Experiences in Nature - Core Value #4

John Vandervelde - Program Director

As a child I remember hearing a story about a man who grew up on the American frontier in the early 1900's.  He spent his days running through the woods, fishing in the creek, climbing rocky cliffs, and hunting for his food.  It was the life I dreamed of:  no school and all fun, all day in the woods.  One day, this frontiersman's uncle came back to the family homestead, in a place like Montana or something like that, and invited the young man to journey with him to New York City.

Upon arriving in New York, the young man was quickly overwhelmed by the busyness of the city.  People were everywhere, automobiles moving, people shouting, buses rumbling, trains rattling -- it was nearly too much for the wilderness boy to handle.  As he took a deep breath and looked to the sky, he heard it.  He grabbed his uncle's arm and said, "I heard it, did you?"  The uncle stopped, "No, what is it?  Did you hear a coin drop or something?"  The young man began to search, hunched over, and he bumped into people, looking for the source of the noise.  "No," he said, "not a coin... something more beautiful than that..."  Eventually, he found the source of the noise:  a small cricket, huddled under the leaf of a plant, surrounded by the sprawl of New York City.  "It sounds like home!" said the young man as he picked up the cricket. 

I remember being a student at Wheaton College when a professor challenged the class to not let the "unnatural environment" of Wheaton stop us from seeing and experiencing God's natural creation.  As a Wheaton student, you can literally spend your whole day never walking on God's natural earth.  You can walk from carpet to tile, to pavement, to linoleum, to the rubber of a treadmill, to more pavement and never step foot on grass, or dirt, or sand or mud.  He challenged us to walk on natural ground everyday so we didn't lose touch with the Creator of the universe.  

At HoneyRock, we're surrounded by nature.  Trees, dirt, lakes, rivers, plants, and snow -- it is all around us.  People today need to experience this.  We feel closer to God when we're in nature.  Creation shows God's glory and power, and when we stop to listen and look, we are in awe of His creativity and might (Psalm 19:1, Psalm 95:3-6, Psalm 97:6, Psalm 104:1-24, Romans 1:20) .  This is why "experiences in nature" is one of our core values.  Every participant at HoneyRock will experience God in the natural world He created because it's powerful.  It teaches us about who God is and who we are.    
So today, let's walk on natural ground.  Let's listen for the cricket and not be swallowed up by buildings, roads, and sidewalks that make up our world.  Let's stand in awe of the Creator of the universe. 

-  See you at Round-Up on Saturday!! 

 

The Pursuit of Authentic Community - Core Value #3

John Vandervelde - Program Director

Today we're back looking more closely at HoneyRock's core values.  Authentic Community is the third core value of HoneyRock.  Creating an environment that builds and supports an authentic community is a difficult task, and HoneyRock is definitely not perfect.  We struggle to meet everyone's needs, we struggle to have true vulnerability and authenticity, we struggle to provide space where everyone feels involved, we don't encourage people enough, we sometime fail to address concerns adequately, and we struggle to balance time caring for each other enough and reaching out to those in need.  The struggle is tough sometimes and people can get frustrated and hurt, but the pursuit of authentic community is worth it and God calls us to it.  Throughout scripture we see community being an important part of the Christian experience.  Community is essential for proclaiming the Gospel, discipling believers, and caring for the less fortunate.  A community that is centered around scripture and focused on caring for itself but also reaching out is what we are called to be. 

There are several things we do to help create and support an authentic community both during the summer and school year.  Each morning we meet as an entire staff to read God's word, to pray and to encourage each other.  We set up small groups with the entire ministry staff so people have a core group to go through the summer with and study God's word with.  We design fun experiences and challenges and involve the whole staff in these experience - like broomball tournaments, family fun nights, the Hodag Challenge, and the great camp race.  Perhaps one of the most powerful ways we experience authentic community is through out Celebration Services at the end of each session.  These times are filled with worship and people giving testimony to what God did in and through them each session of the summer.

