Obsessed About Camp

Saturday, November 13, 2010
9:34 PM in Kolonia, 2:34 AM at home

“You’re too obsessed about camp!” I was told today. “You need a life.”

While this stern judgment from my SM and SSL buddy Karsten was said partially in jest, and partially in suffering from my somewhat incessant talking about camp this weekend, it got me thinking.

Yes, I do obsess about camp. I obsess about a lot of things. Platypuses, for example. Especially cute, little ones named Clarence. But the one thing I’ve probably been most “obsessed” about these last three months is camp. Not that I wasn’t obsessed about it before. Sunset Lake is a place and a feeling that I cannot get enough of. It changed my life forever, and it is the one place in the world where I feel closer to God than anywhere else. God is very much at work there, and bringing me to Sunset Lake was part of His journey in bringing me here to Pohnpei. It was hard to leave, and since I’m kind of in an eternal summer here on the equator, in my mind, it still feels like camp is still going on without me. Being away from home makes me miss all my camp friends that much more. Truth be told, I missed camp more than home the first month here.

Getting the waterfront director position at camp that first year was the first time in my life where I felt like God was calling me to a job with a specific purpose in mind. It was also the first time I felt like I was accepting God’s calling and following His path for me instead of wandering around on my own. It was a huge step into an unknown, and something I was not fully prepared for. I could not have imagined how much camp that summer would change me, shape me, grow me, and bring me closer to God.

I can say all the same things about coming to Pohnpei. I knew God was calling me here with a specific plan and purpose in mind. I answered that call, because I knew it was God leading, even though it was a struggle for the first month or so to see a defined purpose. Coming here was an even bigger step into the unknown than any other I have experienced in my life. (I remember the day I left; my mind was so full of questions, fears of the unknown… Now life seems normal here, and all those questions and fears seem so small…) I could not have imagined how much serving in Pohnpei these last three months would change me, shape me, grow me, and bring me closer to God.

And it’s still not over. I’m going to experience so much more growth in the remaining months I have left here. I’m going to learn so many more valuable lessons (and hopefully instill one or two in my students.) I’m still on the “Ultimate Road Trip,” so to speak.

So yes, I am obsessed about camp. And I’m glad to be. Because I can’t stop talking about the place that God brought me to in order to bring me closer to Him. And I’ll bet by the time my year here is over, I’ll be obsessed about Pohnpei, too. I won’t be able to stop talking about this amazing place in the middle of the Pacific, either. About my adventures, about my students, about the scenery, about the culture, about the ways that God taught me here.

So what are you “obsessed” about?