Soon you'll leave the "different culture" you've grown so accustomed to at camp.

Will you be prepared?

A s she sat on the grassy hill overlooking the lake, Suzi lis­tened intently to Chetyl, a

camper she had grown especially close to over to the course of the week. Cheryl committed her life to Christ the previous summer and left camp excited and eager to share the One she had met with her friends at home. But now Cheryl confided to her counselor that she was worried about leaving camp this year.

"Spending the week here is the highlight of my year," Cheryl told Suzi. "Learning about Christ and serving Him is so easy here at camp, but things are so different at home."

Suzi could empathize. Spending this summer as a counselor had been life-changing. Now, with only one week of the camping season left, Suzi would also leave soon. And while the prospect of heading back to college excited her, she also had concerns about leaving camp and returning to the "real world."

Many summer staff and coun­selors share concerns like these. Even staff members who are eager to get back to school or work often discover difficulties in transitioning back to life outside of camp. Some miss the deep and meaningful friendships they formed over the summer. Others leave with commit­ments to lifestyle changes only to find them harder than anticipated to implement. Still others find them­selves wanting the same kind of ef­fective ministty they had at camp.

While some of these challenges cannot be avoided, summer staff members can learn how to smooth

By Ben Burlingham

the transition from camp to home. In many ways, summer staff mem­bers become short-term missionar­ies: They live for an extended period in a "different culture"; they join in a team ministty with a specif­ic ministry goal; and they obey God's call to bring the Good News to a specific groL~p of people He has selected. Resources aimed at helping with these potential problems are available to short-term missionaries. (I would especially recommend Pe­ter Jordan's Re-Entry: Making the Transition from Missions to Life at Home, YWAM Publishing, 1996. I've adapted some of his ideas here.) While summer staff members proba­bly won't experience .everything a foreign missionary does upon "re­entry," a few tips may serve to make the return to life away from camp easier and more profitable.

Three areas are especially impor­tant: a proper closure to your time at camp, preparation for the transi­tion to life at home or school, and a continuation of ministry outside of camp.

A Sense of Closure Why is closure to your time at

camp so important? First, it aids your immediate ministry. By prepar­ing to leave camp in a positive way, you can avoid some common end­of-the-summer pitfalls. And you can maintain your desire to remain dili­gent to the very end of your min­istry at camp. A proper closure also helps you to prepare emotionally to leave friendships that have grown over the summer- including any

.July/August 1999 23

romantic interests that have blos­somed. Finally, closure fosters the introspection you need to retain the positive experiences and lessons learned over the summer.

So what is closure? Closure is an intentional process of leaving a peri­od of life. This doesn't mean that you should forget all you did and enjoyed at camp; on the contrary, closure will help to ensure that you will look back on your time at camp as one of the most positive experi­ences of your life. Closure means that you are able to "move on" with life instead of living in the past.

There are two areas where this is especially important. First, it is im­portant to deal with negative experi­ences you have had. Whether you want to admit it or not, you proba­bly made some mistakes during the summer. If you have any unresolved issues with other staff members, in­cluding the executive staff, deal with them before you leave camp. Al­though it may seem more difficult to face conflicts than ignore them, car­rying around guilt after the summer will tend to come to mind any time you think of serving at camp in the future . A healing time before the end of camp will allow you to avoid bitterness that w ill occur if you do not resolve these issues.

Closure will also help you deal with the positive experiences you had at camp. Keep a daily journal of the summer; if that isn't possible, write down what you have experienced and learned before the summer draws to a close. It is easy to forget what seems so big during the summer. These written notes will be invaluable to you a few months from now.

The single best aiel you have in investigating the positive and nega­tive experiences of the summer may be "debriefing." Debriefing Is a di­rected discussion, usually in a small group facilitated by one leader, de­signed to explore major experiences you have had at camp. Debriefing allows you the opportunity to share your experiences verbally with other people, which may allow you to

24 Christian Carnp & Conference Journa l

more exactly define some vague memories. A major part of debrief­ing includes thanking and praising God for the blessings He has given you. It is easy to judge the lepers that jesus healed, as recorded in Luke 17, for their ingratitude, but human nature has a way of forget­ting to thank God. Your camp direc­tor or summer program director should be active in the role of de­briefing facilitator.

