Camp is on my mind right now. In less than a month, I will assume my annual responsibilty of being the Head Men’s Counselor at Camp Zenith hosted on the campus of Oklahoma Christian University. Our youth minister, Chris Robey, asked me a couple of years ago if I would be interested in filling that role. I actually thought it was time for me to retire from church camps, and draw my camp pension. In a moment of weakness in the spring of 2007, I told Chris I would be glad to fulfill that role. What was I thinking? Did he slip something in my coffee that morning?

I supervise the counselors who have charge of over 300 boys in three dormitories. It is actually a great job. I have not been cool for years, but the kids know I love them, and that is all that is important. They will think of few stunts that I have not already pulled or seen done. Zenith is a terrific camp. Youth ministers from several states teach a variety of classes. The worship experiences each evening are amazing. The potential for the campers to form meaningful relationships among themselves is endless. It is a highlight of the summer for most of the campers.

I still get a little nostalgic when I pull up at OC’s campus to get in camp mode. I directed a session at Quartz Mountain Christian Camp at Lone Wolf, OK for 17 years. QMCC, as we called it, was a typical rural church camp. When I first started going in 1988, there were old A-frame cabins with large shutters to control the air flow. Each cabin had submarine style bunk beds lined down both walls of the A-Frame. A long picnic table was situated in the middle of reach cabin. I still remember sitting with groups of high school boys having discussions about a whole range of topics well into the night at those cabin tables. If my memory serves me correctly, those cabins were hot during the day and cold at night in the early weeks of summer.

At QMCC, there were early morning hikes up “Devo Mountain” and singing on the basketball pavilion late at night. And there were late night baptisms at the pool. The week was not complete without a talent show and a skit night. I was “Mrs. Doubtfire” one year at the talent show. I was a sight to behold in my pink dress I purchased at the second hand store in Altus.
We had a water balloon launcher mounted on the back of camp manager Paul Brown’s truck. The girls could not walk to the bathhouse from their cabins without being bombarded with water balloons sailing through the early morning air. The week was filled with practical jokes, late night serenading at the girl’s cabins, campfires, and a lot of fun…

I look back at the campers and counselors I had at QMCC with very fond memories. One of my former campers is the worship minister for the Highland Oaks Church of Christ in Dallas. Another former camper is a missionary in Africa. Still another camper from my session is the youth minister for the Tenth and Broad Church of Christ in Wichita Falls. And…one of my former campers from QMCC is the youth minister at the Granbury Church of Christ. I could not ask for a better person to full that needed role in the lives of my boys. I gladly assist Chris at Zenith every year. My camp pension can be put on hold for a few years. I have some inkling of the good that camp can do in the lives of teens. Some of them even become great youth ministers.