Tuna, Author at Bethany Birches Camp

Author Archive

Let your teen (17 year old) do whatever they want

In his blog post, Jonathan McKee explains an experiment he and his wife performed on their teenager. He writes:

Our theory was basically this: Start strict, and loosen up as our kids get older, eventually freeing them from all boundaries by age 17½.

Guess how it went… not bad! In fact, it allowed their daughter to begin a deeper relationship with them. Their idea was that at age 18 she can do whatever she wants. The figured they may as well let her start doing that at 17½ so that they would still have some influence before she left the house.

Jonathan writes:

Discussions with us were no longer about trying to convince us to give her permission—she already had that. Now conversations were about what she was learning from her decisions, good and bad.

She began talking with us about decisions even more. When she wanted to drive over 2 hours to San Francisco with her friends (the furthest she had ever driven), she wanted to know all about traffic, directions and safety. Not because we made her, but because we were “safe” to talk with.

Genius parenting! Now when she leaves for college, she may stay in touch. I’d encourage you to read the whole article.

What do you think? Want to try this out when your son or daughter hits 17½?

Tuna

Church @ Camp: 6 Speakers

This past Sunday was a lot of fun! We hosted over 100 people here at camp for a church service and a BBQ. Five staff and one past staff spoke during the service. Here they are!

Big Tuna (aka Brandon Bergey): Tuna Church @ Camp

Lourene Bender: Church @ Camp: Lourene Bender

Sparkles, Rex and Tex (aka Katelyn Golding, Matthew Crowthers and Jamee Eslicker): Church @ Camp: Sparkles, Rex, Tex

Dale’s Homes in White River Junction: Spiritual Saturday

This is the last post in our Excited for Camp Campaign. You can find all the posts in the campaign here.

But, back to this post – some of you know Dale’s Homes in White River Junction. Dale and Darlene Snader are the owners and have made significant contributions to the camp… one of those contributions was the Director’s Residence that Cheeks and I currently live in (pictured here):

Well, earlier this week Dale came up to help with the Cardinal cabin. It’s foundation needed work or else campers couldn’t stay in it! While we’ll have to do the excavation in the fall, he was able to secure it for the summer. Thanks Dale!

As he was taking time out of a busy season and crawling around in the mud, I started wondering about what causes someone to give something as significant as a house? What causes someone to give a few hours of their time to crawl around in the mud to help protect children? In Dale and Darlene, I have experienced a generous spirit… the kind of spirit that is enabled by the knowledge that all we have received is a gift from above (including our birth).

Join me in hoping and praying for a summer filled with God’s love and service Dale style.

Tuna

p.s. we just started staff orientation!!

Bethany Birches in The News for Mission Possible: The Pavilion Project

Greetings friends. The below blog post was written by a friend and consultant, Mark Vincent. He has been working closely with me (Tuna) on our campaign to rebuild the pavilion. This summer we are entering the “Public Phase” of this effort and so I thought I’d share it with you this “Tuna Tuesday”.

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Capital campaign communication: 2 awesome examples

We learn so much from our clients. Occasionally we can pass the benefits along.

I have been privileged to work with Bethany Birches Camp as they ready themselves for their first big capital campaign. Their Executive Director, still in the early stages of his career, is an outstanding example of someone who knows he doesn’t know and is therefore able to learn and grow and put a lot of long-timers to shame at the excellence he is already achieving.

Most noticeable is the way he, the board and volunteers have been able to inject the organizational culture of the camp into all their campaign communication. Whenever the constituency interacts with them they are having a camp experience, not just a communication from the camp. Here are two awesome examples:

1. Their video that introduces the campaign and makes the case provides an excellent standard other organizations can aspire to reach:

2. A recent update on an unanticipated project that could have harmed momentum conveys a non-anxious, thankful, yet light-heartedly determined way forward. Anyone who participated can find themselves in the blogs/photos etc. that are linked in the note. It provides a great personal touch mixed with the benefits of social media and web. Here is the text:

Greetings friends. I’m writing with deep joy in my heart for each of you. As you probably remember about a year ago we received some tough news from the fire marshal: that the Bethany Birches Cabin would be shut down April 1, 2012 until we complied with numerous requirements.

One of my biggest concerns was how we’d pay for the upgrades to the building. My second concern related to how to get the work done. Because of you, the work was finished and paid for! THANK YOU!

