My mind wasn’t at camp. It was somewhere else at times. Far far away. By Thursday, after I had found my job, things were much better. Times like these make me appreciate the good times more often.
So we had camp. I wasn’t there physically for 2 afternoons. At times it felt like I was missing out tremendously. I didn’t get to know the kids in my cabin. Unfortunate.
But, for the most positive aspect of camp: I know I’m loved. I know I’m missed when I’m not around. I know I play specific roles at camp. Photographer. Cabin judge. Mentor. All around nice guy. And its ok to like oneself. Its ok to think highly of yourself. In fact, it’s almost a necessity in this world. Like yourself. After all, we are told we must love others as much as we like ourselves.

I thought they were lost. The Pig Pen and Cleanest Cabin Award signs we use for camp each year. I hadn’t seen them since 2001. I’ve asked and asked the whereabouts of them, but never could get a straight answer. Instead, after quite a while, and perhaps that Scottsville’s VBS supplies were stored in the same place, was told where they might be. Mcpherson Appraisal Service’s storage bin. Unlocked. Just off Scottsville’s town square. There they were all along. Spiderwebs and all.
The signs hold alot of history behind them. It was traditional to sign the back of them after winning them. So my name is on them. Along with years worth of other campers. It’s great. No where else can you find years of camp history written in one place. The agony of defeat is said bluntly on the back of the Pig Pen sign which says “This is what happens when your counselor doesn’t make his bed.” One can only imagine the wrath that counselor felt after their cabin got the award.
I was the recepient of the Pig Pen award one time. I, along with the rest of my cabin was found sleeping when it was time for Bible class. I was embarrassed too. So we got the Pig Pen. Major embarrassment at the time.

I’m excited about camp. We had our final planning meeting today. Basically my primary job, among many other minor ones, is to take pictures. I will be taking all the cabin pictures and a big group picture. The cabin pictures I can handle. I’m not so sure about the big group picture. It will take plenty of coordination. I hope I’ll be able to come through on that one. Too many times I look to others to step up and do the job. I’ve seen really good group pictures done before. And I hope I can duplicate the quality.
I’m going to try to plan for some good cabin devos. But I guess it all depends on the attitude of the kids. I really do hope I have good kids who are willing to learn. I definitely don’t need troublemakers. Things are so much better when kids are yearning to study God’s word.

I should never have doubted myself. This retreat this weekend taught me that these kids really need me. I fill a gap in their lives. Sunday School teacher. Mentor. And most of all….Friend. It is much more important for me to build them up by listening to them, rather than trying to be the heavy, disciplinarian. I won’t let them walk all over me. But I will attempt to show God’s love toward them as best I can. It is much easier for me to build them up than to tear them down. And once you tear someone down, it is much more difficult to put right what once went wrong.
My devo which I had stressed and stressed about went very well. I hope they were able to get something out of it. I’m sure they were listening. Some of them even came up aftewards and told me that I was a good speaker. I never thought of myself as a good speaker, but I guess you end up becoming more comfortable with it.
Believe in yourself. Even when others doubt you. Even when you doubt yourself.

Here’s another one. Summer Camp ’96. I’m mostly just posting this old church bulletin article so that I can archive it somehow.

