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October 2014 christiancamps.ca
Also in this Issue: Conference (p.2)
Man Overboard (p.2)
Camp Focus (p.3)
Jack Hammer (p.4)
Helga (p.4)
Win a Tim! (p.5)
Quotable (p.5)
Resources (p.5)
The Parable of the Wool Socks
My pastor has recently concluded a series on the parable of the prodigals from Luke 15. We spent a lot of time on the older son and it is very interesting to note that Jesus tells the story and leaves the implications for us to figure out. We never find out if the older son repents and is brought back into the party or if he stays bitter and continues to try to earn the Father’s love. Maybe he just says, “I’m outta here; I can’t take this anymore.”
My thought is that Jesus wants us to think through the story and ask some hard ques-tions. For me some of these could be: Am I jealous when sinners are shown grace? Why didn’t the older brother go looking for the younger brother and bring him back? He certainly knew what he was up to. Why don’t I? And the questions can go on. The absence of a conclusion calls us to be thinking people who work out what the story is calling us to respond to.
When I first began as the director of Homewood several years ago, I inherited a solid board of godly individuals, some of whom had been with the camp for some time. One of these in particular has been a great source of wisdom to me. He loves to use stories as well, and he seldom says what he thinks the saying or parable applies to, but rather lets me think about it and draw my own conclusions.
Allow me to share just a couple examples that can be of help to us all: My board
member friend (let’s call him Lorne since that is his name) told me this story that he had recently heard on CBC radio. We had been chatting about how it is sometimes easy to forget what is really important and to get off mission by focussing on good things that are not the essence of our mission. He told me this story from World War II. The United States had not entered the war yet but had been supplying the British with various items. The British ordered a large number of wool socks. As you can imagine, the need for good wool socks was great in those cold winters of the early 1940s. A company from the States sent over several million pairs. When the socks arrived however, a bureaucrat in a warehouse noticed that the socks were not the correct colour spec, and sent most of the socks back to the manufacturer. Think about that for a
minute. How many soldiers had to have cold feet because the colour was wrong? How does that affect some of the situations that you are facing right now? You can fill in the blanks with your own “wool sock” issues. What part of our camps are ‘in the cold’ because we are focus-ing on some (almost) irrelevant detail?
Another example came a year or so ago. After explaining to me what a Razor is in philosophy (“A Razor is a principle or rule of thumb that al-lows one to eliminate unlikely explanations for a phenomenon”), I was given this little nugget: Hanlon’s Razor: “Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.” You can even soften it a little and exchange the word ‘stupidity’ with ‘ignorance’ and it works just as well. Okay, pause and think that through.
It’s easy to want to think that people ‘out there’ are against us out of malice when perhaps they just don’t understand some vital part of what we do.
- Irwin Harder, Camp Homewood
page 2 FCC Newsletter, October 2014
Man Overboard
BC Ferries, here on the west coast, regularly do a man overboard drill. They announce it well in advance so you know what is going to happen. Many on the ship crowd the deck and press their noses against the windows to see the drill unfold. There’s a great embellishment of this story which I won’t pick up on today, but it is sufficient to say that when the alarm for man-overboard is sounded, a small boat is launched with two folk on board to go in search of the victim.
What is interesting about this exercise is that the crew of the small boat don’t actually look for the man overboard. They en-gage in an exercise where they are guided and directed to the man overboard by the captain of the bridge of the main ferry. They deliberately do not seek to find the one that is over-board and they are entirely dependant on instructions from “the bridge.”
The point of this story in its application is already quite clear and I won’t belabour it except to mention one other thing. A captain of the boat not only guides a rescue launch with verbal commands. A captain also points the prow of the ship in the direction of the missing man overboard. So while I resist a full comment, I already know this fall, of the peril of trying to guide myself. I need to lean into my Lord’s understanding, I need to hear from him and I need to constantly follow into even the unknown places, the places where He is pointing. - Jeremy Bell
Jeremy Bell is the Executive Minister of the Canadian Baptists of Western Canada, a great supporter of Christian camping, and a regular passenger on BC Ferries.
BC Camping Conference - Save the Date!
Location: RockRidge Canyon (near Princeton)
Date: February 2-5, 2015
Theme: SHAKING it UP!!
For more details and regular updates visit
the website:
http://bccampingconference.ca/.
If you’d like to lead a workshop or have a
particular workshop you’d like to see
presented please contact Harold Menzel
page 3 FCC Newsletter, October 2014
Camp Focus: Camp Homewood
I recently discovered this quote: “The past is to be respected and acknowledged, but not to be worshipped. It is our future in which we find our greatness.”
