“Fifty years from now, when you’re looking back at your life, don’t you want to be able to say you had the guts to get in the car?”  (Transformers, 2007).

NEVER in my life did I think that Transformers, the movie, would serve as a spur to get involved with a ministry or keep me from chickening out when questioning my own sanity.  Yet here I am, preparing to spend the entire summer traveling across the Southeast in a caravan consisting of two 15 passenger vans, a 24 foot truck, and a group of 20-somethings with a few 19-year olds thrown in for good measure. 

“What?”  “Has she lost her mind?”  “I’ve seen how she travels, how is she going to make it 10 weeks on what can fit into a 23 gallon tub, a roll on bag and a backpack*?”

All valid and very good questions.  I hope you will join me this summer in seeing how the answers to those questions play out.

How This All Began:

Earlier this year my roommate mentioned the fact that she might not be around this summer.  I knew there was no way I could afford to stay in the house by myself so I suddenly became open to options.  Shortly there after I saw a posting in the Kerygma (DTS’ student bulletin) about a camp ministry that was looking to hire staff members for the summer.  They would be on campus later that same week so I needed to hustle and get my application in and hustle I did.  By the last week of February I had my answer.  To Georgia in May for a week of training and then off to see parts of this country I’ve never experienced. 

Specifics:

I will be traveling with WinShape Camps C3 (Camps Connecting Communities) (http://www.winshape.org/camps/camp07/).  This is the inaugural summer for this ministry and I am extremely excited to be taking part.  C3 is a ministry that partners with local churches in an effort to impact and reach their communities for Christ.  We do that by bringing a high energy camp with amazing staff and excellent materials to the church.  I will be serving this summer on “Team 2” of three teams being sent out to serve all across the Southeast reaching 27 cities in 10 weeks.  I leave Wichita May 21^st for training at WinShape Camp in Rome, GA then the first week of camp beings June 2^nd in Marietta, GA for my team**.   

Detailed Specifics:

Each week we roll into town on Friday evening or Saturday depending on how far we have to travel between camps.  Saturday is spent getting as much of the facility set up as possible without interfering with the church’s worship program scheduled for Sunday morning.  On Sunday morning we serve wherever we can and begin setting the mood for a great week at camp and getting the kids motivated about coming on Monday.  After services on Sunday we then convert the rest of the church facility into WinShape Camp C3.

The theme for C3 this summer is Wanted: Come Find What You’re Looking For.  Each day during Team Time we will focus on a different question to get the kids thinking about and interacting with the material.  The kids also have an opportunity to be involved with 3 different Track Times each day.  During Track Times the campers experience and learn more about one of their interests whether that be an outdoor activity such as soccer, basketball, archery, etc or an indoor activity such as wacky science, cooking, digital photography, etc. 

On Friday’s the camp is reduced to a half day and the parents are invited and encouraged to accompany their child.  They are given an opportunity to experience all their child has experienced throughout the week in a condensed version and are able to meet with church leaders to learn more about the church’s ministry. 

After the last kiddo says “good-bye” and not a moment sooner or later teardown begins. Everything will get boxed up and the intention is to leave the facility in as good if not better shape than when we rolled into town.  Then we hit the road for our next destination.

My Part:

This summer I will be serving as the Volunteer Coordinator for my team and as a Team Time Leader.  As the Volunteer Coordinator I will be the liaison between my team and the volunteers each church supplies.  That is about the extent of what I know about this position…partly because I will be writing the manual for how this job is to be done in the future <EEK!>.  As far as I can tell Team Time Leader can pretty much be translated as “Camp Counselor”.  I will have a group of campers assigned to me each week that I will be specifically interacting with and ministering to.

I am extremely excited about this summer and looking forward to the challenges it will bring and the ways in which God is going to stretch and grow me this summer.  To go through something like this and return exactly the way I left will be a waste of 10 weeks and that is not how I intend to spend my summer. 

Your Part:

Buckle up and join me on this crazy adventure***.  Specifically I am looking for your prayers and words of encouragement.  My main prayer for this summer is wisdom. Wisdom in when to speak and when to keep my mouth shut.  Wisdom in when to act and when to sit on my hands and let someone else learn by experience.  Also pray that I would live this experience to the fullest, not letting my reservations or hesitancies cause me to miss an otherwise amazing opportunity. 

Disclaimer:

I am not certain how often this site will get updated once camp gets rolling but as often as I can I will update you as to what I’m experiencing, learning and struggling with.  Also I make no promises that this will be in any way, shape or form the pinnacle or even the valley of grammatical correctness.  That’s just not my strong suit even on my most rested of days so…Enjoy!

* Mel you may now sing the Dora song.

**    June 2-6 – Johnson Ferry Baptist Church – Marietta, GA

        June 9-13 – College Road Baptist Church – Ocala, FL

        June 16-20 – Waxahachie Bible Church – Waxahachie, TX

        June 23-27 – Prince Avenue Baptist Church – Oconee, GA

        June 30-July 3 – First Baptist Church – Merritt Island, FL

        July 7-11 – The Family Church – Sugar Hill, GA

        July 14-18 – Evangelical Community Church – Jackson, TN

        July 21-25 – Northbrook Baptist Church – Cullman, AL

        July 28-Aug 1 – Trinity Baptist Church – Lake Charles, LA

        August 4-8 – First United Methodist Church – Killeen, TX

*** NB: This is not a pilgrimage, journey, sojourn, passage, voyage or expedition.