Here I am
About this blog
Brian Frick is the Associate for Camp and Conferences Ministries with the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). He has been involved in camp and conference ministry since high school. For the past ten years, Brian has served as program director of Johnsonburg Center in New Jersey, Westminster Woods in California, and Heartland Center in Missouri.
Camp and conference ministry compliments and partners with other ministry aspects of our church to foster faith development and reflection. As our communities and our church changes, our ministries need to grow and adapt with creative and emergent programming and leadership to meet new realities.
These blogs entries, though varied, are intended to spur thought and conversation around the opportunities and challenges before us.
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Walking Fern
As I was walking at Camp Wyoming in Iowa on Monday, I came across a wall filled with walking fern and after a visit to Calvin Crest in Nebraska on Tuesday, a connection formed in me.
Where are you going with this Brian I hear you ask.... Well, walking fern grows and "propogates" by growing on crevasses on rock faces, growing long fronds that reach out to a new space, sprout roots and start a new plant. So, no, plants can walk, but if you see a cliff face with these fern, you can see how they are slowly "walking" their way down the cliff (how they got at the top is another topic but I have no idea on that one.)
When I arrived at Calvin Crest, I was greeted by Jay Miller, the Assistant Program Director. He quickly said, "Brian are you the person who was just at Camp Wyoming?" A summer staff at Wyoming had contacted him and let him know I was headed his way. Jay, as it turns out, was a summer staff member at Camp Wyoming, before coming to Calvin Crest for a summer as the assistant program director! Taking that a step further, Kevin Cullum, the Director of Camp Wyoming, was a camper and staff member at Camp Hanover in Virginia. it made me remember my own journey.
I started as a camper, staff member and program director at Johnsonburg in NJ (as did Robin Garzoni, the Program Director at the Presbyterian Camp at Holmes NY!) before moving to Westminster Woods in California, and then Heartland Center in Missouri.
This blog is not to encourage camp hopping. Continuity at a site is to be lifted up and prized. We need more long term directors to be able to start a vision and see it through at many of our sites. But this blog is a reminder of the "seeds" we plant.
Our ministries are not just the spawning grounds for other camp directors, they are the spawning grounds for pastors, church leaders, teachers, social workers, group home coordinators, missionaries - you name it. The seeds that are planted through the camp leadership experience blossom in places we might never see.
Some people use a "web" as an image. Or a ripple in a still pond - the walking fern works for me. The fern works hard to grow in the midst of a tough environment (and working in summer camp is spiritually filing, but also hard work) AND reaches out to bring new life, to pass on the learning, to other places.
So thank you to all of our walking ferns (camp sites and leaders) who are transforming the world on summer of faith community at time.
- Posted at 12:11 p.m.
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