June 9, 1996
by Joey Davis
Summer Camp time is here again. Because Summer Camp is next week, I feel that it’s a good idea to give you a preview of Summer Camp ’96.
This year’s Summer Camp will be held at Fall Creek Falls State Park. We will be in group Lodge 1. If you are traveling up on Sunday, give yourself at least an hour and a half for travel time.
Our lodge has a dormitory that holds up to 100 people and is air-conditioned. (So we’re not really “roughing it.”) Attached by overed walkways are kitchen facilities.
Everyday we will have Bible study for every age group. The study sessions include a class in the morning, a worship service at right, and teen-led “Power Group” devotionals before bedtime. Your Bible Class teachers are as follows: Elementary ages Michelle Myers and Alma Penix; Junior High – Ronnie Travis and Jeff Whittle; and High School – Joey Davis.
Also, there will be craft sessions each day. Sissy Pickler and Diane Wright are heading up this project. They have some really nteresting crafts planned.
Rebecca Huddleston and Susan Staggs will be monitoring the ‘love line.” The “love line” is a place where you can write notes of encouragement to other campers.
Our sports director this year is Rick Waldrop. Rick has sporting activities planned that pay less attention to winning and losing and more attention to building leadership and teamwork within the participants. Besides the normal sporting events, softball (bring your own glove), volleyball, and basketball, Rick has planned a ropes course to stimulate the campers teamwork and problem solving skills.
Don’t be surprised if your kids come back from camp a little heftier than they left. Ronnie Travis (Chef BoyRonnee’) has a menu planned that is out of this world.
Amy Staggs, Jackie Speight, and Greg Myers will be directing and helping with the recreation activities.
On Wednesday night, anyone who would like to visit camp is invited to a special Mexican Night. We will have decorations, good food, and the Power Groups will entertain us with skits. Brandie Buchanan and Shelly Cook are working with Ronnie to make this night memorable.
Most importantly, thanks to all who have donated time, materials, food, money etc. Without your help, camp would not have been possible. Please pray for us!

At this point in my life I was still doing summer camp strictly for the fun of it. Getting to know my fellow Christians. I still hadn’t gotten involved in the service part of camp…i.e. actually preparing lessons and trying to teach the Gospel to campers. Earnestly concerned about soul winning. I wasn’t into that necessarily. I felt it was other people’s jobs. I’ve matured since then. Now my mission for camp is to help people grow closer to God.
Then again, I am surprised to see my name on there as Junior High teacher. Man, was that a mistake. I just couldn’t handle it. I still probably couldn’t handle it now. You see, I am not a disciplinarian. I really shouldn’t let the kids get away with stuff, but they do.
Reading the names on there remind me of ghosts of the past. Some of them I honestly don’t know where they are. What happened? Are they elsewhere? Did they drop off the face of the earth? It is amazing how much things can change in 7 years.
I remember that I did have a summer college class during that time where I had to drive back Tuesday night. And Tuesday night was the time where someone was baptized at camp.

Got back from a camp meeting. So the big thing this year is that we are planning special interview sessions among the counselors/bible school teachers and their campers respectively. We’ll address any personal or spiritual issues, should they need to share it with us.
I think it is a good thing. Anytime I am at camp I try to get to know each of the kids I am counseling. At least spend one-on-one time with them getting to know them. It doesn’t take much to be a good listener. And I didn’t even take any youth minister classes to know that. You never know. This one week at camp might be the only time a kid is around so many positive people. Or it might be the only time they are introduced to Bible classes or the steps to salvation. They might be having problems at home they need to talk about. Or maybe they just need a listening ear to their problems.
I may not have the answers to all of their problems, but I at least try to be there for them. And you never know the amount of good you have the potential of doing. Maybe some kind words or an encouragement might make all the difference to them. You never know unless you try….
And I think that I could lead someone to salvation…if that was a concern of theirs. I mean it’s not too difficult. I did it once. I could do it again. You just have to know the right verses and all that. If they are truly serious they will listen. No need to worry about that.
And I’ll come prepared. I’ll have those verses bookmarked in my Bible beforehand.
Maybe I should have been a youth minister.

The retreat with Center Chapel was good. We had 13 people up at the lodge Friday night…the others being out trick or treating. I had some of Gallatin’s Rebel Rouser lasagna (still warm after the 20 minute drive). Yum. For the first time I was able to finish it.
It seemed just lonely. Perhaps even at bit calm or quiet Friday night with just a handful of people there. Then again when the rest of the crew arrived, there wasn’t as many as in past years. Sometimes we have 50 or more. This time we had 41 at the most.
So the Whispering Pines lodge is pretty sparse. They really need to get in some couches or something. Plastic chairs are rough. But the tables are pretty light. Easy to move.
Besides the main lodge they’ve got other various cabins nearby along with a pool, volleyball court, and lake with canoes. It was upto 78 degrees in November and they had a water balloon fight that afternoon. Whodathought?
Throughout the summer this camp is used as a summer camp. I read some of the graffiti on the cubby holes of the cabins…wondering what exactly the inside jokes were. Also wondering how summer camps at the Whispering Pines are. I think there is alot of potential for the camp. The lake, the pool, the volleyball court. But the lodge is so sparse…at least in retreat times…that it makes me wonder how things are during the summer. Surely they bring in more furniture.

