camp crumpet?

Sitting in a cabin deep in the woods, surrounded by swarms of deer flies that blot out the sun and drink deet and eat crumpets for afternoon tea, I am waiting for the youth of America to arrive at church camp. I must say that in my more devious moments that I feel a bit like the Grinch standing on Mount Crumpet waiting for all the high school Who-boys and Who-girls to come in and realize what they had gotten themselves into.

"Then the Grinch went to the ledge and put out an ear."
"Hoping that whining and moaning is what he would hear."
"Soon the boys and girls would sit down on their bed "
"And wonder where this path through the woods had led."

"Where is my phone, my text, and my tweet?"
"Why does my body stick to my sheet?"
"Ouch that stings. Ooo that smells."
"You know it really is hotter than hell."

Oh don't tell me that writing "hell" in a blog about church camp is inappropriate. It is that hot and it's in the bible. Check it out.

That's right. Bev and I decided to counsel at highschool camp during the hottest week of the year. The kids have been great. The bugs have been thick. The heat and humidity high. The bug truth proved itself the first morning. Walking from the cabin, commonly refered to as "the kiln", to the cafeteria, I took four steps out of the cabin and immediately, 30 deer flies descended upon me.

The comedy of the situation is not lost on me. Fat man running thru the early morning mist flailing his arms, looking over his shoulder while frantically spraying 40% (the highest permitted without a perscription) deet into tiny teacups. In fact, I have laughed heartily sitting on the screened-in-porch watching one of the smaller campers being carried away. Their little feet flailing in the air as they keep getting smaller and small off in the horizon. A swarm of hungry deer flies looking for their small camper crumpet recipe.

I have found a good coping strategy for the deer flies though. Any time I have to perambulate from the cabin to main camp or vice versa I send a couple of campers ahead of me down the path about forty feet in front of me. They draw the flies and I saunter along behind fly free and unmolested.

You may think that I am being a bit cavalier with the safety of my charges. Don't judge me too harshly. They are highschoolers after all. If they were a bit easier to understand, I might be inclined to take a bit better care of them. Being a firm believer Mazlov's hierarchy of self-actualization, I do not understand why 80% of the kids are here. How can a person disengage and act disaffected from 9:00 a.m. until 3:00 p.m. and then suddenly re-engage and come out of their walking coma to be playful, caring, and full of life. No wonder zombie and vampire movies engage high school kids. It is who they are.

Dallas Willard says that we learn to disguise our facial gestures as we get older. It allows us to listen to really boring conversations and not be slapped by the speaker for looking like an insolent teenager. Also, we learn to disguise our facial expressions so that others will look attentive as we prattle on an on about nothing.

After several days of that dead-eye look, I finally broke down and asked my small group why they came. This is what I heard. High school students like to be able to hang out for a week without stress. They find that when adult supervision is strong enough kids feel safe because there are boundaries set and adhered to so their peers aren't mean to them. They do not feel safe just hanging out or at high school.

And it turns out that feeling safe while experimenting, trying to figure out who you are is worth the risk of being carried off by a swarm of deer flies during the hottest week of the year.

Take care

Roger