Guest Post: Beautiful Feet // Behind the Scenes of YL Camp

This is a guest post by area volunteer, Dawnelle Knott. Dawnelle serves as a campaigners leader, Auction Chair and countless other roles including dear friend to the Area Director. I am so blessed by her words and hope you are too. -Susie

“How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news”
Isaiah 52:7

Summer, it brings memories of swimming, warm summer nights, barbecuing, vacations, and for some of us, summer camps.  Each summer, Auburn Young Life sends over 200 kids to different camps all across the Pacific Northwest as campers.  Did you know that we also send out many high school kids, college kids, and adults to camps not as campers, but to serve? 

The servants we send are from our community.  We have watched them grow up.  We have accompanied them to camps. We have listened as they made life changing decisions to accept Christ.  We have lead with them in ministry and have walked alongside them as they have grown spiritually.  Going is just the next step in some of their journeys. 

And then I heard the voice of the Lord, saying ‘Whom shall I send and who will go for us?’  And I replied ‘Here am I. Send me.’  -Isaiah 6:8

Some of those we send are on staff and they serve in this way every summer.  Others are volunteers and it might be a once in a lifetime experience.  But, all of them have the same call from Isaiah 6:8 in common.  All of them leave their families and travel to wherever they are sent. They don’t choose where they go. It is chosen for them. They could be sent anywhere from British Columbia, Canada to Florida. They don’t choose what they will be doing. That is chosen also. They go with a blind faith, knowing they are being sent to the place that God has chosen for them. 

A typical camp “session” lasts from 3 to 4 weeks.  These hands and feet on the ground take on all types of roles and jobs.  Some are washing dishes behind the scenes, others are musicians up front. Some are overseeing groups of high school kids that are working. Some are the entertainers and emcees of a camp which, which are called “Program.” Some are recreation staff: they are boat drivers, lawn mowers, and dining hall servers. All come with the same purpose, to make sure that every camper that comes has the “best week of their life.”

Is it a vacation? NO! Do we get tired? YES! Are there tears? YES! Are there disagreements? YES! Do we get homesick? YES! Is there laughter? YES!  Is it hard work? YES! Do we come back more tired than when we left? YES!  Do we grow spiritually? YES! They all give up so much to go but in the end all of them would say “it is so worth it”!  Two of our college students served one session and then left immediately for new assignments!  How crazy is that?!

This year alone Auburn Young Life sent out the following to be the hands and feet of Jesus to over a thousand kids they had never even met:

Assignment Team
Work Crew Bosses (Roger & Mattie)
Program (Susie & Dom)
Musician (Scott)
Work Crew Coordinator (Ken)

Work Crew (High School Students)
Mikaila, Emily, Taylor, Spencer, EJ, Julian, Beth, Anna

Summer Staff (College Students)
Nina, Kyla, Mattie

Intern (Summer Long Internship at a YL Camp)
Nina

This past summer our family had the opportunity to serve at a camp for 25 days. This was our second summer of serving at camp on assignment. My Husband, Ken, was a Work Crew Coordinator.  That is a fancy title that means he had 5 “Work Crew Bosses” and 44 high school students that he oversaw.  Our daughter was a work crew boss in the dining hall, which means that she had 14 high school kids to teach and work with who served more than 400 campers meals, 3 times a day.  

 The assignment this summer was a little different than the last one because of the location of the camp. I went along with great apprehension.  I wasn’t excited to leave my other kids back at home. Young Life Camps typically have very little communication with the outside world.  Ken, on the other hand, was beyond excited! So, I took a leap of faith and went with him. What I went into dragging my feet ended up being 25 of the best days of my life. They were the longest days and also the shortest days of my life. I watched lives of campers as well as work crew kids being changed.  I made many new and lifelong friends.  I found ways to help and serve even though I didn’t have a job description.  Would I do it again?  Yes, with no hesitation.  Would I go wherever we are sent? YES!

 I believe that as a Young Life area we need to be a “sending” area.  We need to watch for and identify kids that potentially could go as Work Crew and Summer Staff and then we need to encourage students to go! There are also ways for adults to serve on work crew at short weekend events as well. We live in a society that is so caught up with “what can I get from it” and we need to be a group of people that turns that around and says “what can I give to it.”  Who knows: one of these servants might come away knowing that they are called into full time ministry.  Or it might just help them move further into a deeper relationship with Christ.  Either way we are doing exactly what we are called to do! As Robert Frost said in his famous poem “Two roads in a wood, and I, I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.” 

P.S. Watch for ways and opportunities for summer 2017 that you can become involved to support and encourage these “hands and feet on the ground.”

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