It was sorta a mini TCC reunion at the Lehman Ave youth rally. Many of the main players were there. Sorta makes me wonder how unenthusiastic it could be if I was to ever organize a real life TCC reunion. Would anybody come? Would anybody care? I’ve been asked…many times to organize one by those Johnson kids. “Oh yeah, Jeff, organize a reunion.” I suspect a camp reunion would be…as Todd would say, “an awkwardness level equal to that of your average 8th grade honors class formal gala.” One week at camp vs. 4 years in high school. Even though I’ve never been to either, I’d suspect neither high school nor camp reunions are ever really good.
Brian Proctor was there. Brian was the kid in 1992 who got a wad of pre-chewed gum from the gum board and put it in his mouth for the sake of getting alot of points in the nitty gritty game. He’s a preacher now. And a pretty good one. Mars Hill is his congregation. I’m glad for how he turned out. This is actually the first time I’ve known someone growing up who became a preacher. Lots of times you just don’t realize that some people you know in church could become preachers. Preachers came from preaching schools, not from summer camps or your home congregation. There will be more kids I know who become preachers, I suspect. When I did bring up the wad o’ gum incident, he seemed to sorta laugh it off. However I suspect that he secretly resented me bringing that one up. Kinda like those times old relatives bring up embarrassing stories about you at family reunions.
Johnny K. was there too. Johnny is so positive toward life. If I’m ever in an upset mood, I give Johnny a call. Usually that sets things right. One of his main themes of life is Christians should be excited and happy. He’s said that at many a devotional or sermon. And he’s right. We should be happy for what we’ve been blessed with.
Part of me wants those really good church camps….the ones from 1991 or 1992….or even 2003….to stay locked in place forever. Sorta a never never land where we never grow old. I could have perpetually stayed 17 in 1992. Always a camper. Then again change is good. We couldn’t stay with the same people over and over again. As if one week of camp was replayed year after year. Groundhog Day, you know.
But I know these kids will grow old. Some of them…like Scott or Todd will be lifelong friends. Others will become mere strangers to me. I’m not sure of the aspect ratio of strangers vs. friends. I’d like to be friends with all of them. But some of them drift away.
I did do some online photo ordering yesterday. It’s sorta a end of the year summer tradition. I send all my summer photos to the printers. And I did doctor a few of the photos. Am I altering history? Its really just for my own benefit. If I didn’t want a certain person in a photo, and managed to photoshop them out of there, am I changing the original intent of the photo? After all, the intent of taking photos is to document life. The LA Times did it and managed to dismiss a staff member because of it. But this is for my own personal album, not for photo journalistic purposes, so I’m not worried. I’m just thinking a decade from now, will I even remember that I altered the photo? Will that effect my original memory of who was there?
Other altered photos:

• 
  Kent State Photo
• Oprah on TV Guide
• National Geographic’s Pyramid Move
• OJ and Time Magazine

