Camp Cherokee Staff vs. Chipmunk

good times, rabid beasts!

Don't Let The Sun Go Down!

In Ephesians 4:17 we are called to live as Children of the light. Each summer it seems that over the course of any given week, we have a mind blowing range of emotions and personalities. As summer staff, it then becomes our challenge and privilage to be the gentle guides of these dynamics to create something pure and exceptional. As the verse states, don't let the sun go down while there is still anger in your heart, don't let the devil get a foothold. During the summer camp weeks, we have the awesome charge to ensure that for at least a time this is the reality in the lives of the Children who grace our cabins and woods. More important than the schedules, the activities and all the fun and games we engage in, Camp Cherokee is first and formost about providing our campers with the opportunties to truly live in joyous community with each other in an intentional setting of love, forgiveness, openness and understanding. How else are we to expect the next generation of community and faith leaders to understand what the chapter in Ephesians is focusing on? How else are they to know that what is truly important is not the Nintendo Wi, the high end luxury car, the designer clothes....but the love in their heart for Jesus Christ, who reminded us that the most important thing of all is to love one another as we love ourselves? Camp Cherokee's primary focus is just that, helping children grow and love themselves through actively loving each other.And at the end of the day if two are angry with each other, we have found it is amazing what a chat and a prayer, hug and a gooey 'smore will do to mend those relationships! It's all about being intentional in our relationships.

A Time For Every Season

It is true that there is a time for every season under heaven. Today as I watched the pool being covered for the 2008 season, my thoughts drifted back to the vitality and electricity of the summer camping season and I began to miss it deeply. Truly being a Camp Cherokee camper at heart, I remember the lazy days by the pool, the fun and games on the field and the sweet smell of Miss Sue's cookies coming from the kitchen. Warmed by the fire in the evening while the melodies of children rung through the air down at the old wood chapel. At nights I can remember never getting a better sleep than when I was in the hogans, snuggled deep in my sleeping bag, listening to both the box fan humming and the tree frogs with their regular cadence.

Then and there, time stood still as it still does for so many young people who call Camp Cherokee their summer home. It is a bit hard to explain, but there truly is "Camp Time" and "Real World" time. In camp time, counselors hang on your every word, thrust open their arms to the most awkward of individuals with warm Christian love and every step that is taken is undoubtedly hand in hand with our Lord Jesus Christ. During "Real World" time, it is sometimes less obvious where the divine resides in the crammed schedules, distracted classmates and sometime indifferent adults. But as summer camp leaders, ours is perhaps one of the most noble of ministries. We are the weavers of dreams, the constant playmates, the purest and most reachable of role models in difficult times. Simplicity in living is our creed and our singular focus is on the development of a solid foundation in Christian community and love. From a week or two at Camp Cherokee, our campers can take a year's worth of eneregy back to their homes and shine the light of Christ more brilliantly than before. We augment and amplify the valuable work of the "home Church" and to so many with no church home, we are their rock in a sea of over marketed information overload.

Shhhh.....be still and know that Christ is with you.

Every year I miss the summer that has just concluded, but that mountain top gives me such a great view of the dips and rises of the rest of the year, without it I would be lost in the valleys with little reason to cast my eyes heavenward. As the leaves begin to fall and we break out the firewood for the lodge, the embers will continue to glow in my heart until the next summer approaches when it will truly only take a spark to get the fire going again.

Shine on Camp Cherokee 2008, Shine ON!

kh