Each summer we send out a survey to staff and students asking them about their summer experience.  The theme of "community" always rises to the top, both in negative and positive ways.  This year was no exception. Below I've included a few quotes from the 2009 summer survey - these quotes come from all different areas of camp.  I hope it helps you get a glimpse of what authentic community can be like.  Of course we don't always get it right ,but here are a few examples of what is looks like when we do:

"I saw glimpses into parenthood. By far, I grew in my understanding of what it meant to serve within a body of believers."

"The best summer of my life, in which I truly understood what a Christ-centered community looked like."

"Over the past few summers—first in Passage, then SLS, and now AMP—HoneyRock has taught me to long for the kingdom of heaven. The community here—its depth, its loving acceptance, and its focus on Christ—has been my first taste of Christian community and, despite its faults, my point of reference when I look to the life of the world to come. Yet HoneyRock is not a closed, Utopian community: it exists to bring others into the loving embrace of Christ and his church. That mission does not come at the expense of HoneyRock’s internal community, but gives that community a vibrant, dynamic energy that I’ve never seen elsewhere."

"The core value of authentic community... I definitely found that this one in particular guides what HoneyRock is about. When I'm at HoneyRock, I find that it is the people that I'm with, and their genuineness, that make the experience meaningful."

"I've been able to experience God's love so much this summer through the community at HoneyRock, through the many challenges that brought me on my knees before God, and through God lifting me up in the many trials I faced."

"The most significant growth I experienced this summer was being transformed by Christ.  Coming into the summer, I had just finished a really tough year at Wheaton and I was dealing with depression.  I was also very insecure and afraid of failure.  Through dedicated quiet times with the Lord, living in community and being placed in challenging situations, I was able to find joy and confidence in Christ; this made me a more willing servant and leader."

"The group experience was great. It was such an awesome community of people who cared about each other."

"Keep working diligently at maintaining the community atmosphere, setting, and purpose. Community community community!"

"HoneyRock should continue its pursuit of the authentic, Christ-centered community that it has.  I think the way HoneyRock can serve its mission most effectively is not individually, but corporately.  Together, God can use us to spread the Gospel throughout HoneyRock and beyond."

"The community was awesome. The relationships built were awesome. The experience was SUPER challenging and long, but awesome."

"The program exceeded my expectations by far. The intentionality of the community, the depth of friendships, the support and encouragement, the focus on God, the fun, the challenge, the growth...it was all incredible. I wouldn't trade it for a second."

"The community blew my expectations out of the water.  I learned so much this summer - so formative."

Human Hands

John Vandervelde - Program Director

Today we're going to take a break from writing about the HoneyRock core values because I want to share a powerful article we read in our staff devotional time this morning.  Bill Long read this article to us and we were moved as we thought about the awesomeness of our Creator.

As you work with your hands today--whether it is hammering a nail, changing a diaper, making a meal, dressing a child for school, typing on a keyboard, fixing a car, or tying your shoes--stand in awe of our loving and amazing Creator. 

Article - Made in His Image: The Connecting Power of Hands (http://www.icr.org/article/4948)

Prayer Requests & Praises:

1)  We praise God for our bodies that are so creatively built by our loving God.

2)  We pray for Nancy Long's family as they grieve the loss of Nancy's uncle from PA.

3)  We continue to pray for complete healing for Ethan Welsh, nephew of former staff members John and Lauren Welsh, as he continues to recover in the hospital after being struck by a car a little over two weeks ago.  Please pray for his lungs to be healed so he can breathe on his own.

Upcoming Events:

1)  Don't forget - HoneyRock Round-Up is this Saturday.

2)  Registration for summer 2010 camper programs is now open!

