Ah, Summer Camp

Smile of the Day: What do you get when you cross a cow and a shark? I don’t know, but I wouldn’t want to try to milk it.

When I was eleven years young, my parents sent me to Loose Moose Bible Camp as a prize for memorizing Bible verses like “Be ye kind one to another.” I was beaten up twice that week by Bruce Johnson, the meanest kid this side of The Bronx. Bruce had wrists as big as my thighs and tattoos the size of Saskatchewan. He was so unsaved that he couldn’t even sing along on “It Only Takes a Spark to Get a Fire Going.”

One afternoon Bruce used Tuck Shop money to coax me into the woods. He threatened to pound on me right there if I didn’t yell certain words very loudly. Words they weren’t teaching us at morning chapel.

Despite all this, we sent our own kids to camp through the years. Here are four good reasons:

1. Peace. My wife Ramona had three kids in three years, so each June when school was dismissed and mid-July rolled around, she threatened to run away from home. Camp kept our marriage vibrant for twenty summers. One week of peace and serenity goes a long way in making up for the other fifty-one.

2. Childcare. When someone offered to take the kids off our hands, feed and entertain them for less than $5 an hour, I said, “Would you take them for three months?” Of course, there’s a downside to everything: one year our ten-year-old learned to drive a speedboat, dive off rocks, and shoot with live ammunition. He also heard Bible stories from Mr. Chadwick, an ex-convict.

3. Romance. Is there a better place to experience first-hand the ups and downs of relationships? I have yet to meet a guy who comes home from summer camp without at least three former girlfriends. Speaking from experience, I fell in love sixteen times at camp and once kissed a girl named Patty Gilbert while she was working on a leather craft. I even asked her to marry me, but she said her boyfriend might kill me if she did.

4. Music. Where else can you develop a deep and abiding love for great songs like, “Eat bananas, eat, eat, bananas…ugh! Go bananas, go, go bananas…ugh”? Camp kids not only know such songs by heart, they can do the actions.

Well, thankfully there were other benefits of sending the kids to camp.

1. They learned gratitude. For a month following camp our kids did not once complain about soft mattresses or food that was dead when they ate it. Camp helped them appreciate the little things in life. Like hot showers, no bed bugs, and sleeping in a room with less than 20 people.

2. They discovered grace. Remember Bruce? Well, something happened to him. Mr. Chadwick, the ex-con, told us about a Bible verse, Romans 10:9 (ESV), “If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” Later I watched Bruce the bully stride to the front of a dusty old chapel and fall to his knees. He prayed out loud: “Um…Jesus, I believe. I need help. Forgive me. Change me.”

The results were startling. The very next day Bruce asked me to forgive him. And I did. And when it came time to leave, he cried like a ten-year-old—tattoos and all. Then he hugged me until my ribs squeaked. Recently I was told that Bruce is a preacher now. In the summer he’s Program Director at Loose Moose Bible Camp.

Huddle: Does anyone have a quick camp story? What do you think of when you hear the words “summer camp?” Can you think of someone who has been changed by God’s grace?

Remember: “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9).

Pray: Thank God for someone you know who has come to faith in Jesus.