the first week...

6/7/08
Since I have been here at New Frontiers, life has been a whirlwind. I have been leaving my room at 6:30 am and usually not returning until after 8 pm. So much has been involved in my time here at camp; emotionally, spiritually, physically, mentally. I have been stretched continually. And I have learned so much about so much…if that makes sense. It is very evident that God is at work here and that He uses the workers as His vessels to reach kids, parents, and each other. New Frontiers is a camp that is anti-comfort zone. They push you beyond what you are sure of, what you know you can do, what you are comfortable with, and even what you want to do. It is all about taking you beyond all of that and becoming a better child of God in it…or in some cases, learning about God in a way that they yearn for the gospel. In other words, it’s a pretty cool place.

I know it has been a while, but I am going to try to make sure I write at least one post per week which, if every week is like this past one, won’t be nearly enough to express everything that happens or that I learn. Because of that I am kind of frustrated that I didn’t force myself to write more times this week. Now I will probably forget and understate a lot of what has happened…but oh well.

When I left Covenant last Saturday I took US-27 north to TN-111 into Sparta, TN, which is one of my favorite drives. On it are some of the best views and overlooks that I have ever seen in the southeast. Once I got to Sparta I decided to pay a visit to Virgin Falls, which is one of the best backpacking trails I have been on. In my three times there each visit brought some excitement, from way too much water (extra huge waterfall and overflowing river) to no water at all (ability to explore in the caves) to average amount of water (shower in Laurel Falls). Virgin Falls wasn’t too much out of my way and I was able to get half way through the trail before having to stop and head back. The flowers were sure beautiful this time of year. Once I left, I quickly headed west toward Smithville and my final destination…New Frontiers, Dowelltown, TN.

Once I arrived on site I soon realized that I was the only one there, which wasn’t the biggest encouragement or confidence booster. I began questioning why I was there. What was I thinking? Why would I leave my home to come all the way up to a place where I’m not even welcomed? What a foolish thought; that is what New Frontiers is all about. And God soon answered all of those doubts and fears. I met Raymond, Andy and Don who have each been a great encouragement to me and it has been awesome just getting to know all of them. Hopefully I can write more about all of them in future posts, but for now I will keep it all very brief. Andy, my roommate, showed me to my room and talked for a bit before he had to head out, then Don, a 61 year-old (who acts like he is 20) took me out to eat at a local café. Then Raymond took me to Sonic that night for desert. Soon I found myself in just one night, in love the place and thoroughly enjoying the time I had spent with the other staff. The rest of the staff moved in the next day, Laura, Ashley, and Bill and Abbie (married). One cool fact is that Bill’s last name is Ferrell…so is actual name is Will Ferrell. Including me and Andy the six of us make up the group that is staying in the staff housing apartment together, which has been a lot of fun.

From Sunday night to Wednesday morning we had a group of 39 from Gwinnett County outside Atlanta, which was crazy awesome. It was crazy because we as the summer staff hadn’t even trained yet and we had to cook and serve food, clean, play games with the kids, help lead in the elements, etc. But because of all that it was so awesome to learn a lot through experience and participation. I learned so much in those few days that it blows my mind. I also found myself passionately being drawn to those kids, desiring to share with them an excitement for the gospel. Over the days I saw the time and effort that we had put into a lot of these kids really begin to show and shine. Concepts really began to click in their heads and their faith became so real to them that it made me cry (and them). Tuesday when I was with a group at the zip line, there was one girl who was terrified to make the climb up to the top of the course so that she could ride the zip. With each step that she took up the pole she wept louder and louder, but would continue to move upward. At one point she wanted to give up, but eventually continued on until she got to the top where she was hooked up to the zip line. Even then she was bawling her eyes out…until she took the step out and began the ride. One second later she turned her head back toward us and gave the biggest smile, her joy was evident. In the debrief, we were asking what they had learned from there zip line experience and this girl said, “I learned a lot about God from this. Sometimes being a Christian is really hard and I don’t want to do it, but I know that when I finally get to heaven I will be so happy.” God really taught this girl something, but also used her to impact others around her. As she said this, two of the chaperones, both parents over 40 years-old, began to cry. It was like it hit them out of nowhere…God used this little 10 year-old girl to move in the hearts of these two parents. One of them said, “I thought I was coming here for my daughter, but now I realize so clearly that God brought me here for me…to be with Him.” When this group left the next morning there were plenty more tears and a lot of changed faces from the time I first met all of them. They came in expecting to have a lot of fun, hang out, climb up stuff, ride some things, explore a cave, make a bonfire…but when they left, they had been impacted deeply from those very experiences. It was amazing. I couldn’t keep from feeling extremely sad to see that group leave. I had developed a pretty good bond with the eighth graders there (Michael, Geno, Maddy, Chrissy, Casey, and Wade) along with some of the younger guys and girls. When everyone left there were plenty of hugs and pictures to go around…and many good byes.

It’s rough for me to develop relationships like that, where I bond with kids and desire to continue that bond. It’s rough because I know this summer that there will be several groups like that that I will never see again. It was so hard to say good bye to a group of kids that truly loved me beyond the love I had shown them. All some of them wanted was to feel significance from me…a desire to simply hang out with them because I wanted to. Kids like this will come and go all summer long and that will be truly difficult for me.

The rest of the week has been staff training which has been extremely challenging. Maybe I can explain all of the elements a little better in the future, but for now I will just write about what I have taught and trained in thus far. I have learned how to tie all the knots (figure eight, half fishermans, etc.) and all that rope jazz, along with other gear knowledge, went through belay school and began belaying on the climbing wall. I learned the high ropes course, the Flying Squirrel, the big Swing, the zip line, the Pamper Pole, the cave, the low ropes/IGs, and the X-treme Team. Tomorrow we will go through some more of the low ropes, canoeing, and some backpacking stuff. Not to mention I have already learned to cook and clean in the kitchen more than I ever wanted to, gone out to feed the horses, and learned plenty of riddles and ice breaker games. Bill and I are both leads, so we have had to make sure that we experience everything that the campers will be doing. Therefore, I have found myself doing all of these ropes course things and loving them to death. Some of them have been extremely challenging and required a lot of mental concentration. Overall, an awesome week.

Yesterday was the most difficult day for me thus far. I wasn’t feeling too well in the morning and then on the X-team I jumped off one of the poles after fixing a pulley up top, forgetting that we were using dynamic rope which gives a bit. I ended falling from about 6 or 7 feet straight onto a “just right” belay anchor (basically a short telephone pole) right on my left butt thigh. It ended up turning into a goiter sized bruise which made squeezing through the cave (literally squeezing through 2x2 spaces) that afternoon awfully painful. Since then the swelling has gone a bit down, but the pain is still pretty bad. Needless to say, the location of the injury was in one of the few places on me that has any meat whatsoever which is a praise…it has also become kind of a joke to the others (“hey Ben, how’s your butt, ha ha ha” is usually how it goes). I am so thankful for everything that God has put me through this summer and I extremely look forward to what is in store.

I wish I could write it all down, every experience, everything learned, every person here, everything…but then this post would take hours upon hours to read. So until later, God bless. Thank you for all your prayers for me, don’t stop…

word,
Loho