Well another fabulous week at Camp Bratton-Green is wrapping up. It’s been very special with my daughter, Chelsea, as my co-director. We’ve had a blast! Of course my LW is my camp nurse, our special buddy Brayden is a staff brat. Really, really missed having son Joseph on staff (he is in summer school) and daughter Mackenzie (just started a new job). Camp for us is usually a family affair and they were definitely missed.
With my next job outside of the Diocese of MS (no, I don’t have one yet, just know it will be out of state), this is my last year as a camp director. It’s truly one of my most favorite things I get the honor of doing every year. Hopefully I can still come back to CBG in some capacity over the years. It’s such a special place.
What makes it special, for me, is the staff. I have 22 volunteer counselors, from 10th grade to college age. 8 adult cabin parents. And a very talented permanent staff. Every year they amaze me and challenge me and teach me and inspire me.
Camp is instant community with all that entails. 110 kids plus staff come together, many not knowing each other. Cabins figure it out, some better than others. We have the usual assortment of kids trying to figure out their place, those who are ultra comfortable here, those who miss home (at first) and then don’t want to leave. It’s a microcosm of life and it’s beautiful and fun and a struggle and a joy.
It’s camp. We get messy (I got thrown in the mud pit yesterday where the kids piled on and then dunked with ice and water twice at lunch, for starters), we play some great games, the permies run fantastic activity periods in the lake, the pool, arts and crafts, rope course, music and nature. It’s God and creation, it’s hot and tiring, it’s ghost stories and singing, it’s prayer and it’s camp.
It’s camp. And I will miss it.
Tag Archives: camp
Late night at Camp Bratton-Green
I type this having just completed “post-curfew” run number one. It’s Tuesday night, late. We have just finished our first full day of camp (campers arrived Monday at 2, staff Sunday at noon). So far we are off to an amazing start! Our theme is “The Hunger Games” and these 5th and 6th graders, as well as the staff, are pumped up about it.
But before anyone gets their knickers in a knot, we are certainly down playing the violent aspect of the book/movie (as much as you can when 99% of these kids know the story, having already read it or seen it ). With the help of a very useful book by Julie Clawson, “The Hunger Games and the Gospel , Bread, Circuses, and the Kingdom of God”, we are focusing on the good news in the actions of the characters and trying to relate those to both the teachings of Jesus and our own lives as children of God. So far it’s gone fabulously well. My co-director, Andrew McLarty, has written, directed, and performed in some great skits that set the stage not only for some 5th-6th grade level reflections from me, but also to wrap around other camp activities. It’s been really fun. The Permanent Staff this summer is fantastic (aren’t they always – but all in their unique ways) and have eaten this theme up! Breath taking talent in these young adults.
Many, many people connected to our diocese can vouch for the magic that is Camp Bratton-Green. I was an old man before I got to experience it and I am so grateful my kids grew up going to camp here, and now all my family is on staff with me. My entire adult staff is tremendous and fun, and the counselors are working really hard and laughing a lot. It’s instant community, and it’s gospel, and it’s summer, and it’s love and it’s challenging and it’s just simply beautiful. I wonder if I am getting too old (for late night curfew checks for one thing!) and then I see these campers come alive, gleefully giving me high fives, sweetly grabbing an extra roll for me at dinner without me even asking, delighting in me getting pelted with ice water and nasty food at lunch when I “mistakenly” say “Announcements” – well, if that doesn’t keep you young, what will?
I know I need to write about my beginning time at St. James as Interim Rector – I am having a great time! And I also know that General Convention 2012 is around the corner. I have some thoughts about our pre-GC Synod in Kanuga and some pre-GC comments to add soon enough. But not too soon – right now I am at camp and I really don’t want to be anywhere else, for this one, magical, Jesus-filled-in-every-way week.
Oh, Come Away, come away….
