Christian Camps & Conferences News

Remembering Cheryl Crawford: 1955-2019

Cheryl Crawford, a member of the Christian Camps and Conferences community, passed into the arms of her Savior on November 3, 2019.

Cheryl committed more than 45 years to the ministries of camps Brookwoods, Deer Run, and Moose River Outpost.  In her early days she served as the Deer Run Tripping and Program Director, and in the winter traveled to recruit campers. Cheryl was instrumental in transforming the CIT program into the Leadership Development Program, with the emphasis on training and raising up future camp leaders. She also served as Director of Camp Deer Run over a span of summers in the mid 80’s and 2000’s.  She transitioned into the role of Camp Pastor, while also serving on the Board of Directors for 20 years until her passing. When on camp grounds Cheryl could often be found with a paint brush in her hand as easily as preaching in chapel or helping a staff member connect with a camper. She also enjoyed a boat ride on the lake, a hike in the woods, and a bowl of Moose Tracks ice cream.

Cheryl had gifts in counseling and ministered to thousands of campers and staff through the years. She was never too busy to have a conversation and lend a listening ear.  Cheryl was active in her support of others and many know that once she found out about a problem or need she was busy creating a solution or plan to meet the need. Many staff, campers, and families benefited from her efforts to help and care in practical ways.

 

In her work in residence life at the University of Southern California, Career Counseling at Biola University or teaching at Azusa Pacific University,  she actively recruited staff for the camps, and she continued to be an encouragement to staff to stay strong and faithful through the summer and the school year.  Cheryl served as a model to young women in ministry. Her faithfulness in ministry inspired others to use their gifts to serve God in many ways, and opened the door for other women to pursue degrees in divinity and seek to pastor as Cheryl had modeled for them to follow.

In her last months, one of Cheryl’s passions was to return to camp once again to serve.  Her request of donations to the camp’s Scholarship Endowment Fund supports her passion to help more campers experience the joys of camp, to begin or strengthen a relationship with Christ, and raise up a new generation of women and men in leadership.

We will be celebrating Cheryl’s life at a memorial service at Glendora Community Church (CA) on Saturday, December 7, 2019 at 1 pm, with a reception to follow at the church. On the day of the memorial in the spirit and in honor of Cheryl, please join us in wearing khaki and blue or an L.L. Bean flannel shirt or Sperry Topsider shoes, which were all Cheryl’s favorites.

To make a donation in honor of the life and work of Cheryl Crawford, click on this link and designate your gift to  Scholarship Endowment. 

 

 

 

CAMP BROOKWOODS AND DEER RUN WINTER REUNION 2020

 Here are a few important details below:

WHEN: Monday, December 30 2019 through Wednesday, January 1, 2020. Plan to arrive between 7:00 – 8:00 PM on Monday. Dinner will not be served at camp, so please eat before you arrive. The reunion will end at 2:00 PM on Wednesday.

SALT and LDP: You are invited to come to camp early and your Winter Reunion starts 24 hours earlier. If you are able, please plan to arrive between 5:30 – 8:00 PM on Sunday, December 29th. Dinner will be served at 5:30pm in the dining hall.

WHAT TO EXPECT: This is a unique opportunity to experience New Year’s at camp, be encouraged in your walk with Christ, connect with friends, and catch up with your counselors! Fun, friends, and fellowship! The reunion is a wonderful spiritual retreat where campers can reconnect with their friends and counselors. Campers will have the opportunity to tube down Deer Run’s back hill, snowshoe around camp, make crafts, build cardboard sleds, play games, roast marshmallows, and drink a lot of hot cocoa, and more!

WHAT TO BRING: A sleeping bag, Bible, journal, lots of warm clothes, and your toothbrush!

BUS: The bus will be at the Lexington Service Plaza on the north bound side of I-95 off exit 30. The plaza has a McDonald’s and Gulf station. It will leave Lexington at 6:00 PM on Monday, December 30th, and will return around 4:30 PM on Wednesday, January 1st. The first 45 campers to register for the bus will get a seat. There is no charge for the bus.

AIRPORT: Flights into Manchester Airport in New Hampshire or Logan Airport in Boston, should be scheduled to arrive between 3:00 and 6:00 PM on Monday, December 30th. Flights should depart between 2:00 and 6:00 PM on Wednesday, January 1st. Please notify us of flights by DATE. There is no charge for airport transportation.

Register by clicking on this link.

Any questions you can either email, ben@christiancamps.net or call the camp office at 603-875-3600

Here is the video of the event from last year:

 

Camp Community is Crucial for Faith:
One Mom’s Perspective

by Susan Bradley Arico, Deer Run Alumna & Camp Mom

 

Camp is in my blood, and in the blood of my family. I came to Deer Run as a camper for six summers in the late 80’s and early 90’s. I even did a month-long “January term” winter study at camp in 1995, sandwiched between a summer as a cabin counselor and two more as an LDP counselor. I met my closest friends and even my husband at camp! And when our oldest was ten, my husband and I became camp parents.

