Paulhaven Part 2

When I received the email requesting my participation from the 2012 Paulhaven camp committee in the spring of this year, I knew it was time to return.  It had been too long.  A decade had past since my last visit and nine summer camp sessions.  I quickly agreed and made my plans to revisit.  Driving down the dirt path to Paulhaven, now ten years later with new camp pastor, Rev. David Fekete, or Pastor Dave as they call him, (P Davy for short) was like recalling a foggy dream.  When I pulled into the camp it was like opening a time capsule.  Memories of ten years ago leaped into my mind.  The cabins, the lodge, the fire pit, the water tower, lake, flagpole and soccer field.  Yes, everything was here; nearly everything was the same.  And the warm smiles, the welcomes, and the beautiful people were there too.  Some the same, some new faces, but quickly all felt like old friends.
Shortly after I arrived, I was shown to my cabin, Kelly’s cabin really, (thank you Kelly) and we met for a staff meeting to review the weekly schedule and receive our jobs.  This year, I think there were something like 35 youth aged 9 - 18!  I was assigned to a recreation team, but I really wanted to teach, so they moved students around and opened up a teaching position for me.  So I was able to serve as both a rec team leader and a teacher.  Little did I know how much work that was.  Wow.  Hardly a minute of free time the whole week.  But, boy was it ever fun.  Morning class time was wonderful.  I taught the second oldest class and had seven teens aged fifteen to sixteen.  We studied the parables and the teens participated actively and were very attentive.  They each got a chance to tell their own parable complete with a moral and lesson.  They also performed a skit of the Good Samaritan.  I loved my class time and I hope the teens enjoyed it too.

Paulhaven Part 1

There is a quirky band that goes by the name “They Might Be Giants”.  Perhaps you’ve heard of them.  In the chorus of one of their more popular hits they sing “make a little birdhouse in your soul”.  It’s a sweet little song that I have always enjoyed listening to.  Now after returning home from Paulhaven camp 2012, the song has new meaning for me.  And I have a birdhouse in my soul. 

I first attended Paulhaven camp in July of 2002, ten years ago.  I was a new youth director and I was excited to be going to a Swedenborgian summer youth camp that I had never been to before.  Rev. John Maine was the camp pastor and I came to Paulhaven as a teacher.  I remember pulling into the camp thinking how do the kids survive for a week in this camp up in the middle of nowhere with no hot water and electricity?  And by the end of that week back in 2002, my answer arrived.  They don’t survive, they thrive!  Kids don’t need luxuries like power.  They get all the energy they need from the spirit and enthusiasm of fellow campers at Paulhaven.  Kids don’t need hot showers.  They receive love from caring campers to keep them warm.  I was astounded by how much the staff was able to accomplish in a camp with so little material to work with.  They had heart and soul unlike any I had experienced before.  Spirited chapel services, delicious and fun meals (like eating with utensils on Spaghetti night), loads of recreational play like soccer, softball, volleyball and a ping pong tournament, a beach outing, evening campfire sing alongs, a fantastic closing dance party, and of course, camp crafts.  And in 2002, we made birdhouses.  I made a birdhouse love shack.  Bright red and purple with a heart on the roof and the French word for love, “amour”, painted in green on the front.  A place like Paulhaven with this much love needed a love shack for the birds.  I secured my birdhouse to a sturdy birch tree, snapped a picture of it, and drove away from this little caring camp community in the woods.  Goodbye Paulhaven 2002.