Practical suggestions: Encourage the camp executive

staff to aid you in debriefing. They may be able to set aside a specific time for you or the entire staff.

If the executive staff is unable to help you, you can accomplish an ef­fective self-debriefing. Set aside three hours of personal time where you won't be interrupted. Using Philippians 4:8-9 as a guide, write down things you learned, commit­ments you made, and ways you saw God work during the summer. Make sure to express gratitude to God for all He has done.

Write a letter to yourself. Include three goals you have set for yourself. Have the camp staff or a trusted friend mail it to you after four months.

Preparing to Head Horne

Once you've brought some clo­sure to what happened during the summer, you will want to turn the focus to the future. It may seem that, compared to all the preparation and anticipation of coming to camp, the return home should be a breeze. This is not always the case, however.

Although it may seem just a short time since you arrived at camp, a lot has probably happened in the time you were gone. While the summer may have flown by for you, your friends and family have had their own set of summer experiences without you. Still, much has re­mained the same. If you left for camp without making preparation for what to do after camp, that situa­tion is not any further along than

when you left. Any home problems you left are probably still waiting for you, no matter how well the sum­mer away from them went.

This may seem obvious, but you have to keep in mind tl1at when you return to school or home, you are

no longer at camp. College friends will enjoy hearing about what you did over the summer, but they will not get all the inside jokes and will soon grow tired of hearing them. Few friends will truly understand the impact the summer had on you spir­inlally. While you may be dying to share about the change you wit­nessed in the life of a camper with a Christian friend, he or she may be more interested in hearing how you got such a great tan. Even though it will be tough, remember that your friends want to hear how your sum­mer went, but few will be able to fully understand your experience.

Also expect that leaving camp will be a hard time for you spiritual­ly. The spiritually rich atmosphere you have lived in for weeks will not be there any more. In 1 Kings 18-19, Elijah is fresh from the biggest expe­rience in his life: He saw God mightily answer his prayers on Mount Carmel, and he watched the people turn back to their God. Im­mediately after this victory, however, Queen Jezebel launched an all-out attack on Elijah, giving orders for his death. The prophet ran away and asked the Lord to take his life.

Although this may be a curious response at first glance, it is under­standable. You may not want to die, but you will have some of the same feelings after you leave camp. Eli­jah's depression stemmed from the fact that he felt alone. You have just lived in a deep, extended fellowship for many weeks, and it is likely you will feel the same way when you re­turn to home or school. Elijah was also physically exhausted; all day long he battled with the false prophets. Spending a summer at camp is usually physically draining, and you should be ready for a phys­ical letdown as it ends. Finally, Eli-

jah experienced a direct spiritual at­tack from his enemies after his great victoty. Satan may mount a spiritual attack immediately after your camp victories; he has seen what God has done in your life, and he definitely doesn't want that to continue as you arrive home.

Practical suggestions: Contact friends and family before

you get home. Realize that while you are eager to share all that has happened to you at camp, they also have had experiences while you were away. You may have grown more distant from friends than you realize , and writing a letter to update them on your life may break the ice.

Think through any problems or conflicts you had with family or friends before you left for camp. Plan for how you intend to handle them before you are in the situation again. Ask for advice from other staff members. Begin to make plans for even simple things like shopping lists for back-to-school supplies. This can lessen the stress in the short pe­riod of time you have between camp and school.

Prepare for spiritual attack. Have a trusted friend hold you account­able as you spend your first few weeks away from camp. For in­stance, have your friend e-mail you , asking questions concerning daily prayer and Bible reading times as well as any commitments you have made during the summer.

A Continuing Ministry Ministry is not just a "summer

thing." It is a way of life for Chris­tians. God has given you the privi­lege of serving Him in a special way this summer, and He has invested in you. Expect Him to want to contin­ue to use you as you leave camp.

At the same time, don't expect that your ministry will continue to look like it did at camp. You proba­bly will not share the Good News of Christ while paddling a canoe down a lazy river with someone. Your ministry may look completely differ-

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ent, or maybe not even feel like much of a ministry compared to what you did at camp. But trust that God will use you as He desires.