For the past four summers we’ve been camp parents—to one, two, and now three of our four kids. Despite my deep love for Brookwoods and Deer Run, though, I had no way of knowing at the start of our parenting journey how meaningful it would be to send our kids there, and how much they would need it.

You see, our family lived in Greece for the past three years, and it was a dry time spiritually. The Greek Orthodox church is the church of Greece, but very few Greeks attend services, let alone non-Greeks. Since our family spoke little Greek, it wasn’t an option for us. There were three tiny international churches in our city, each with a congregation of less than 50. In the Hellenic Ministries church plant we attended, there were virtually no children other than ours. During the sermon my husband and I ran an informal kids’ “Sunday school class,” and nine times out of ten the only participants would be our own four kids. This made for tricky dynamics, as you can imagine.

By the time we left Greece in June 2019, our children were 13, 11, 9, and 8. Because their main (and often only) Christian fellowship was with their immediate family, we were always looking to engage them in meaningful fellowship with other believing kids. But we had few options.

This is why camp was and is such a lifeline. For two weeks each summer, our kids are immersed in a vibrant community of faith. They’re singing praise songs and participating in Bible study. They’re spending time with Christian role models and hearing first-hand stories about God. They’re doing activities with same-age peers who also follow Jesus, and interacting with them around shared faith. These are things they didn’t have the opportunity to do in regular life in Greece. What a gift!

Our son had the same Brookwoods counselor, a guy who’s as fun as he is godly, two out of four summers and has bonded closely with him. His presence and voice of encouragement in our son’s life has been an answer to prayer. Our daughters have also enjoyed their counselors and learned many things about faith from them. This summer, one daughter came home from camp saying that Bible study and worship time each morning was her very favorite thing about Deer Run. It’s tidbits like these that prompt me to bow my head in gratitude to God for providing our kids with a place where they can drink from this spiritual well after a comparative drought throughout the year.

Camp Brookwoods, Deer Run, and Moose River Outpost give a tremendous gift to its community, and really the whole region, by being a hub of Jesus-centered faith that’s easily accessible to kids. It’s a place where parents can know that their children will be exposed to God in winsome ways, and where their kids will meet and interact with engaging models of permeating faith. These types of communities can be hard to come by, and being able to plug into one is an amazing blessing. We’ll always be grateful for the central role that camp is playing in our children’s spiritual upbringing, and how God has used it to help close the spiritual gap for our children.

Susan Bradley Arico was a Deer Run camper from 1986-1991 and was on staff in 1994, 1996, and 1997. Her husband York was on Brookwoods staff for three years in the 1990’s. The Aricos now reside in Connecticut. You may contact Susan, or view more of her writing on her blog, or her facebook page.

 

 

 

 

 

The Impact of Camp

by Daniel Forkner, Brookwoods Alumni

I started going to Camp Brookwoods when I turned eight years old. I remember being unsure if I was really going to like this strange place that I would spend two whole weeks. I had no idea that Brookwoods would be one of the most impactful places of my life. Over 11 summers, I spent 52 weeks at Brookwoods, not including multiple Alumni Camps and Winter Reunions.

One of the greatest parts of camp is the skills that kids learn. Throughout my years at camp, I learned many different skills that my friends from outside of camp seldom possessed. Some of these skills include: how to sail, use a band saw, water ski, wind surf, SCUBA dive, shoot a bow, shoot a rifle, rock climb, throw a Frisbee, build a fire, read a map and compass, catch fish, save lives, canoe through whitewater rapids, build a shelter, set up a tent (quickly in the rain), mountain bike, ride a horse, serve others, be vulnerable, teach Bible studies, and so much more. Without a doubt, there are other places that kids and young adults can learn these skills, but there is nowhere besides camp where they can learn such a bevy of diverse skills in the context of a Christ-centered outdoor experience.

Camp is definitely one of the most fun places on Earth. At the same time, camp is also incredibly challenging and stretching. There were periods at camp that weren’t necessarily ‘fun’, but those were the moments when I was learning the most important skills—those that build character. I learned focus and respect during Bible studies, and perseverance through immense knee pain on my 1st year LDP 6-day hike. I learned support, brotherhood, and community through talking about tough teenager stuff in the Ranger cabin during LDP, and I learned patience in leadership by being a counselor.

