Let me take a brief pause, and give this disclaimer: this is not a "my church camp is better than yours" reflection. This is something that I hope anyone who has ever attended a church camp anywhere can relate to.
Camps like Quest and other camp-like experiences often get referred to as "Mountain Top" experiences. They are places where kids are on a spiritual high, set apart from the rest of the world for a week or so. Campers are submerged into this inclusive, loving, non-judgmental, God-centered environment. (As I write this, I acknowledge that this is the ideal, and not every church camp experience fits this description.) And then everyone piles into the 15 passenger rental vans and begins the descent from the mountain top - back into peer pressure and other worldly pressures.
I can remember back to my first year at Quest. Sunday, the day after I returned home, I can remember bawling my eyes out. I'm not entirely sure that I knew why I was so overwhelmed (lack of sleep was probably a key player) but I was. I longed for those friends I had made that week and the time spent in that God-centered community. As I left co-workers these past two summers, I experienced a similar heartbreak.
In those moments, it may have seemed like I was re-acclimating. Transitioning from valley to mountain and back again. But it is unfair to look back and see those summers simply in terms of spiritual highs and lows. It is true that going back into my non-camp life was harder each time, but I look back and I can see a foundation being built.
Being on the other end of camp, as a counselor, I have realized that we have the ability to take those short weeks and start building a foundation with them. It takes some time, and it takes strong mortar to fill the spaces between the bricks. And sometimes there are setbacks and cracks that arise. But God has used Quest to help build a foundation for me that I can continue to build on as I move forward.
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So here is what I want to say - to my campers, to your youth leaders, to anyone else who is a part of your community:
Know that myself, and the other counselors and the people you met at camp, continue to pray for you and think of you long after you return to your homes. Our relationships with you did not end when you left Green Lake, just as your relationship with Jesus Christ did not end.
Know that being back at home will not always be easy - there will be days when you wish that you were throwing your counselors in a mud pit or covering them with shaving cream, or eating pretzels and cheese at 9:30 at night. But you have a foundation. You have your Church home, you have your friends there. And most importantly, you have Jesus to lean on. He goes with you always.
You have seen how God builds community and that is a great foundation to stand on. He will do that for you in all places in your life, not just at camp.
Fun fact: several of your Quest counselors were Quest alums. We were strange, goofy and maybe a little awkward. And to some extent, we still are. Yet God has been at work in our lives since the time that we were campers, and He is still at work in our lives now. He is at work in your lives too!
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So, while you are biding the other 51 weeks of the year until you return to Green Lake or wherever your camp is, stand on the foundation that has been built. Know that God can work in your life in any place - He is not limited to church camp. He also knows the joy you experience at camp, and His heart is glad for your desire to return to that community.
With Love,
Sarah
These are pictures from the summer after my junior year in high school, which was my last year as a camper. Above is my small group meeting in the infamous Dominguez room. Below is my small group on the log - probably trying to figure out everyone's birthdays so we can put ourselves in the proper order :)
And then below, here's me keeping life, always a little less than interesting, and always completely strange as Value Mart Lady.
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