Some goodies for you:

Here are pictures from the beginning of the project.
Here are some pictures from the second stage of the project.
Here’s a link to a blog post reviewing the project.
Here are all the blog posts on the topic.

Thank you, thank you, thank you for your support of this effort and for your ongoing help in Bethany Birches’ mission to help young people develop their relationship with God. Without you we would still be without the use of the cabin!

Brandon

And here is one more idea. Why not take these examples to your development and/or communications team to view and then ask what is one step we might take to better inject our organization’s culture into our communication–especially in a capital campaign? How might our constituency have an ongoing experience and not just another communications piece?

-mark l vincent

Originally posted at Design Group’s blog

Living with Cheeks is a gift! Spiritual Saturday

Many of you know Cheeks. She’s been the Program Director at Bethany Birches for many years (this will be her 9th summer). She also happens to be my wife. We got married after working here at camp together for a few years.

To me, Cheeks has been a gift from God. Let me explain:

Many days I realize this through various circumstances. Today, I realized it again. This time it was related to the fact that she doesn’t get distracted by stuff (you could even say she doesn’t care much about stuff). Seriously. She doesn’t like to spend a lot of money on stuff. She uses stuff until it breaks down entirely. If she looses something, she shrugs it off and mentions that she didn’t really need it anyway. Take her purse/bag for example. Right now, there’s a hole in it and one handle has broken off. She’s still using it. If it broke entirely, she might never get a new one. She might use another bag in the closet or fill her pockets.

I am quite different. I like stuff. I like high quality stuff and I like when it performs well. If it gets scratched or damaged, I like to repair it. Take my bike for example. I rode it today and it was wet. When I got home, I hosed it off and set it in front of a fan to dry. I washed it so the chain was free of grit and used the fan so that nothing would rust.

Here’s the thing. We only get so much time on Earth. Old people tell me that it goes fast. Researching, getting and taking care of stuff takes a lot of time. And, those of us who care about our stuff can at times be on the verge of caring too much for it. This is part of why Jesus told the rich young ruler to sell his stuff.

Back to me and Cheeks. She is a constant example of what it looks like to care less about stuff. With her attention not focused on stuff, she tends to focus on people… and she’s very good at considering others! Not only is this a blessing to me, it’s a witness.

I hope you find a way to bless those you live with today like Cheeks blesses me. When that way is unclear, look to Jesus. He will show you.

Tuna

At Home in the World: Spiritual Saturday

Among the blogs I read is Generous Matters. It’s largely about generosity, giving and making ourselves rich toward God (rather than just plain old rich). This past Friday, the author of the blog included an excerpt from CS Lewis… I love CS Lewis! Here’s what he wrote in one of his books:

“Prosperity knits a man to the World. He feels that is ‘finding his place in it,’ while really it is finding its place in him. His increasing reputation, his widening circle of acquaintances, his sense of importance, the growing pressure of absorbing and agreeable work, build up in him a sense of really being at home on Earth, which is just what we want. You will notice that the young are generally less unwilling to die than the middle-aged and the old.”

Having read Screwtape Letters, I know that Lewis does not consider it a good thing when we feel “at home on Earth.” Being at home on Earth makes it hard to be at home in God’s Kingdom.

This summer, we hope to have a ton of fun while discovering together this special place some Christians call God’s Kingdom. If we trust Jesus’ words, we know that in that place is where we receive “life to the full.”

Tuna

Safety and Care at Camp: Tuna Tuesday

This Tuesday, I decided to write about safety at camp. Why? I believe many parents are on some level concerned about some aspect of camp.

For some, it’s the thought of their child being bullied or even worse, abused by an adult. We could classify these concerns as violence.

For others, it’s less threatening and about every day challenges. Some of the questions may be: will my child have fun? Will they stay warm? Will they want to come home? Will they make any friends? We might call these sorts of concerns comfort related.

For other parents, it’s about physical harm not caused by a person but by the environment and setting. Will my child break their leg at group games or while hiking? Will they get stung by a bee? I might label these concerns as environmental safety.

So what does Bethany Birches do to address these three categories of safety (don’t get me wrong, there are other areas of safety that we monitor! But for the sake of a reasonable length blog post, I’ll have to include those in a future post)?