The Holy Spirit moves powerfully and intentionally on camp’s sacred grounds; there is no place on Earth like it. One of the most impactful lessons that I learned at camp came during my last summer there, when I was one of the counselors in the Woodchuck cabin. I had thought long and hard about returning for another summer on staff and I just wasn’t sure if I wanted to come back. I did return, but towards the end of the summer I was overwhelmed, stressed, and doubting that I had made the right decision. At the Closing Campfire, campers have an opportunity to share with the entire camp something that they had learned and one of my campers stood up and said, “This summer I learned that Jesus Christ is my Savior.” I teared up. Foolishly, I was regretting my decision to work at camp. Little to my knowledge, God was working through me and using me in this camper’s life. In an instant, the hard work of being a counselor was worth every minute. God used me in bringing this camper into the saving grace of Jesus. In that moment, God reinforced the most important lesson—camp is not about me. Camp is about the Gospel. As Bob Strodel famously says during Staff Week, “The entire summer is worth it if one camper comes to Christ.” The impact of camp, camper and counselor alike, is life-changing. Come to camp, and experience it for yourself, you won’t regret it.

Daniel Forkner graduated from Wheaton College in 2019. He moved to Colorado Springs, CO where is he working in the financial technology industry. He’s spending as much time outside as he can, doing the things he learned at Brookwoods, like rock climbing, fishing and hiking! Find him on Facebook or email, dcforkner@gmail.com

 

 

 

 

Post camp RE-ENTRY:
How Parents Can Help Children Transition Well

by Andrea Gurney, PhD, Deer Run Alumna,  & Camp Mom

 

The sweet time on the shores of Winnipesauke and Heald Pond have somehow come and gone. Campouts, blobbing, Color wars, waterskiing, Narnia, morning devos, and Chapel times filled and nurtured our children’s hearts, minds, and bodies. And now it’s over. Our kids are back home, getting ready to transition to the school year yet still holding on to the memories of camp. How can we help them re-enter smoothly? Here are some quick tips to help both parents and campers reboot.

 1. Give your kiddo space. Like all of us, kids need time and space to process an experience. Although we as parents are incredibly eager to “hear all about it”, let’s be mindful that our children are still mulling over their camp experience and insisting that they share it all right away impedes their process.

2. LISTEN actively when your child wants to share about camp. Refrain from questioning, correcting, or giving instruction, as this undermines the choices they made and ultimately, their competence and confidence. Simply take the posture of a listener and allow stories and memories to be shared over time!

3. Related to the first two points, remember that being away at camp has given kids psychological ownership – the feeling that it belongs to them. It’s one of the reasons (whether we realize it or not!) that we send kids to camp. We want them to grow and be challenged, develop grit, and become more independent. So be intentional and respectful of their psychological ownership– what happened to them at camp belongs to them. What a freeing gift!

4. Continue to foster independence. While our kids were away at camp, they took care of themselves. They applied their own sunscreen, packed their backpacks for the overnight, brushed their own teeth, and maybe even showered once or twice. They even did chores in the cabin and undoubtedly, learned new skills. Often, they are eager to show off their newfound abilities. (Anyone else have campers who are arguing over who gets to be “Jennie or Waiter” for the day?) So let’s be mindful to continue to foster their growth and independence! It’s way too easy to slip back into the pattern of doing things for our kids; our brains, after all, prefer what is automatic and to change an old routine requires more attention and mental energy.

5. Cultivate emotional intelligence and problem solving. Remember that while our kids were at Camp Brookwoods, Deer Run, or Moose River Outpost, they navigated emotional, social, and mental challenges without you! They figured out how to interact with a bossy bunkmate, listen to others who had a different perspective, problem solve when they didn’t get their first or second choice activities during sign-ups, make new friends, navigate group situations, and the list goes on. So when you’re tempted to jump in and help rescue your kiddo from a sticky social situation, don’t! Instead, acknowledge the difficulty, provide comfort and empathy, and then give them the time and space to figure it out on their own, just like they did at camp.

6. On a more sentimental note, keep the memory of camp alive! For my girls, that includes things such as: displaying their rockets made at camp in their rooms; having their camp song book on our kitchen table so we can sing a camp songs together; continuing to use their camp devotional book; watching the chapel and banquet clips posted on Instagram and Facebook from their session; watching the July and August finale videos on YouTube, and reviewing and sharing the Bible verses they learned at camp.

Camp offers so many gifts to not only our children, but to us as parents. May we continue to reap the benefits of what our children learned at camp as we welcome them home and build our fall routines.

Thank you to all of those at Camp Brookwoods, Deer Run, and Moose River Outpost for investing in the lives of our children. You have challenged them, cared for them, nurtured them, and loved them well. This is, I believe, perhaps the greatest thing we can be a part of —nurturing another soul and building Kingdom relationships.

 

Andrea Gurney, PhD is a licensed clinical psychologist, professor of psychology at Westmont College, and author of Reimagining Your Love Story: Biblical and Psychological Practices for Healthy Relationships. An East Coast camp girl at heart, and Camp Deer Run (Alton, NH) staff alumna, she currently lives in Santa Barbara, CA with her husband, two daughters, and playful goldendoodle. Connect with her at AndreaGurney.com or Instagram @andrea_gurney for practical tips and insights on life!