Lessons from Life Beyond the End of the Road

Now that camp is finished for the year I am headed back to my ‘real life’ in Kansas City as a student in grad school.  I will shortly be spending most of my days in a classroom gathering knowledge from textbooks and lectures.  However, before I jump into that I thought I would reflect on some of the lessons I learned this past summer.  To steal a quote from one of my past employers in regards to college—“Don’t let school and classes get in the way of your education”.  

I learned a few practical skills such as how to build a fire using only one match.  Another skill was perfecting the perfect roasted marshmallow for s’mores.  I also discovered I have hidden talents in making shadow puppets and reading children’s stories with fun voices (Meanwhile Back at the Ranch was my personal favorite this summer).  I learned that Alaska's governor is Sean Parnell (that's right, I was able to redeem myself from my earlier Alaskan government faux pas in a later round of Quiz Quest).  Additionally, if a person has to stand in the ocean while putting a canoe in the water and the waves happen to go over the top of their boots, the boots will be soaked.  One of the best ways to dry out said boots is stuffing them with newspaper.  Newspaper is a hot commodity for this reason and since it serves as excellent fire starter.  Also it is possible to live only with the possessions that fit in 2 duffel bags and a backpack for quite a while-- I don't even remember why I need a closet.

Other lessons were more difficult.  One week I had a camper in my cabin who pushed me to the edge.  She was disrespectful and disobedient and working with her was a constant battle.  We talked about how we needed to show this girl unconditional love but after two days I was out of love.  At one point she asked why the other counselor and myself didn’t quit and just go home.   I told her we couldn’t because we cared too much about her.  Through this experience I grasped a better understanding of God’s unconditional love.  How often do I flat out tell Him no and run away or refuse to listen.  I lost my patience and got frustrated but God’s love is steadfast and never-ending.  His love and patience with me last much longer than two days.   Also, no matter what we do, God will not quit on us- He loves us too much.  (Another lesson I learn with this camper is how to quickly extinguish a flaming napkin at the dinner table in a glass of milk.  I guess this is what happens when a table full of 8 year olds get birthday cake with candles.)

I learned a few other lessons working with the campers.  I think I got the 'opportunity' to practice my patience daily this summer.  I hate being late to things but I always had one or two campers who would lag behind the rest of the cabin so I would have to wait on them.  Often I was impatient but a few times I realized it was an opportunity to spend time with them one-on-one as we went to the next activity and those discussions were much more important in the long run than being on time.  I didn’t have this attitude all the time so this is a lesson I need to continue to learn.  God also taught me this summer that sometimes I don’t get to see the results and I just have to trust that He is working.  As a physical therapy student who loves objective measurements and documenting progress with patients this was hard for me.  However, occasionally I got to a chance to see how God changes lives and was amazed.

After listening to several campers share their stories and some of the staff I got a better picture of the brokenness that exists in our fallen world.  However, I also saw that despite our brokenness God still chooses to use our lives.  So many times in the Bible or even today God picks those of us who are unqualified- basically the rejects who would get picked last for a game of dodge ball in PE- to be on His team.  In our brokenness we have to depend on God since we can’t do it on our own so all the glory goes to Him.  

Living at camp this summer I had the unique experience of working, playing, eating, and worshiping with the same group of people for three months.  While I had to leave behind my family and friends I developed a new family of friends.  I learned a lot about the importance of Christian community and what it looks like.  Our faith isn’t meant to be lived out alone but as a whole group of believers.  

The final lesson I learned was about serving others.  I realized that service is all about doing what needs to be done when others don’t want to and sometimes involves getting down and getting dirty.  For me this included cleaning some outhouses or getting all the gunk out of drains.  It’s all about serving out of gratitude to Jesus for rescuing and redeeming our lives.  What better role model of the heart and attitude of a servant than Christ himself.

These are a few of my favorite things...