Violence: we work very hard when hiring staff. We do multiple reference checks, a criminal background check including sex offender registries. We have a detailed interview. We ask lots of questions about faith, religion and world view. Finally, if we notice any behavior from a staff person that is concerning on this front, we let them go. As for bullying, we guard against this as best we can through maintaining adult supervision at nearly all times, requiring campers to travel around camp with a trusted buddy (like when going to the bathroom) and by disciplining those exhibiting bullying behavior and working closely with them to change their patterns of relating to others.

Comfort: this is a tough one! Some campers don’t want to admit their cold in front of their friends. Others don’t tell their counselor they wet their bed. And some times, campers just don’t know they’re uncomfortable! As a parent, you know that you often have to think for your child in ways they cannot yet think for themselves. This is what we teach our staff to do. We teach them to notice how their campers are feeling. Are they happy or sad? Are their shoes wet or dry? Do they have extra clothes to change into? Does their sleeping bag smell weird? One of our primary goals for counselors and all staff members is that they would be an excellent guide for each camper. By guide I simply mean that they would provide a meaningful experience, initiate fun and conversation, and take really good care of each child, including washing their sleeping bag after peed in without anyone noticing!

While life and the outdoors throw all sorts of curve balls like a mean spirited attack from another to a cold rainy day, we desire to always care deeply for each person entrusted to us. We take seriously complaints from parents and do our very best to get better at keeping kids safe, comfortable and happy so their mind, body and soul can grow while at camp.

Here’s to another exciting, meaningful safe season of summer camp at Bethany Birches!

Tuna

Spiritual Saturday: Backpacking!

Backpacking in the mountains is an adventure. Everything about it. Maybe you’ll meet a bear. Maybe it will rain then drop 20 degrees before nightfall. Maybe the bridge across the river will be out and you’ll have to find a new way around.

One interesting thing about this is that it doesn’t cost anything. Backpacking includes the most basic elements: walking, weather, animals and earth. Yet, this walking around in the woods can provide a great adventure.

To modern minds, this is foreign. How can something that is simple, free and basic, be a great adventure?

I say because it brings us nearer to God. When we walk around in the woods, we realize how subject we are to our surroundings. It’s foreign to us modern folk because we have become really good at insulating ourselves from nature and our surroundings.

This insulation, ironically, is why we have so much health trouble. But that isn’t what this entry is about. It’s about walking in the woods as a way to reconnect with God.

For me and Cheeks, backpacking was enlightening. It reminded me where I come from, and that from dust I came and to dust I will return.

– Tuna

Staff Saturday: Ray Charles

Greetings friends – this past Saturday was crazy busy here at camp. It was Spring Work Day, Open House and the Annual Association Meeting. There was so much going on I couldn’t post this note from Ray. Here’s what she says:

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Hi campers!

So excited to spend another summer up on the hill with you all! Last year was just too much fun so I had to make my way back up from Ohio to camp again this summer. As the weather has started warming up I can’t stop thinking about the fun Wet’n’Wild Wednesdays we had last summer. From the baked oatmeal, to the slip’n’slide, then the cookout complete with s’mores—that day stands out as one of my favorite parts of the week. I’m excited to see again those I got to know last year and also meet some new and awesome friends! I’m sure we’ll all learn something new this summer too, whether it’s from shelter chats, fireside, or from all the fantastic people Jesus brings to camp. God’s got great adventures planned for this summer and I hope to see you all there!
Ray Charles

Tuna Tuesday: Life to the full

I was writing in my journal this morning after reading a booked called Enjoy the Silence. Great book. Geared toward teens but relevant to adults.

In my reflection, I was thinking about the fact that last summer was our second most attended summer ever. And that high attendance came after a spring of virtually no advertising and very little marketing. We were focused on the cabin renovations and simply being able to use the building in time for summer.

Any increase in attendance couldn’t be traced to communications work done that winter and spring. I believe it was God who brought the increase. For me, this is a reminder that it is God who sustains all things (and even lets us partner sometimes in this effort – like when we tend our gardens). It’s God who provides the air we breathe and the life we were born into.

Pray with me that we will remember this each day and that once again, this summer, God will bring many campers so he may inspire them and encourage their hope and faith. We are told that faith is what pleases God. And with God we have life to the full.

To another summer, experiencing life to the full!

Tuna