Others-Oriented Service: Core Value #2

John Vandervelde - Program Director

On Friday I received a note from an elderly widow who lives in Eagle River, WI.  This summer a crew of 10 high school girls from our Discipleship Training Program (DTP) worked at her house for two days.  These young women helped clean her windows, mow her yard, pick up brush, and do other odd jobs around the house.  Her note was hand-written on an out-of-style thank you note, and it simply said, "Thank you for coming over and helping me.  You worked so hard and with such excitement.  I was truly blessed."  I was touched by her kind note and reflected on those two days and not only how much work was accomplished, but also how much those 10 young women learned about themselves and how God wants them to live. 

Core Value #2 here at HoneyRock is "Others-Oriented Service."  Serving others has been a core value at HoneyRock since the beginning, and in the last few years we've expanded opportunities to serve others in all of our programs.  Over the last 4 summers we've been reaching out to the Three Lakes and Eagle River communities in partnership with our local church, the Three Lakes Evangelical Free Church.  Through God's strength and guidance we've been able to help many people in need and have been blessed by the relationships we've established.

At HoneyRock the purpose for all of our work serving others is very clear.  First, we believe that hard work and service are great developers of people.  Working hard all day teaches young people life lessons in self-discipline, perseverance, motivation, and teamwork.   Like the Puritan work ethic, we believe work becomes one of the means by which a person lives out his or her relationship to God.  Secondly, we believe service is a key part of character development and discipleship.  All throughout Scripture we see Jesus involved in and involving his disciples in acts of service.  From the feeding of the 5,000 to the healing of the sick, Christ used service to develop his disciples.  I’d even venture to say that if we are true disciples of Christ we must be involved in serving others, particularly the less fortunate.  The third reason for the missional focus of our programs is that being involved in service, especially with those who are in need, softens our hearts and tears down our selfish desires and entitlement mentality.  Through service projects we see campers' and students' lives change in terms of what they think of themselves and what they think of other people.  They go home and live different, more Christ-centered and others-centered lives because of their service experiences at HoneyRock.   Finally, we know there are great needs in our world and we want to involve our high school students in helping to meet some of those needs in practical ways.  God doesn’t need us to do his work, but he chooses to use us anyway.  When we work hard for God, we bring him honor and glory and we further his Kingdom here on earth.  This is His call and His command and we want to serve and follow Him.  

Sometimes we get stuck thinking that serving others has to be a really organized and overly planned kind of an event.  That's just not true.  When campers and students are working hard to serve others at HoneyRock, I always tell them that they can live every day of their lives just like this.  I tell them, "You don't have to come to HoneyRock or go on a missions trip to be about serving others; there are needs all around us if we just open our eyes and stop focusing so much on ourselves and our needs." 

So the challenge for today: who is someone you can serve in your world?  Let's stop, take a look around, and see where God might be encouraging us to serve others right in our own community.  

Below are a few pictures of the 2009 DTP group splitting and stacking firewood that will be donated to people who use wood as their sole source of heat in the winter.  The DTP group also ran a Vacation Bible School in South Minneapolis in partnership with Park Ave. Church. 

 

Enthusiastic Involvement--The Great White Pumpkin

Liz Henderson--Program Team Assistant

This week we will be taking a look at the HoneyRock core values.  The first one we are going to focus on is Enthusiastic Involvement.  Enthusiastic Involvement is all about getting people engaged in what is going on around them.  It often starts when the leadership gets excited about something and their excitement is infectious and draws others in allowing people to engage and try something new.  This core value is extremely significant at HoneyRock because we live in a culture where students spend the majority of their time on Facebook, texting, playing video games, and watching TV.  HoneyRock gives campers and students the opportunity to get away from those things and instead do something active and sometimes a little crazy.  This core value couldn't be illustrated in a better way than by sharing the story of the Great White Pumpkin.

Our story begins with a man who had a dream: a dream to grow the biggest pumpkins in all the land.  His name is Dan Bowles, and he is the President of the Pumpkin Growers Club in Wisconsin.  He lives in Eagle River, and we at HoneyRock would like to think we had a small role in helping his dream come true, thanks to our regular donations of horse manure.  In thanks for our support of his farm, Dan gave us an 800-pound giant squash this fall.  We affectionately named it "The Great White Pumpkin."  When the squash first arrived at HoneyRock, we weren't sure what we were going to do with it, but we were confident that it would become an integral part of the Wheaton College Fall Break experience. 

