– a personal refection by Craig Douglas of Timberline Ranch –

WHAT do you want to be when you grow up?  

Remember that old question we used to ask when we were little?  Many adults are still asking themselves that!  

When I was little and everyone else I knew wanted to be a fireman or a policeman, I wanted to be a volcanologist.  I’d seen this show on TV – and what could be better than poking around with fire and molten rock?  But then came the fatal day when I was old enough to attend summer camp, and my whole world turned upside down.  

Every summer . . .

I was eight then, and I spent the next 15 years going to camp every summer as a camper, as a counsellor in training, and finally as summer staff for six straight summers.  This led to another 10 years of full-time youth and camp work (with college and seminary degrees somewhere in the mix).  Though I didn’t fully realize it at the time, one of the greatest desires in my heart was to direct a camp and raise my eventual family in that setting. And that’s exactly what I’m doing today, 20-some years later, at Timberline Ranch in Maple Ridge.

What was it that kept me coming back? What was it that made me want to give my life to this kind of ministry? Further, why should others send their kids to a Christian summer camp? It all comes down to values and opportunities that you simply can’t get anywhere else.

I pretty much grew up at camp. Although it was only a week per year, that’s where I did much of my growing.                I learned incremental steps of independence, never too much to handle, but enough to see the world from other people’s perspectives. I developed relationships with godly young (and not so young) men and women who had things to teach me that complemented what my parents were trying to teach me at home. I listened to their talks (even when it looked like I didn’t!) and watched their walks, and I began to see Jesus in ways I’d never seen him before. And I saw God first-hand  in his creation. Where else does that happen?

A place of belonging

Camp was a place of belonging for me, a community where I felt accepted and cared for. In fact, this is the main reason campers and staff give us for coming back to Timberline. They feel accepted for who they are, not just what they can do, and they feel loved, encouraged, and appreciated.

There is a nurturing that occurs at camp, which helps them grow in their whole person: physically, emotionally, socially and spiritually.  As they try new activities, attempt new challenges, win and lose, succeed and fail, they find that their performance doesn’t change their level of acceptance, and that failures really aren’t fatal.

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A great deal of character development took place for me at camp.  Some would say I changed from being a character to actually having some. My confidence grew tremendously, and we see that in kids’ lives every day at camp. It is an amazing thing to watch a child get on a horse for the first time, so afraid and so unsure, and then come back from the trail ride an hour later, beaming from ear to ear, and wishing the ride would never end. Social development takes place as children learn how to live, work and play together in an environment very unlike the home or school.  

They learn to share, contribute, sit at a table together for meals, practice manners and put others first.  Where else besides camp does a child get to experience so many new things and learn so much about himself or herself?

Spiritual growth

Probably the two greatest impacts camp had on me were in terms of spiritual growth and leadership development.  Whereas Sunday School provided gradual (but important) building blocks in my faith development, camp was like a growth hormone.  I made several significant spiritual decisions while at camp, including my decision to be baptized.  

Many of our current staff and volunteers came to receive Christ as a direct result of their camper years at Timberline, and most would testify to the spiritual growth they have experienced here.  I read a few years ago that the majority of Christian leaders in North America claimed camp as a prime influence in their spiritual development.

Much of what I know as a leader today I learned as a teenager at camp, as I was thrust from one situation to another: teaching; having to come up with games, on the fly, for 120 kids; counselling dozens of cabins of kids; learning flexibility, servanthood, public speaking, parenting, patience and dish washing; working with people I didn’t get along with; and so on. And through the haze of feeling entirely spent at times, I truly learned how to depend on God.  Where else, besides camp, can a person so rapidly experience and learn so many leadership skills?

Pure unadulterated fun

If none of this convinces you of the value of Christian camping, just send your kids because they’ll have pure, unadulterated fun!  Accredited Christian Camps, such as Timberline, have very high safety standards, and can offer some of the best activities for young people anywhere.  

My years at camp have produced many of the highlights of my life – crazy, hilarious times, but good, clean fun. I am so blessed to continue to live the dream, and give to so many kids what I have been able to enjoy.  

I hope and pray many more will discover the immense value of Christian camping.

What do I want to be when I grow up?  

I’m doing it!  

April 2008