impossible schedule trying to accomplish an impossible list of tasks, in an impossibly short amount of time.
It’s during these crazy months that I often return to a simple question, attributed to the great basketball coach John Wooden, I learned while leading a Quality Assurance initiative back in my former life in corporate American – “If you don’t have time to do it right, when will you have time to do it over?”
You see if we haven’t done our preparation for summer camp right, we’ve literally run out of time to do it over. Unintended results can be – staff burnout, lower quality of camper experience, disappointed parents, and missed opportunities. Even if we’re able to recover by doing it over again, it’s usually at the cost of our personal health, our families, our relationships with each other, and our own spiritual well-being. None of these are worth the time we thought we were saving by not doing it right the first time.
But, as I watch our team this spring, it’s obvious, that through training and discipline, we continue to become better at doing things right the first time, and thus eliminating the need to find time to do them over again, especially in these craziest of seasons. So I’m proud of our team, as well as I’m confident of a great summer of SpringHill Experiences that’s ahead.
Sunday Night Live and the Official Start to Summer
Summer has officially arrived because SpringHill has had its annual Memorial Day Family Camp.
Family Camp, along with Summer Camp, is SpringHill’s longest running program. This is our 43rd year of family camping at our Michigan camp and, believe it or not, we have a handful of families who have not missed one, ever. It’s also the first program I was a part of as a full-time staff member of SpringHill, and thus, for many reasons, is one of my favorite programs.
One of the reasons I look forward to being a part of Family Camp is because I love watching families have a SpringHill Experience together – riding horses, doing the zipline, sharing around the campfire, or joining in one of our family sessions where they sing together and listen to excellent family speakers together. After every Family Camp, we hear from people who tell us how God used their time at SpringHill to transform their family.
One of my favorite parts of the weekend is Sunday Night Live. Sunday Night Live is a giant campfire like session in our outdoor amphitheater where our staff performs campfire skits; families will sing campfire songs, listen to a campfire message from our camp speaker and, of course,
have a visit from Duct Tape Man. It’s a blast and this past week, with the incredible northern Michigan weather, it was as good as it gets.So get the suntan lotion and the bug spray out, summer has officially started, and after this great weekend, I’m looking forward, with anticipation, to all God will do in the lives of SpringHill campers, families and staff this summer.
Celebration and Dedication
Jim and Kris Mestdagh, John and Marlene Boll This week we held a celebration and dedication for the recently renovated indoor pool at our Michigan camp. We invited everyone involved with the project, including staff, donors and the general contractors. It was a fun and inspiring afternoon.
In the past we haven’t done a lot of these kinds of events and I’m not sure why. But over the last couple of years we’ve acknowledged, as an organization, the important role celebration plays in the life of an organization. So we’re trying to do a better job of finding reasons to celebrate, including celebrating and dedicating new or renovated buildings and activities at our camps.
This effort to create a “culture of celebration” has led to my reflection on the question “what makes a great celebration?” Here’s my current answer:
First, I believe, a celebration should be Christ centered, acknowledging the good things God has done or provided.
Jenny Waugh and Ken Bailey from Rockford Construction Second, it should affirm those people God used to help these good things become realities.
Finally, a celebration should inspire others to take part in God’s good work.
But there was a second and equally important part of our afternoon and it was the dedication of the pool to God’s glory. An act of dedication reminds us that we’re stewards of something we don’t own. So in dedicating the pool to God, we symbolically gave back to Him what He’s entrust to our care, as if returning the master’s five talents with five more.
So we all prayed, with hands joined together, that this pool building would be a useful tool in our work of helping young people see, hear and experience Jesus Christ in a life transforming way, and then celebrated His goodness which allows us the privilege to serve in such a way.Photography by Caitlin Crowley
What Has Eternal Value? By Mark Olson
Lisa and Mark Olson, 1984 In remembrance of Mark Olson, past President of SpringHill on what today, May 20, would have been his 54th birthday, below is one of his last published letters.
“Smiles are the outer representation of the long-term impact camping has on kids.”
I will never forget hearing the doctor tell me “this [disease] goes quickly. If you do not get treated soon, you could die within the next four months.” Over the next few weeks, while determining the best course of treatment and emotionally preparing for the road ahead, I also reflected upon how I have spent the time given to me. Inevitably, the question arises, “what of my life has eternal value?”
My initial response was to create two mental columns, one with the heading “eternal” and the other “temporal.” I then tried to distinguish those parts of my life that had eternal value and those which did not. This proved to be a difficult and basically unhelpful exercise.
Upon later reflection, I also found this approach contrary to what Scripture teaches. At the core, creating columns to dichotomize our existence is rooted in the type of thinking that John addresses in the first chapter of his first epistle. “The one who existed from the beginning is the one we have heard and seen. We saw him with our own eyes and touched him with our own hands. He is Jesus Christ, the Word of life.” (I John 1:1). John was addressing dualistic thinking in which people persisted in dividing the components of their lives into that which is spiritual and that which is not.
