My life at camp

When I was growing up, my annual week at camp was the highlight of the summer. I could not tell you much now about what the speakers said or what I learned year to year, but I could certainly rattle off about my counsellors. To a young and impressionable girl, they were super-cool, amazingly fun people who came to camp just to be MY counsellor!

As soon as I was old enough, I attended a counsellor-in-training program at Camp Evergreen in Alberta. That same year, I qualified as a lifeguard and headed to Columbia Bible Camp in B.C. to spend two weeks counselling and lifeguarding. The following year, after graduating from high school, I returned to Columbia, now called Stillwood Bible Camp.

There will always be one cabin that sticks out to me from that summer. It seemed as though I had the most rambunctious combination of seven girls aged 10 to 12 possible! They certainly were not the “angel-campers” every counsellor hopes for at the start of a new week. These girls kept me on my toes with their over-active imaginations.

On Wednesday night, I stepped out of the cabin for just an instant (literally!) and when I came back in, three campers were nearly hysterical from crying due to another’s stories about “giant killer squirrels.” (Yes, these things actually happen.) After talking with each girl individually, comforting a couple of homesick girls, and chatting about the pros and cons of imagination, we managed to quiet down to sleep. Later that night I was awakened several times by a nauseous, vomiting camper and by the time morning finally arrived, I was ready to throw in the towel.

Discouraged and tired, I tried to fake some enthusiasm. During morning chapel, we sang Darrell Evans’s song, “Trading my Sorrows.” The song says, “Though the sorrow may last through the night, joy comes in the morning . . . I’m trading my sorrows for the joy of the Lord.” I felt God picking me up and carrying me through the day, with a promise from 1 Corinthians 15:58: “[B]e steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord.”

Thursday night was a “stay-back night” at evening campfire, where the speaker invites the kids to remain to talk to their counsellor if they have questions or to pray. That evening, all seven of my campers stayed back and I had the amazing opportunity to lead three of these girls to accept Jesus Christ as their Saviour. The other four made a re-commitment to follow the Lord. Wow! God’s love working through my weakness!

This summer, after much prayer and discussion with the camp director, I took on the role of assistant program director. This job was overwhelming at first and I missed the close connection with the kids. But I enjoyed seeing camp from this vantage point, with the various parts working together at different tasks for a common goal. It’s exciting to talk to older campers who want to come back as counsellors someday. I can relate to their anticipation and desire to serve in camp ministry!

Many staff joke about “post-camp-depression” setting in when summer ends. But we are positive that many campers and staff experienced what Jesus says in John 6:35: “I am the bread of life, he who comes to Me will not hunger, and he who believes in Me will never thirst.”

Rebekah Doerksen, a.k.a. “Synkro” at Stillwood, is a nursing student at the University of Calgary and a member of Highland MB Church, Calgary.