A Powerful Camp Story: Bricks

There are two things that are almost always a part of a week at summer camp – meeting new people and dealing with a little rain. As a middle school Campfirmation camper, Collin faced both of those challenges while at Lutherock this summer.

After making the long trip from Charleston, South Carolina to camp, Collin immediately saw how different his surroundings were. “It was different than what I am used to,” Collin says. “It’s not as foresty down in Charleston. I liked that Lutherock wasn’t as busy and was less crowded.” Collin was impressed by the scenery, but not by the rainy weather of the first few days. “At home we just stay inside when it rains, but at Lutherock we still had to do things in the rain,” Collin laughs. One of the things Collin did was go on the traditional Lutherock hike to Cross Rock. “The hike up the mountain was challenging,” Collin remembers, “but I thought it was cool because you could see Cross Rock through all the rain and fog.”

Collin went to camp with some friends he knew from church, but he also had to meet new people who were in his cabin group for the week. “Meeting everyone in the cabin was pretty neat. All the things we did together as a group like playing basketball and doing teamwork activities helped me get to know them.”

Teamwork activities and time at the Group Interaction Course are often a great bonding experience for campers at Lutherock. “The activities at the course were challenging,” Collin says. “There was one obstacle where we had to get our group across a log and another one where we had to all get a foot on a platform and stay up there. Sometimes we weren’t good at it because people didn’t listen at first and everyone was going crazy. When we put our minds to it though, and worked together, we figured out how to do things right.”

One of the highlights of the week at Lutherock for Collin was an off-site service project the Campfirmation group did at a local park. “There was a man there who had helped build the park and he was able to see us working. We were pulling weeds from some of the bricks he had helped put down. It was something he had wanted to get done for a while and he was surprised, and happy, we were doing it. It made me feel good that we got a chance to make a difference and help others and have fun as well.”

Collin’s mom Kim admits she wasn’t sure how the experience would go for Collin. “I never went to church camp,” Kim says, “so I wasn’t sure what it would be like. But Collin was really eager to tell us about what he did when he got back. Having an experience where he’s outside of church and you can see God in the world is important. Seeing Collin grow in that way has been really exciting.”

Collin says he learned a lot of lessons during his week at camp, including a lesson on being hopeful. “It was rainy one day, and then it was bright and beautiful the next days,” Collin says. “The rain really cleared the air. We camped out in tents one night and when we woke up you could see the sunrise over the mountains. I liked how everything was more silent and you could think. That taught me that even if a place looks muddy or things look down, God can make it good.”

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