In our vernacular we use the term “spiritual” to refer to that which is most important. We often attach great eternal value to activities such as leading a bible study, preaching a message, working at a Christian organization for “God’s purposes,” etc.
From my present vantage point (that is, struggling with a life threatening disease), I have come to believe that the faithful execution of the most menial duties of life will, in the end, have the greatest eternal value. Washing dishes with my wife will have a value that extends into eternity. Going fishing with my sons while listening and chatting about the realities of being a first and fourth grader will have a value that extends into eternity. Going to my daughter’s dance recital has a value that extends into eternity. Going to breakfast with a group of guys on a regular basis, getting to know them while they learn to know me, has a value that will extend into eternity.
Eternal value can never be defined by simply listing those things that are perceived as spiritual and those that are not. The “Word of Life” was something handled, touched, and seen. So, that which has eternal value is anything that is done in a spirit of faithfulness and service to our God. We demonstrate our faithfulness, gratitude, and love to Him by being faithful, grateful, and loving to Him as a husband is to be toward his wife by following through in the seemingly mundane and “earthly” aspects of our life. I believe this is what Jesus meant when he so closely links love with obedience – “If you love me, obey my commandments.” (John 14:15)
It is within this context that I have come to believe that everything we do to bring glory to ourselves has temporary value. This brings us back to the very first commandment, “Do not worship any other gods beside me.” Anything we do with the purpose of bring glory to ourselves (whether it be a basketball game, a business deal, a makeover, or academic excellence) is simply a form of idolatry. Everything we do with the purpose of bringing glory to God is worship of the only true God. As a friend once told me, there is a god someplace in everyone’s life.
Furthermore, this journey has confirmed for me the value and the importance of camp experiences like SpringHill and InPursuit in the life of a child. At camp a child goes through the day with a counselor, a friend, a role model. This counselor is reminded constantly that they are here to serve and to be “Jesus” for a child who may never have the opportunity to see Him again. They go to the archery range, climb a tower, go to the craft shop, eat a meal, ride a zipline, canoe in the lake, have a campfire, go to ‘club,’ sleep in a teepee, while the counselor bears testimony to who Jesus is by serving and loving the child in the midst of daily activity.
Because of this relationship, the counselor has a “voice” in which they can share in word and action the “good news.” As a result, the child experiences the love of Jesus and may respond by placing their trust in Him to remove their sin so that they can know their Creator who loves them dearly. A life is changed for eternity.
It is because of this I have very few regrets. I would not have changed my involvement at SpringHill and InPursuit, which continues to be a very rewarding way to serve my Savior. When I walk away from this disease, though, I will aspire to do less of that which is seemingly spiritual, and do more of that which is seemingly temporal but in the end has great eternal value. I will spend more time fishing with my sons and friends, take the girls to the golf course, and listen more carefully to the person with whom I am sharing a conversation.
Also in honor of Mark we have a limited number of copies of Brennan Manning’s book Ruthless Trust – A Ragamuffin’s Path to God (one of Mark’s favorite authors) I’ll send a copy to anyone who subscribes to my blog while the supply lasts. If you’re already a subscriber and would also like a copy let me know and I’ll send you one as well.
What Inspires “New and Improved”!
People often say that they can’t wait to return to SpringHill to see what’s new and improved. We’ve developed a reputation for not sitting comfortably on the current state of our properties, facilities, activities and programs. So people come to our camps with anticipation.
I believe this is true because SpringHill staff live with two types of dissatisfactions. The first is we continue to have that artist’s “dissatisfaction with the present” that we inherited from our Founding Director, Enoch Olson. It’s that God-given desire to create, with the belief that there’s always room for something new that will add more beauty to the present.
The other dissatisfaction, which I’ll admit may be more closely related to the first one than I’m acknowledging, is the dissatisfaction that comes from always wanting things better, more exciting, bigger and faster. It’s driven by our desire to “wow” our campers and guests the second and third time they’re at camp, not just the first.
It’s also why I looked forward, with anticipation, to visiting our camp in Indiana last week. It’s been a few months since I last visited, and I knew there’s been a lot of good work being done by our team, all inspired by these two dissatisfactions. And I wasn’t disappointed.
I saw the improved dining hall and large group meeting area with its better acoustics and stage. Also one of our campers’ favorite activities, the “Party Barge”, went through a major renovation. Then our team’s added a giant’s swing that will propel campers high into the sky, and finally, though maybe not as exciting but just as important, we’ve added electricity to all our cabins.
So I left camp confident that our campers will not be disappointed, just as I wasn’t, when they return this summer, and see what’s new and improved.
