Think your minimum-wage gig this summer was sweet? Think again. Hannah Weikart got paid to watch other people work.
Weikart, a counselor for SpringHill Camps, spent her summer bringing faith back into the daily life of high school students. Wiekart was one of many Hillsdale students who spent their summer investing in youth at a summer camp.
Part of the two week SpringHill program involved manual labor in exchange for tuition.
“The first day, they hate it,” Weikart said. “They’re like, ‘Why am I cleaning toilets right now?’ As a counselor, I get to watch them change and watch them see how their work affects other campers.
The program fosters close relationships through work, play, and faith.
“The kids ministered to each other,” Weikart said. “They worked together and became a community.”
SpringHill Camps utilize the unique environment of the camp experience to immerse campers in faith. Surrounded by peers who are earnestly seeking Christ, the social stigma of religion begins to fall away.
“There’s nothing I can do to make them think that faith is cool at first,” Weikart said, “but then they get to see that the campers around them are embracing the faith. I get to teach them that it’s not only cool here, but everywhere. I can teach them that their life can change.”
This immersion experience is not unique to SpringHill. Gull Lake Ministries is a family camp that seeks to uplift not only the campers, but their family as a whole. The ministry distances participants from their daily lives and cultivates a rich, faith-filled environment. As a counselor for Gull Lake this past summer, Sam Ryskamp got a firsthand look at the impact this method can have.
“We take families out of their normal, day-to-day, boring environment,” Ryskamp said, “and bring them into an environment where there is unbelievable joy and unbelievable community. We show them the same faith they have always had, but here they realize that they want it and they believe that it is possible to achieve.
But the campers aren’t the only people who benefit from camp life. For counselors, the benefits are twofold. On one hand, they are privileged to witness the sometimes dramatic conversion of others. On the other, they are provided a unique opportunity to examine and strengthen their own faith. Weikart experienced this this summer.
“I have seen God change dozens of lives, and I think that every time you see God change a life, you realize how powerful He is,” Weikart said. “I had a camper come to camp to ‘get clean,’ and he left so on fire for God. Witnessing that change is incredibly powerful. In addition, camp gave me the opportunity to go for three months and only focus on God, and I believe that any time you give Him that time, He will change your life.”
Counselors try to set an example for the campers and set a positive tone for the whole week. They have fun and demonstrate character because a counselor’s example can be very influential.
Ryskamp observed that it was hard to impact those who were only partially committed to God. In many ways, the power of the collective experience depends upon the power of the individual. The counselors and their campers were given a goal – God – and allowed to pursue it alongside each other. They not only held each other accountable, but inspired and motivated those with whom they came in contact.
“When campers and counselors first pull into camp, they see a bunch of crazy people jumping around and usually they are not sure what to do,” Ryskamp said. “But it is really cool to see how in a couple of days they are jumping around doing the cheers with us. It gets the kids out of their comfort zone which allows us to influence them. Getting them in the camp environment away from their home life opens the door to learning lessons they otherwise wouldn’t have learned and making relationships that they otherwise wouldn’t have formed. It really is the ultimate summer job.”