Every Sunday before lunch at camp we gather in a circle around the dining hall and sing the doxology.  This is something we all look forwards to every week.  I thought I would use this post to share a few of my other favorite little things about this summer.
- I love seeing little tiny Sitka spruce.  I am fond of evergreens to begin with from my past summer jobs working at a Christmas tree farm and these little ones are so cute.  I am trying to figure out how I can sneak one in my luggage.
- Lighting a fire in the wood stoves in the cabins (especially if it only takes me one match to start it) and then falling asleep listening to it crackle.
- There is a great patch of wild strawberries near the zip line so I love to stop there on when I run and eat a few (or a lot).  They are tiny but oh so sweet.
- Baked oatmeal for breakfast.  Probably my favorite meal at camp and I look forward to it all week if I see it on the menu.
- Taking a shower- this is enjoyable for a few reasons- it's a luxury here at camp so I only get one if the date is an odd number and not around meal times, it's always great to clean some of the dirt off, and it is a chance to be alone for a few minutes and away from kids- this is also a luxury for a counselor.
- If you get mail at camp you have to sing and dance to a song called Gray Squirrel but since mail is our primary form of communication with friends and family we all get excited whenever mail makes it out to camp.
- One of my favorite activities on work staff is washing dishes and trying to beat the dishwasher by having another load ready before the dishwasher is done- it doesn't take much to amuse me.
- A few of my counselor friends and I poke one another just to say "hey, how are you doing" since during camp sometimes there isn't a chance to actually talk to one another since we are trying to prevent chaos.
- I celebrated Christmas 4 times in July.
- One person on work staff each week is the laundry queen who does everyone's laundry.  It is great to drop my laundry off and have it nicely folded on my bunk later that day usually with an encouraging note included.
- The horses at camp roam free during the evenings and weekends so sometimes a group of horses is just running down the beach, grazing on the sports field, or hanging out by the creek.
- One of my favorite activities and where I spend a lot of my free time is hanging out on the beach sitting on a piece of driftwood.  I never get tired of the view or just watching the activity on the water- fish, birds, seals, whales, and boats.
- The free corner is where all the leftovers, mainly desserts, are placed when they are up for grabs.  This is usually one of my stops before going to bed and usually there are a few others gathered around so we discuss the day's events over leftover cookies.
- I'm always excited to climb into my fluffy down sleeping bag at the end of the day.
- Besides loving my sleeping bag, I also am crazy about my hiking boots and hiking pants.  My boots are waterproof so I can stand in water ankle deep and my feet stay dry which is wonderful around here and my hiking pants zip off into shorts which is handy if I don't have time to change and they have lots of pockets for holding my camp schedule and other random items.
-Game time is one of the best parts of each day.  Perhaps I shouldn't get as much satisfaction out of nailing kids with dodge balls as I do but playing is one of the ways I connect with kids.  On the last day of camps we don't have game time so 2 other counselors and I get up and play basketball at 6:30am just so we get our game fill.
- Each morning I get up at 6am which I love since camp is so quiet.  I get ready for the day and do my devotions looking out the front windows of the dining hall.  What a great way to start each day before the chaos of camp hits.
- On weekends I get a chance to go running around camp.  There is a great mile loop which includes the landing strip overlooking the beach, a trail through the woods, and a view of the creek in the valley- sure beats the city streets of KC.
-I have a confession to make- as much as I dislike singing there are a few songs at camp I really enjoy- secretly.
-On Sunday evenings a few of us get together to play badminton.  I played a lot in college but haven't gotten the chance recently so I was excited to find people who also enjoy playing.  Our games get pretty intense with a lot of yelling at times.
- It's a great thrill whenever I see rest time on the schedule.  The kids are also worn out enough that they want to take a nap too.

The A Team

Note from Alex:  I know several people were wondering what happened to Alex.  Did she have a more serious run-in with a bear?  Did all the kids drive her crazy and she ran farther into the wild to escape being around children?  No, none of these things happened.  My reason for not posting in a while is much less exciting: I had limited internet time since there were several days the internet was turned off completely so I used the time I did have access to work on my online class.  However, now that I have returned to the Lower 48 safe and sound and internet access abounds I will share more about my experience.

 The A Team hit camp this week like a whirlwind- a cleaning force to be dealt with.  The A team was comprised of those in Group A on work staff this week and we took it upon ourselves to battle all dirt, grime, and messiness at camp-- and had a good time doing it.  We raced to clean bathhouses, tackled mountains of pots and pans, jammed out to tunes while painting bunks - that's right, more painting for me this week, and joked around while sweeping, mopping, and hauling firewood to stock cabins.  I feel like I have almost lived in the kitchen this week- so maybe not but considering how much I love being in kitchens I have hung out quite a bit in one this week.  For each meal there are dishes for 150 people and all the pots and pans needed to feed them.  I'm pretty sure that in one day I washed more dishes than I do in an entire year for myself.  Of course when I go back to my apartment in KC I'm going to miss the industrial size dishwasher .  One night we had ice cream sandwich cookies for dessert.  One of the other counselors and I decided to split the last one and clean out the melted ice cream in the bottom of the pan just using our faces.  It was a great time and we did such a good job that it almost didn't even need to be washed.

This month during camp the kids have gotten breakfast in bed the day after playing Mission Impossible so they get a chance to sleep in.  On Saturday The A Team decided to make breakfast in bed for all of the staff.  We got up early to make a killer pumpkin cream cheese coffeecake and bran muffins.  Yes, I even helped cook and bake and nothing went wrong.  We had a few hitches when we couldn't figure out how to get the food processor to work or where to find the bran for the muffins (a slightly major ingredient) but all in all I thought it went well for my first attempts in making a recipe that feeds 50 people.  We then loaded everything up in the back of a golf cart- coffeecake, yogurt, buckets of fruit, thank you cards, and coffee- and drvoe all over camp delivering trays of breakfast.

As for entertainment this weekend it was decided to have a barn party.  Everyone found a flannel shirt (these are pretty easy to come by at camp) and a cowboy hat (also not rare on a ranch) and we had a party.  There are several barns at camp but we decided to go to The Loft which is the counselors' hangout.  We turned up the country music and played a few games of Texas Hold 'Em using the left over silver treasure coins from pirate month as poker chips.  Saturday afternoon the counselors loaded up in the Blondina and headed an hour away to Antler River for kind of an end of the summer bash.  There is an awesome sandy beach (real sand and not rock or gravel) so we all relished taking off our boots and frolicking in the sand.  We played Ultimate Frisbee on the beach until the tide came in and flooded one of the end zones.  Before we started we took a moment  to just marvel at the location we were playing in- a beach in the Alaskan wilderness with mountains towering all around us and ocean waves rolling in.  For dinner we had brats (as in bratwurst not brats like whining kids- we had some of those too this summer, just not for dinner) on  a camp fire and had a picnic on the beach.  Afterwards we went on a "bear hunt".  With 15 people tromping through the woods seeing a bear is pretty unlikely but we were well armed with bear spray, knives, and guns.  There are also moose that live near Antler River which is what we were all hoping to see even though it was very unlikely.  We ended up seeing lots of bear and moose poop (I guess scat is the appropriate terminology) plus 2 porcupines.  Our boat ride back to camp was right at sunset so we sat on the edge of the boat talking or singing as we enjoyed a glorious Alaskan sunset cruise Echo Ranch style.