Inside Story
Camp Makes a World of Difference
Counselors and Campers Learn Invaluable Life Lessons
by Rebecca K. Grosenbach
Every week at Eagle Lake Camp seems to have “that camper”—the one child who requires a little extra attention, a tad more time, a bit more direction. One week last summer “that camper” was an 11-year-old boy named “Joe.”
For counselor Jerrion, Joe presented something of a challenge. “Joe was a handful,” Jerrion says. “He stood out because he was energetic and outgoing.”
Thankfully, with a few weeks of camp already under their belts, Jerrion and his fellow counselor, Aaron, were up to the challenge. They served as big brothers to a cabin of six different boys for a total of 10 weeks. “Most often I worked with 11 to 13 year olds,” Jerrion says.
And any given summer there are a lot of them around! Eagle Lake hosted
more than 2,000 campers last year, offering “traditional” weeklong
residential camps, a horse camp, excursion camps filled with
backpacking and canoeing, and an intense discipleship service program,
“Crew.”Being a summer camp counselor fits Jerrion’s life goals. He’s majoring in social work in college. It was there, at his Collegiate Navigator group, that he first heard about Eagle Lake.
“They talked about Eagle Lake as if they were Christopher Columbus having made some great discovery,” he says. “They encouraged me to go.” That June he left lush, green Tennessee for the arid mountains of Colorado.
Jerrion didn’t grow up going to church, so this experience was new for him. “The atmosphere of the camp was great,” he recalls. “The presence and authority of God were so evident. There were no televisions, no radios. It also gave me a better idea of what it means to love people as Christ would.”
Jerrion passed along some of those lessons to Joe and Jeff. “One morning, the two had had a disagreement,” Jerrion recalls. “Jeff exploded and ran away from everyone, sat along a trail, and cried. Aaron pulled Joe aside and I sat with Jeff. We talked about forgiveness even if the other person doesn’t stop making things hard. We talked about unconditional positive regard for other people. Reluctantly, both boys decided to try out our ‘hair-brained’ scheme—I think to try and prove us wrong.”
The rest of the week, the two boys worked hard to get along. When things got tough, they sought out their counselors. “We would encourage them to keep it up, and they would feel better,” Jerrion says.
A couple weeks later, Jerrion got this letter from Joe:
Thank you so much for being my counselor. I had tons of fun! You taught me a lot of valuable lessons, like not retaliating when other people provoke you, how to make more friends, and, in the end. to respect other people and their property. And although I had those hard times, when I got in trouble for some minor things throughout the week, it was probably one of the best weeks ever! One of my favorite things throughout the week was canoeing with you. There were also those hard times that you helped me through by talking to me one on one, or by cheering me on. Again, thank you for putting up with me. I hope you can be my counselor next year!This summer, Jerrion will work two sessions with Crew, a five-week program for select high schoolers. Crew members spend the day working in the kitchen, office, horse barn, or with maintenance. In the evenings is intense discipleship, as they listen to speakers, pray, worship, and hang out together. Jerrion sees all this as an opportunity to pour his life into some motivated young people. “I’ll get five weeks to disciple five high school guys,” he says.
But he’ll never forget his first summer at Eagle Lake. The letter from Joe hangs on his dorm room wall. “This letter is very dear to me,” Jerrion says. And after a pause, “I miss those guys.”
Check out the summer camp schedule at www.eaglelake.org.