As you go back to your church youth group or college fellowship , avoid spiritual smugness. It is easy to go back to your church or fel­lowship group and look down on those who were "mere burger-flip­pers" while you served the Lord to the point of exhaustion day after day, sacrificing a significant amount of income at the same time. Avoid ttying to change your fellowship group, saying things such as, "Well, at camp, this technique was effec­tive ." Don't allow unrealistic expec­tations to deflate your view of your church. You may never get to know as many fellow servants of Christ as well as you did at camp. But that doesn't mean the church isn't doing a good job. Remember that you don't spend 24 hours a day with evety person in your church striv­ing toward a common goal. The church is much broader than that,

and it has to serve members where they are. If some people in your church group aren 't as spiritually mature as the counselors you served with , don't be surprised. It will take the maturity you gained during camp to allow them the grace to grow. Finally, realize that even though you may have grown spiritually beyond what you could have imagined, you have a lot to learn, and God will use many of your friends who worked at the mall to teach you.

Practical suggestions: Commit to continue a ministry.

As you leave camp, offer yourself for God to use in any ministry He sees fit. Even if you don't have the slightest idea of how you may serve Him, offer yourst:;lf willingly in wholehearted trust to the Spirit. Talk to your pastor or college minister about how you can serve.

If you gained some direction for your life, explore it. Talk to a trust­ed teacher or pastor about how you

High-Tech Touch

saw the Lord using you at camp and any sense of calling you may have received. Many have received a call to full-time ministry at camps, and others have used it as a springboard to working with children or youth for the rest of their lives.

Even if you do not receive direc­tion right away, be patient. The Spir­it may be teaching you to trust His will for your life and ministry.

•!• •!• •!• These small ways of preparing

for life after summer camp can save you many pains and problems. By bringing closure to what has hap­pened in the past, realizing what you must do in the present, and planning for continued ministry in the future , heading home can be a time of excitement and anticipation of what God has in store for you. !J

Ben served for two years as program director at Seneca Hills in Franklin, Pennsylva­nia. He's now pursuing a Ph.D. at Indiana University You can e-mail him at bburling@indiana. edu.

By Jim Cannel

Our camp looked for an easy way to keep the mountaintop experience of our summer staff going throughout the year. We hit upon the idea of using e­mail as a tool for accountability, prayer requests, prais­es, and just general sharing .

sages. I copy them to an outgoing message and send the message out once per week using a "group mailbox."

Our staff e-mail ministry has two simple rules: Rule #1-no junk mail. We use e-mails for prayer

requests, praises, messages, and sharing . No one can send group mail or messages that are nice and cute, but that take up a bunch of time and space . I serve as "moderator''; all requests, praises, and other messages come through me.

Rule #2-confidentiality is honored. Some staff want to share personal issues (such as prayer re­quests or the need for counseling about dating or about family members). If requested, those messages do not get passed on to the group. This keeps me in touch with summer staff, and allows me to share bibli­cal solutions with them.

At first, group prayer requests and praises came in slowly. But I eventually started to receive quite a few mes-

26 Christian Carnp & Conference Journal

I also take the liberty of sending encouraging, uplift­ing, and sometimes challenging messages. For example, one week I focused on the Matthew Shepherd murder in Wyoming and the perception the world has of Christians based on media reports . I asked them to think about Je­sus' ministry and how He got Himself invited to dinner (a great opportunity for free meals). Jesus did not scare people away from Him, but rather developed relation­ships and loved people into the family of God.

It takes about an hour a week to compile and organize the requests/praises, add my notes, and push the send button. Probably the most difficult part was adding every­one's names to the group. But most e-mail providers offer an intuitive way to do that set-up. Updating e-mail ad­dresses takes a few minutes here and there. Bottom line, though, the time and effort are definitely worth it!

In addition to his staff position at Mount Hermon (Calif) , jim is the communications coordinator for CCI/USA 's Sierra Pacific Section. You can e-mail him at jcannel@mhcamps. org.