- Pierre Trudeau
Our camp is celebrating its 70th Anniversary this year. As a result, we’ve spent hours going through old photographs and listening to fascinating stories of days gone by. The camp founder, now 97 years old, was extremely gifted in movie-making and editing, long before the days of easy-to-use iPhone videos and GoPros. As a result, we have a rich history of archives in the form of well-edited, beautiful movies.
Last night we dug out the old reel to reel projector and round metal cases of old Homewood movies. We invited the full time staff, some who’ve been here over 50 years, and this years’ winter interns (young adults) to come join us for an evening of pizza and movies. We laughed as images on the screens showed hilarious attire and exclaimed, “Oh, that’s ‘so and so’” many times.
We recognized boats and tractors and places and spaces that we still love today. And we laughed out loud at some of the “crazy activities” they used to do! I found it incredibly inspiring. And, you know what else I observed? The younger generation did, too. One of them wrote a post on her blog later that evening that talked about the neat “old fashioned movie machine” — of which she had never seen before!
Although the above quote indicates the past isn’t to be “worshipped,” it is certainly something to respect, and it is a huge jumping off point for inspiration for what we are doing in the present. It is the history that defined what our camps are today. It shows struggle, perseverance, joy, and success. It marked formative moments, decisions, and traditions on which our current ministries exist.
I was struck by what a privilege it is as a “veteran” camp staffer to pass on to new staff the history of this place we love so much. The foundation and roots of why we exist today were formed in those days and remain unchanged. It’s the “main thing” that we refer to all the time. It encourages us as the winter days get dark and cold to perse-vere and keep doing what we do. Back in the day, history was being made.
Seventy years ago, Camp Changed Lives. And, today…? It still does. - Rita Harder, Camp Homewood
(Less Than Useful)
Camp Ideas with Helga
FCC Newsletter, October 2014 page 4
The Surprisingly Useful Tool
Maintenance guys (and girls) live and die by good tools. There is nothing worse than trying to fix or build something and finding yourself stuck and stopped for lack of the right tool. And to make things worse most of us are in remote settings where the local hardware store is both a long ways away and usually closed when we really need it. As a result I have always tried to have a good assortment of tools on hand for a wide variety of jobs. One tool I had never purchased is the Dremel. I had considered it a hobby tool and not useful in the rough and tough world of camp construction and repairs. I was wrong. It is one of those tools
that until you have one, I am sure many of you do, you don’t realize how useful it is, especially with a cutting wheel. With it you can reach into tight places to cut off nuts that are frozen, shorten screws, cut pipes under counters and trim conduit that is already installed, make precise cuts in ceramic tile, cleaning out old grout, removing rust from the inside of a vehicle tail light, etc, etc, etc. Any place you need to cut, wire brush, sand, or trim in a tight place or in small precise ways are much easier with this little device. And they are affordable. You can get a Dremel and a box full of blades and attachments for under $100. Seems like a lot, but how often do you go to the hardware store or lumber yard and walk away spending less, and when you are trying to make a cut in a tight spot, it will be well worth every penny. Turning Wrenches for Jesus.
Jack Hammer
P.S. Do you have a favorite trick or hint to share with other camp maintenance staff?
Send them to Jack Hammer c/o FCC Newsletter Editor, at [email protected].
with Jack Hammer
“Camp maintenance is all about improvisation. Learn to work with whatever you have.”
Page 5 FCC Newsletter, October 2014
FREE webinar with Mark Buchanan, November 13, 2014 at 10:00 a.m.: Click HERE to register.
A song to brighten your day (it brightened the day of some directors, recently): Click HERE.
Board Resources: Strive! Great (short) articles and a newsletter your board would appreciate. Check it out HERE
“Fresh Bread” from CCI International / Dan Bolin: Email Dan HERE to be added to his weekly mailing list.
QUOTABLE
“Every man dies; not every man really lives.”
- William Wallace, in Braveheart
WIN A TIM! $10.00!
with just 30 seconds of your time!
That’s right, two lucky winners each month, drawn from the faithful ones who complete the survey question(s) will win a $10.00 Tim Horton’s card each!
Please just click on the question to answer it. Check next month for results. Thank-you!
This month’s question is this:
Share one encouraging highlight from this past summer.
We Would Love to Hear From You!
Do you have some great resources you have stumbled across or web site and blogs to share with others in
camping? Would you like to share the story of your camp in 300 words or less? Do you have some great
ideas to share? We would be happy to hear from you with stories, resources, and content that may be of
interest to others in the camping industry. Please send your submissions to Craig Douglas, FCC Newsletter
Coordinator, at: [email protected]