As far as the kids in my cabin goes, it was as if I had gone through the list of kids and picked out the kids that I wanted. This didn’t happen, it just worked out that way. We had a broad age range. Even though it was supposed to be the younger kids cabin, we had anything from 4th graders to 8th graders. We had no troublemakers. And surprisingly no homesickness, even though there were some relatively young new campers.
The big thing in our cabin was hearing the talks about Revelation during our nightly cabin devos. I’m afraid we opened a can of worms, especially with the younger kids. Torture and destruction during the end times? No wonder they had trouble sleeping after that one.
I visited the Centerville Pamida at least 3 times throughout the week. Monday, Wednesday (twice), and Thursday (twice). It was to drop off pictures and get some other supplies for camp (oven gloves, clothes pins…). The store was never crowded. However I did have some problems with the pictures. I dropped the rolls with the cabin pictures on Monday, yet they didn’t get sent off until Wednesday. Argh! Barely got them back in time to give out to the kids Thursday night before they left.
Pamida seems to be such a small town operation. This one was built away from the road off to the side behind a house. You might miss it if you are are too busy looking for the McDonald’s across the street.
I think I have gotten back my faith. Before camp I was kinda cynical toward church in general. Now I realize that no matter what others may think of me, God still loves me. There’s no stopping that.
There’s a sign as you go out of camp which reads “Building Boys is Easier Than Mending Men.” How true that is.

Throughout my years at camp I have experienced just about every circumstance. I have had some really lousy camps. The ones where there’s some bad attitudes and really bad pranks. And then again I’ve had some wonderful camps. Those camps where your best friend at the time was baptized. Or the one where the kid in your cabin is baptized. I thought I had experienced it all. Until now. There was one thing that I hadn’t done. This year I did that one thing.
Waylon is a friend of mine. I’ve known him for years. But I hadn’t really become friends with him until last year at camp. He was a camper in my cabin. We seemed to hit it off. This year Waylon was back. And he was spiritually motivated. He kept mentioning to me that he was concerned that he wasn’t baptized. I studied with him and on Tuesday night I baptized him into Christ.
Friends, it doesn’t get any better than that. I’ve pretty much reached the zenith. The apex if you will. I never thought I’d be doing that. It’s very heartwarming. You really feel like you have made a difference.
Yet I need to remember that it wasn’t me. His parents may have planted the seed. I may have watered. But God gave the increase. This is God working. I can’t be bold and say Jeff Whittle converted Waylon. Because it didn’t happen that way. Waylon showed up at camp knowing what he needed to do to gain salvation. I just played a minor role in it. Mine will be the asterix at the bottom of the page of his spiritual life. Something to say “Oh, by the way Jeff baptized him.” Yet I feel like screaming out to people, “Hey I baptized a friend!” But that would be boasting. And none of that had to do with me. It was between Waylon and God.
And I was pretty nervous when I knew I’d need to get together some scripture to study with him. It was around midnight on Monday night when I started to try to find scripture references on salvation. I knew if I didn’t find them, or if I showed him the wrong ones he could be warped spiritually. Isn’t there a verse in the bible about teachers being judged tougher than regular people? If I didn’t ask the right questions and show him the right verses did it mean that I was responsible for him not knowing the right things before being baptized? I couldn’t sleep that night because of that fear.
Yet, the Bible study itself was quite easy. It is easy to talk to friends about God, especially when your friend already believes what you believe. And I did have a backup plan. I had our camp director study with him as a follow up. His study was pretty much a carbon copy of mine. So no worries.
Then when he asked me to baptize him, I was somewhat expecting it. He isn’t close to many of the other adults at the camp. It could have been the camp director to do it, or anyone else more qualified. I guess he thought enough of me to ask me to baptize him.
Throughout the day while we waited for his dad to arrive that evening I was nervous about baptizing him. He weighs more than I do. Could I possibly pull him up out of the water?
But it was easy. Ironically baptistries are made to easily baptize someone. There are probably plenty of preachers that are the same build as me who are doing plenty of baptisms. If they could do it, surely I could do it. I did get plenty wet during the whole process. Matt, one of the other campers present, joked that I baptized myself in the process.
And I didn’t have to do it in front of so many people. Waylon was kinda shy about being the center of attention. So only a handful of people were invited, which was fine by me. I probably would have choked in front of so many people.
I’ll take this experience to the grave with me. Apart from being baptized yourself, baptizing someone, especially a friend, is pretty much the ultimate experience. I feel so good about it.