Camp

Here I sit at camp, on a computer. I know, I know . . .

I love East Iowa Bible Camp. There are a few places in the world, where as you drive closer you feel like a kid again, getting so excited to be there and comfortable with where you are heading as you pull in the drive way it is like coming home. Camp is one of those for me, well maybe it is the one, other than where I grew up. I love being here and I love that my family loves being here. I remember when I brought Curtis up here the first time, he didn't know what to expect, and asked if this was going to have to be our vacation every year. I don't think I said yes, but I was hopeful that he would fall in love with camp and all that it represents and he did.

My dad loved camp and wanted our family to value what it meant to him. He had two main things that he worked to keep the main things, God and family. If you can keep those two things in focus, everything else will work itself out. Camp is a break from the reality of the everyday, it is a shelter from the storm. It is a place to go and recharge your battery and reconnect with all that is important in life, God and family. Thanks Dad, I hope that your two main things are mine as well.

At camp you will hear great stories of where and how God is at work in lives and communities. You get a bigger picture of the world, and the important message of it's not about YOU, it's about how HE can use you. You see all the ways that God uses people here, both in big and small ways. Do you have any idea how many people have come through this camp and chosen to do God's work? Neither do I (I bet you were expecting some stats), but I will tell you that most of my camp friends have chosen to allow God to work through their lives, some have chosen missions and are working in foreign countries, others are working in churches all over this country, and many others are actively involved in their local church and its ministries. What an honor to have learned the message of EIBC as a child, "To know Christ and to make Him known" and let that become the song in your heart and message of your life. Thank you East Iowa, for bringing me in contact with exciting and inspiring missionaries and for challenging me with interesting and applicable Bible teaching. I leave camp with a desire to be used by the God I say I serve in a better, more complete way, so that it isn't just what I say, it is who I am.

I love coming to camp with my family, I have been coming since I was very young. It has been "vacation" for most of my life. As a child, we looked forward to this week all year. We had friends that were our camp friends and of course a crush or two along the way, but it was just a great time to get away together. It was so fun to play together (I have 2 brothers and 2 sisters) with differnt stuff in different ways. We loved the pool, the pond, Bible drills in chapel, and competing with and against each other in the great relay races. As we got older we began to hang out with other kids and then the fun of mutual secrets began. It was the one time a year when it felt like the weight of the world was off my dad, I see that now much more than I did then. He would truly relax at camp. The Mike laugh would ring out through Kid Run Valley, his stories were better around the camp fire, and he loved the people he met and only saw here. He loved the friends from home that still come here each year and the relationship that is built through camp. They are the thick and thin friends. There were great times of sitting, just talking together, and I always loved watching him with my mom. One of the hardest things after his death was returning to camp, less than a month later. We knew that some of our camp friends wouldn't know and would be looking for him, not having him here was hard then, and I still feel his absence now. Oh the fun he would have with the grandchildren that are here this week, there are eight here.

Now, I am the mom and I love having my kids at camp. They are getting some of the same experiences that I cherish so much and building those lasting friendships. There is just something about someone who knew you when you were so young and cute and stuck with you even when you weren't and now they are watching my children be young and cute. (Surely my kids won't go through that un-cute phase.) I am relaxed here, I trust the people and the camp. I allow my children a freedom that they don't often have anywhere else. Camp to me is a safe place and my children love it here. Michael has been asking when we are coming for months now, and will be sad to leave on Saturday morning.

There is just enough structure that it is not a free for all and enough freedom that you can take your time and do all the fun things. There are enough simple activities that you will crave fun for fun's sake when you get home and realize how much we over schedule and over plan and over stuff our lives. You know what? Camp doesn't need jet ski's and ropes courses, just creativity and a willingness to continually find the fun in life and pursue the simple and best things in life. God and family.

Wow, all this to say, I love camp and am so glad to be back again this year and pray that I will be able to return again next summer. Long live East Iowa Bible Camp!!