A Funny Thing happened on the Way to Camp – 8c – Calvin Crest EARLY YEARS

            Calvin Crest sponsored a couple of their regular junior, junior high and senior high school camps that first year.  Richard and I would go up on the weekends and I would be the registrar for the camps.  The junior camps were held in the Apple Orchard in the wooden framed tents.

            On the very first day of camp we discovered that the cows had come onto the camp grounds to graze and left their trade marks all over the apple orchard area.  Dorothy Lyons, Ted’s wife, and I joined the others in shoveling out droppings and putting them in wheelbarrows to be dumped somewhere else.  We decided that year that a barbed wire fence needed to be put up around the camp boundaries to keep the cows out.  Wasn’t expecting to serve this way.

            The Lyons family had a little dog called Cha Cha.  Every time she saw a cow she would start chasing it while barking and barking.  It would go up close to the cows.  When the cow stopped to see what was with the barking, the cow would turn its head and “Moo”.  The dog would turn around and run away at top speed.  It was a kick to watch.  These human (and animal) interest stories brought a humorous perspective to the ministry.

            It was, and still is sometimes, a challenge to communicate with people in the different churches, Presbyteries and Synods the complexity of running a camp and conference facility.  It became apparent that as long as we were able to operate our camps with minimal financial support from higher judicatories the better our relationships were with them.  Some would say what do you do all year in the camping ministry.  That’s next.

Choosing to Make Life Work - 8L - COURAGE

                  Beginning this last Spring, while I was recuperating at home from my head episode, I started to listen to audio books.  I listened to a couple of classics, even a couple of children classics, which was fun.  I also listened to the life story of Deitrich Bonhoeffer  and am listening to his books again—Life Together and now Cost of Discipleship.

            I am so taken with the courage, perseverance and faith of Bonhoeffer.  When the German churches and countries around the world were not getting involved while Hitler was gaining more and more power, Bonhoeffer, joining others, was plotting to kill him.  They believed something needed to be done to stop this evil man, and they were acting on it. 

Here in America we live such protected lives compared to other countries.  Although we are having our own terror attacks here as well now.  I hear and see on TV so many people that are being killed and Christians being persecuted in the Middle East and Africa.   I am overwhelmed with what must be the most frightening experiences.   How does one muster up the courage needed to live or die in these kinds of situations.

            I wonder sometimes if I would be courageous in similar circumstances.   As a young mother, I was in a Bible Study group years ago when I was active in the Turkish speaking Armenian Church in Los Angeles.  We were discussing what our parents went through during the genocide and how scarry it must have been to get on a boat to a distant place to start a new life.   I remember my friend, who had a young son and had to wear leg braces.  She shared with us,  “Do not worry today what you could or could not do in difficult situations.  She reminded us to trust God.  God will give you the kind of courage needed for each situation.”

All of us experience different kinds of hard things in our life time.   I am reminded of the scripture, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens us.”    That’s where our courage comes from. 

Choosing to Make Life Work – 7L – HAPPINESS

     Happiness is one criteria we often site as a character of contentment. 

Jesus said that, “he came that we might have abundant life.”  I imagine some

of  us would say being happy is what that means.  I heard someone say that,

“happiness is not having what you want, but, wanting what you have.”  I think

it is much more than that.  It has to do with a sense who we are as a person.

 If we follow Jesus and carry our own cross each day,  maybe a part of the

abundant life is learning how to give ourselves away.  When I interviewed college

students for about 60 plus jobs at camp each summer,  I would ask why they wanted

to work at camp.  A common answer was so that they could serve God.  By the

middle of the summer, several would be less joyful about being on camp staff

because they began to “feel” like servants.  That didn’t make them very “happy”.  

            Jesus showed us how to give ourselves away by giving himself away so

that we might have life, and that abundantly.  The abundant life begins by our

knowing who we are in Christ and choosing to give ourselves away in service

and experience happiness.

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Camp – 7c -- NEW DIRECTION AND OLD ROAD

     In 1963 Ted Lyons was called to be the Executive Director of Calvin Crest.

Richard and I were active as volunteers.  Richard on the Board and I helped out

as secretary and the Camp Registrar.   I set in motion the accounting and book-

keeping procedures for recruiting and registering campers and counselors.

     The following couple of years the Board hired me as the Program Director

beginning with part time and then full time to include Personnel Director.  After

a year or two of research and walking around the grounds, praying, talking, and

praying, (literally), the Board presented the Presbytery with a Mission Statement

for the camp: “To guide persons to Jesus Christ, so that through Him they may

come to a true knowledge of God, to a living faith and through the power of the

Holy Spirit live as Christ’s disciples through the fellowship of the Church.” 

This was taken from the Denomination’s Confession of 1967. 

      The Road:  Even after moving from Coalinga to Modesto we would go up to

camp several weekends a month.  We went in and out on the seven mile narrow dirt

road--summer and winter.   Through the years we discovered that many Presbyterian

camps had a dirt roads for its entrance.

     Calvin Crest is about 5,000 feet in elevation and it would snow a lot during the

winter.   Our first winter was the beginning of adventurous rides into camp on snowy

roads.  We would be met at the bottom of the hill to be taken into the camp in a

4-wheel drive truck.  Our children, Mark, Nancy and Paul, (ages around 11, 8 and 5

years) and I were in the back of a camp truck while the three men, Ted, Richard and

the Camp Manager were in the front cab.  I am not sure why the women and children

were in the back of the truck?  Maybe it was because in the middle 60’s women’s

liberation was making it’s mark on the American scene and the back of the truck

meant equal opportunity!?

            It had just snowed and the road was getting quite muddy.  The potholes were deep

and wide.  Sometimes, the driver would get stuck in one of the ruts.  We would pray –

at least I would pray-- the rut stayed on the flat top of the road instead of veering off the

side of the mountain.  The kids and I would look over the side of the truck and there

were sheer drops into nothingness.  The kids thought this was better than Disneyland. 

Somehow I did not share the same excitement!

Choosing to Make Life Work – 7L – HAPPINESS

     Happiness is one criteria we often site as a character of contentment. 

Jesus said that, “he came that we might have abundant life.”  I imagine some

of  us would say being happy is what that means.  I heard someone say that,

“happiness is not having what you want, but, wanting what you have.”  I think

it is much more than that.  It has to do with a sense who we are as a person.

 If we follow Jesus and carry our own cross each day,  maybe a part of the

abundant life is learning how to give ourselves away.  When I interviewed college

students for about 60 plus jobs at camp each summer,  I would ask why they wanted

to work at camp.  A common answer was so that they could serve God.  By the

middle of the summer, several would be less joyful about being on camp staff

because they began to “feel” like servants.  That didn’t make them very “happy”.  

            Jesus showed us how to give ourselves away by giving himself away so

that we might have life, and that abundantly.  The abundant life begins by our

knowing who we are in Christ and choosing to give ourselves away in service

and to experience happiness.