Guide Team
In late August I embarked on an epic adventure. I was joined by Joe Lapp, Cole Conely, Faith McGowan and Jon Mayes, members of the 2022/2023 Guide Team. When we first came together, the group didn’t even have a name. I have gotten to watch as this program has grown from an idea in the back of my mind to a proposal for the Camp Hebron board to consider, to a program with an application process, and now a full team. We have done so much in just five short months. From disaster relief work in Kentucky, to wrestling with what exactly we believe and why, to performing climbing rescues, eddie turns and peal outs on the Yellow Breeches. It has been an adventure.
Day one started out all business with some general information, paperwork, and website photos, then out came the blindfolds. We loaded into my car and I drove everyone around for a while to ensure they were properly disoriented. When the blindfolds came off, they were standing in my apartment around a locked box. I explained that dinner was in the box and they would need to find the key. I gave them a backpack with the necessary tools to get the key to the lock. In the backpack was a clue that led to the high ropes course where there was another clue which led to another clue which led to another clue. When all of the clues were put together, they formed a map of the lake with an X over part of it. I had submerged the key in a water bottle under the surfs of our lake, and the only way to retrieve it was by shooting two bearings with a compass, running ropes from point A to B and C to D, and seeing where they crossed. Unfortunately, the compass part of the challenge didn’t go as smoothly as I would have liked. Eventually, they did find the key and enjoyed dinner, but it wasn’t easy.
This challenge, titled “The Uncharted Challenge,” embodied how the 2022/2023 Guide Team experience has gone. Epic, but with some really hard moments. Figuring out how to embrace living in community while learning, adventuring, and wrestling with big faith questions has been really hard, just as solving puzzles and finding the key was hard. There have been moments when you start wondering if you will really be able to finish the task ahead of you. It is in those moments that we have learned to turn to the community around us for help. It’s in the moments when I stop to “taste dinner” that I can see how much each person who is on this journey with me has grown in their faith, as a leader, as a team member, and as a person. Those moments truly make the journey worth the struggle.
As the Guide program continues to grow and unfold, I would like to invite you to join me on this adventure. There are a few ways that you can partner with me in this ministry. The first and most important is through prayer. Please pray that I would have wisdom as I lead and that team members would encounter the tender love of Christ through their time on the Guide team. The second way that you can partner is by helping spread the word about what we are doing. Share about us on social media and tell 18-to-25-year-olds in your life about our team. Applications for next year are currently open and nothing will help build for next year more than word of mouth. Third, if you have ideas of how to improve the Guide program or would like to hear more about what we are doing, please shoot me an email at caleb@camphebron.org. I would love to connect with you. Fourth, please consider sending notes of encouragement to individual team members. Being on the Guide team is an extremely stretching experience and your encouragement would mean so much to team members. Letters can be sent to 957 Camp Hebron Road, Halifax, PA 17032. Lastly, if you would like to help ensure that we have the equipment that we need to lead and teach adventure programming well, check out our Amazon wish list by clicking this link: https://a.co/7KhWaF9, or consider supporting us financially at https://camphebron.campbraingiving.com/ Just note that you would like to support adventure programming. If you would like to be involved in continual support of the Guide program, please reach out to me so that I can add you to a Facebook group where I will share updates and specific needs with you. Joining is not a commitment to give, it is simply a way to stay connected to what we are doing.
Thank you so much for considering partnering with me in this ministry. Support from people like you will help the Guide program grow and will have an eternal impact in the lives of the next generation. Thank you.
Links:
- Guide webpage and application: https://www.camphebron.org/guide
- Amazon wish list: https://a.co/7KhWaF9
- YouTube videos: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLfUEC5zDjOwo8ixG8R0TWVK5zlV41ERSR
- Donate: https://camphebron.campbraingiving.com/
