A Letter from Camp

Kid's Camp Staff and Crew 2012

Dear Friends,

I’m sending this update from the first summer camp I have been to in years! I am at Hill Country Camp near a town called Kerrville, Texas, and I’m on the rec staff for this year’s Christian Kid’s Camp put on by the United Assemblies of God.

As you all know, when I arrived in the U.S., it was a bit of a mad dash to get ready for the next stop on my never-ending summer adventures. I traded my trusty pack for a duffle bag and my sleeping bag for a full set of sheets and a pillow...

Midday this past Wednesday, I arrived in Houston where the Fee family picked me up at the airport. I met their daughter Victoria several years ago and she was the one who convinced me to try out working at the Kid’s Camp. I talked to the director Mrs. Tammy and got signed up to be on the three-week staff with the recreation team. So after a few days of staying with the Fees and resting, we all packed up and drove across the state from Houston to Kerrville and got settled into camp.

We’ll all be here for the next three weeks and have very luxurious living quarters. In my staff cabin we have a private bathroom, washing machine and dryer, satellite television, and a small kitchen. I can’t remember ever going to a camp where anyone had central air conditioning, but even the kids’ dorms have it. Well, in the Texas backcountry heat, I suppose it’s quite nice.

So, we’re not roughing it out here, to say the least, but we are certainly staying busy!

Kid’s camp just started on Monday and I am working hard to catch up on the experience and learn the ropes. The three week rec staff is headed by Shaenelle, a career missionary in her twenties with a few years of experience handling the rec team here at camp. She has an easy-go-lucky attitude and a very go-with-the-flow way of running the activities and making sure that everything gets done. She’s fun to work for and a generally cool person. Already, we’ve been singing songs and being silly and painting our faces, and the kids are excited every time we come out.

Of course, the most important part for all of us is that we’re putting on a kid’s camp to help them get connected with Jesus Christ. The kids have fun and we try to keep them excited and energized. But more than anything, the goal is, I suppose, bringing the kids to start getting into really spiritually understanding God’s love. I pray above all things that that is the result.

I have to get going because I am lifeguarding the swimming area of the little lake (pond?) here at camp. Have to make sure that everyone is playing and staying safe!

I’m Jonathon, and this is my life.

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A Little More Adventure After All

Hello Everyone!

Well, so as it happened, my return home turned out to be a little bit more of an adventure than I expected…

As soon as I got off of the train from which I was last writing you, I found almost immediately that the close-fitting personal bag that had my wallet and passport was missing. Berlin was the last stop, so the train was already heading to storage and eventually cleaning. I went immediately to Deutsche Bahn, the German railway, and explained everything. However, it being a Saturday, any possible help was doomed to be moving very slow. You see, Germany (and most of Europe) essentially shuts down for the weekend on Friday night. The short end of a long story is that after almost four hours of investigation between DB and the local police, the bag was never found. The police told me that it happens all the time that service teams on the trains take and keep things that they find. I’ll write to DB again and press the matter of looking into lost and found and such as that, but that’s the last hope.

We all know what happened next: I was stuck yet again, this time in Berlin and with no passport, documents, cards, or money, and my flight home was due to leave in less than 24 hours.

A lucid mind is a virtue in situations like this, so the only thing left to do was keep my wits about me, stop and pray, and get the mess cleaned up. The U.S. consulate wouldn’t be open again until Monday morning. I needed a place to stay, food to eat, some kind of documentation, and to cancel my flight and bank card. One phone call later, everything was possible.

Before I go on, I really feel I have to insert something. I’m not sure what you believe or what your feelings are on God, but you all know well that I’m a firm believer. I hope it comes to neither shock nor surprise that I have to thank my Father God in so many ways for carrying me through the last several days. As the story unfolds for you, you’ll see what I mean. At every step of the long and winding journey, He put me in the hands of benevolent and caring people that each played a part in getting me closer and closer to home. I’ve been saying from the start that I fly on the wings of angels, and I mean it now more so than I have since I started.

The phone call was to Katrin, my friend in Hamburg, and after hearing my story, the wonderful conductor let me ride the train to get to her without a ticket and without paying a single euro. That evening, Katrin and her boyfriend gave me food and a place to stay and let me use the internet to organize everything. On Sunday night, I was on an over-night bus to Frankfurt where I would arrive at the consulate bright and early before opening time. There, I was ushered through the process with more ease than humanly imaginable. With the help of more than one person, I got my new passport in less than an hour and was sent to a print shop where I could maybe possibly use the internet to get my new flight. I went and they not only let me use the internet, but they let me stay and sit inside and they gave me water to drink while I was there for several hours emailing my dear mom while she booked the flight and talked with the airlines. I found every excuse to print pages off so that I could pay them back for their help.

That night, I stayed in a hotel near the airport and the next day was to board a flight to Paris that would eventually lead me home. I won’t hide some bumpy stops along the way – like my race through the entire Paris airport to catch a flight that would leave within twenty minutes – but I made it all the way back and was on American soil late last night.

My adventure isn’t over, however. Already I’m off again, halfway along to my next destination.

My family met me at the airport with a car full of my clothes and things for my next trip: my summer job at a kid’s camp in Texas. I’ll be working as a nature guide and a lifeguard (I think?) among other things for the next three weeks, and I won’t arrive back until the 1^st of August. I repacked, caught about three hours of sleep, and said good bye to my family again before getting ready to board my flight.

I move pretty fast, so it’s nothing new to me. Just going right along. Can’t say I’ve ever worked at a kid’s camp before, so that’s another dive into the unknown. Guess it’s just another adventure waiting to unfold.

I’m Jonathon, and this is my life.

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