T-shirts by design

Will tried to keep the tension from his voice as he conversed with the t-shirt company about the botched order. As a camp director for 10 years, he was accustomed to the various crises that can occur just weeks before the first campers arrive. This one was especially tense, as Gardom Lake Bible Camp has a tradition of giving a free t-shirt to every one of the 900 campers who attend the summer sessions. Providing these shirts is a costly endeavour and the mistake left us with 200 t-shirts in a size we didn’t need.

The company representative at the other end of the line quickly checked the records. It was, in fact, their mistake and the company assured Will that a new shipment of shirts, in the correct size, would be sent as soon as possible. True to their promise, the t-shirts arrived in time for the first week of summer camp.

As summer ran into fall, the 200 bright orange 100% cotton t-shirts in the wrong size sat in their shipping box, unused. The company had no use for them – they were embossed with the camp’s logo and theme of the past summer. It had been a mistake that the t-shirts were printed in “youth – small” size, and we had no use for them either. But God had a different plan.

A few months after summer camp concluded, Will met with a gal who attended Gardom Lake Bible Camp during her childhood. She was travelling to South Africa to participate in mission work and mentioned that she hoped to do some weekend sessions with children from the impoverished area where she would be working. This reminded Will of the brand new t-shirts still sitting in the office. It didn’t take long to get those 200 shirts tightly rolled and stuffed into a very large suitcase. They were heading to Africa!

The mistake became a blessing. A week-long day camp in the rural area of Zululand was an event never before witnessed in that locale. And was it just a coincidence that the opening day of camp welcomed 200 Zulu children from the surrounding area?

There were 200 bright orange t-shirts on the backs of 200 children who had no idea where Gardom Lake Bible Camp was, yet they too heard the message that God loves them and created them to have a relationship with Him.

That is the message of kids’ camps. It’s a message for everyone, in all sizes, and designed to be worn the whole world over.

Doris Born lives in Enderby, B.C., where her husband Will is director of Gardom Lake Bible Camp. Her parents are missionaries in Zululand and say they still see the t-shirts – the orange now somewhat faded from the sun and continual wear – being worn all over the area.