The Next Great Adventure
The time has come for another adventure. In just a few weeks I will be joined by four people who share a passion for adventure and a hunger to grow. They will make up the first class of an adventure discipleship program at Camp Hebron. While this will be a brand-new program, it has been germinating in my mind for a few years. It started as a dream, something to do later in life, but quickly grew into a reality. The journey that I have been on, studying adventure education, serving on the LOFT team, working for OneLife, and the 18 years of life prior to those experiences have shaped this idea into what it has now become. I am not sure what the future holds for me, but I can see God working and I am incredibly excited to be a part of what he is doing.
The idea for this program came from a place of deep sadness. Messiah University made the decision to end their adventure education major and with that came the end of the LOFT program. Both programs were instrumental in shaping me into who I am today. I got to experience a lot of good that came out of adventure programming at Messiah and I wanted to share it with others. I worked to identify some key components of those programs and started to explore what it could look like to introduce them at Camp Hebron. After just a few months of employment at camp, I pitched a concept to our executive director who encouraged me to continue developing it. I spent the next several months flushing out the details of what became the program that we are now launching. I officially found out that we would be running this program mid-summer and immediately set to work recruiting the first class.
Throughout the creation of this program, I have consistently seen God at work. While I had the general idea for this when I started working at Camp Hebron, I intended to keep it to myself for a year or two but in a moment of courage I shared it. From there, it became a proposal and then grew into a plan and is now a program. We needed four people to commit to participate in order to run it this initial year. With minimal recruiting, our first class was secured. The end of summer camp left me feeling overwhelmed by the massive to-do list that I had before the program could start. I was blessed with more help than I knew what to do with, which led to my list becoming much more manageable. I am reminded that with God, even the most daunting tasks are attainable.
After writing and rewriting this program, the final plan consists of three pillars: Community, Faith, Adventure. Students will leave this program with a better understanding of who God is as they wrestle with what they believe and why they believe it. They will work to develop what is needed to be adventure educators by studying the theory and philosophy behind adventure programming while also honing in on technical adventure skills. Students will do all of this while navigating what it means to live in community.
It feels like I am embarking on a voyage on uncharted waters. I have no idea what God is going to do in my life and in the lives of those who are joining me on this adventure. As I do my best to be faithful to the work that God has for me, I would like to invite you to join me on this journey. First, please pray for wisdom for me as I make plans, write curriculum, and lead this program. Second, please pray for those who will do this program. Pray that God would work in their lives and that they would be open to what he has for them. Lastly, please pray for the right name for this program. The name is the final big gap in this project. Please pray that the right one would be chosen. Thank you for your support along this journey.