Our squash-related festivities began on a Saturday night when Wheaton College Work/Play students spent the evening carving pumpkins and flavoring pumpkin seeds with everything from garlic and rosemary to chocolate.  One of the other activities that was available to them was carving the Great White Pumpkin (pictured at left).  Many students spent time that afternoon and evening carving beautiful scenes into the sides of the giant squash.  But it wasn't the end of the journey for the Great White Pumpkin, in fact, it was just the beginning.

Dan Elsen, the Residential Camp Manager and head of the Southwoods Office, came up with the brilliant plan of having a race using the Great White Pumpkin.  His excitement was contagious, and he decided that we would move the Great White Pumpkin down to the waterfront, cut it in half, hollow out the insides, and have two brave contestants paddle their halves in Long Lake.  Moving an 800-pound squash is no small feat.  After a long and tenuous journey via Skid Steer from the Chrouser Dining Hall to the Ski Dock, the squash was ready to be cut in half.

Don Kerns , HoneyRock Site and Facilities Manager, had the responsibility of cutting the Great White Pumpkin in half using a Sawzall.  It was a slow and painstaking process. 

All of seeds had to be carefully removed (pictured at left) so they could be returned to the pumpkin grower.

If you have been to HoneyRock before, you know what this shovel (pictured on right) is typically used for.  It was just the right size and shape to allow our contestants to scoop out an appropriate amount of pumpkin flesh.

Two Wheaton Seniors, Ryan Carey and Lars Skoglund, were chosen to be captains of the lake-going pumpkin vessels.  Despite the frigid temperatures, these two men were excited to race for glory.  They were certainly enthusiastically involved in the Great White Pumpkin Race.  Check out the start of the race (pictured below).  They got off to a great start, but unfortunately one of the halves of the Great White Pumpkin didn't stay afloat for long.   

 

But the fun didn't stop there.  Two of our talented kitchen staff, Dell Ledbetter (HoneyRock Food Service Manager) and Robyn McMurray (HoneyRock Cook) baked part of the squash--after it had spent some time in Long Lake!--cubed the squash, and served it for Sunday dinner!  The students reported that it was delicious.

So whether a giant squash ends up in Long Lake, on the dinner table, or at the White House (as one of Dan's pumpkins recently did) it was all a part of one man's dream coming true--and it allowed some HoneyRockers to be enthusiastically involved in something a little out of the ordinary.

Know the Hope

Liz Henderson-Program Team Assistant

This morning during out staff devotional time we read Ephesians 1.  If you haven't read through that chapter of Ephesians recently, I would encourage you to do so.  It is a rich passage filled with references to the awesomeness of Jesus. 

We were reminded of a sermon Dan Elsen shared with Wheaton students and HoneyRock staff who were here over Fall Break two weeks ago.  He spoke from Ephesians 1:15-23 and focused particularly on 18-19 which say:

"I
pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that
you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his
glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe." 

God's power is for us if we believe in him!  If we are not open to the power of God in our lives, we have a difficult time receiving his hope.  It is an incredible thought that God wants to share his inheritance with us and that he desires to give us hope.  Today were were challenged to be diligent in seeking the Lord so that we may truly know the hope to which he has called us.   

Please Join Us In Prayer/Praise For:

• Ethan Welsh, 7-year old nephew of former staff members John and Lauren Welsh, as he is still in the hospital following an accident where he was hit by a car two weeks ago.  He has also contracted H1N1, and we are praying for God to heal his lungs and his entire body.  Please continue to lift up Ethan and his family.


• Dan, Ann, and Craig as they work in the HoneyRock Office on the Wheaton campus each day.  Pray that God would be present in their conversations as they pray with, encourage, and recruit students.