I was up at Taylor Christian Camp for their 20th Anniversary fundraising dinner. We toured camp, sang, and heard a message about the impact this camp has had on a generation of children and adults. Our featured speaker reflected how there is something about this place that makes us not want to leave. And I didn’t want to leave today. So many memories. So many times which I truly felt closest to God was at this ridge in rural Allen County, Kentucky. So many friendships have been cultivated. So many opportunities to do God’s will.
Camp has changed. From new cabins, to bathrooms within the cabins, to new craft houses, the whole makeup of camp has changed since I stepped foot on the campus in June 1991 as a fresh-faced 16 year old who thought I knew everything. Still recognizable with its distinct ridge view, the camp is physcially like before. Yet the old facilities have been taken down (except for the main lodge), and new ones replaced. Mere shacks were dismated with replacement of sturdy metal cabins. Where once was wilderness, now there are craft cabins, basketball courts, and volleyball sandpits.
Not only camp has changed, I’ve changed. No longer am I the naive person willing to believe whatever someone throws my way. Now I’m more decerning.
So I guess I’m in the reflecting mood. What if I hadn’t of gone to camp during that summer of 1991 when Bill Speight took about half a dozen of us to camp with other Kentucky churches? What if I had gone home that day I arrived for fear of not knowing anybody? Ironically now it seems that this camp is one of the few places where I feel comfortable.