Last fall the outlook for our summer camp season was fraught with fears and anxiety. Would we be able to do what was necessary to keep the camp running? Would the volunteer administrative management team be able to meet the challenges of the aging facility, the needs for improvements, and the staffing requirements to run the camp program successfully?

Well, of course, the answer would have been no if it hadn't been for the literally scores of volunteers who came from around the state--from Moberly, Macon, California, Columbia, as well as Jefferson City-- to build, paint, and install bunk beds, paint cabins, lay carpet tiles, and fix some electrical problems that had to be done immediately. When there was a need, God sent a volunteer to meet it. The management team has been in awe of the power of the Spirit in all of this.

Four shelters have been raised; tables have been built in them to allow campers to be in the shade as they do small group exercises. A challenge course has been laid out so the campers can do some trust and faith building activities, and, of course, that bathhouse has been completely replumbed, painted, and partitioned so the campers can shower in privacy in a clean and safe environment. As our campers arrive at camp, the feeling projected is that this is a place built with God's love as well as two by fours and copper piping.

This past week, we started the camp season with a Jefferson City project sponsored by the Community Outreach program of First Christian Church. We held a four day event from Wednesday to Saturday afternoon for middle school children in Jefferson City. About half of the campers were African-American and the other half Caucasian, and the camp was to teach skills to lead to reconciliation and conflict resolution.

We had some great kids attend this, and they participated in the discussions based on the great commandment: "You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength, and you shall love your neighbor as yourself." While the curriculum focused on that, the story of the woman at the well, and the Good Samaritan, the kids lived out the goals by bonding with one another, helping those who were homesick or hurting, and generally having a great time swimming, playing games, doing skits, and teasing the counselors. We saw the spirit of the campus in the eighth grader who reached out to the homesick sixth grader and asked if she wanted to sit with her at worship. We saw it in the children who got up and went over to hug the girl who wanted to go home because of a conflict, but finally decided to stay. We saw it in the "enemies" who by dinner that night were best friends again.

The kids have set individual goals, and they have written them out and offered them in letters to God. When school starts, we will get those letters to the individual students, and we will have meetings throughout the year to reinforce these concepts of non-violence which Dr. Martin Luther King laid out during the Civil Rights movement, and the skills in empathy, negotiation, and putting conflict in perspective as presented by one of the keynote speakers, Jason Sprueill.

The committee is already planning to expand this camp next year thanks to the efforts of all the volunteers who made this one possible. Now all we have to do is find more money.

God has blessed us at Rickman with the many gifts of the volunteers and staff people. However, the work hasn't ended. Volunteers were working Saturday afternoon, laying carpet tiles in one of the cabins that will be used this next week. People were cutting brush on the trails and mowing the new archery field. We hope to have a zip line in a few weeks, along with more challenge courses. Martha Jolly and her people have exciting programs and opportunities for the campers every week this summer. They are even offering some free swim lessons for campers who need some instruction.

Rickman belongs to all of us, and we are all working hard to be good stewards of this resource. Our children will go to a camp which has been blessed by the many hearts and hands who have created this place. This will be a place for them to grow and experience God's love as they struggle to learn to be Christian leaders. You can know that because of you and your gifts of prayer, love, money and working hands, Rickman's 2010 camping season is already a success.