This weekend I worshiped at Camp Brookwoods and Deer Run in New Hampshire. It is a deeply unusual summer for all of us, and that includes this camp. I attended Camp Brookwoods for one summer long ago, in 1979 to be exact. It has been an important place to me ever since, as well as to our sons. I'll share more details of how this place has made a positive difference for our sons and for me in this post.
Camp Brookwoods is a boys' camp and is the counterpart to Deer Run, a girls' camp. In addition to these two camps, Moose River Outpost is a camp in Maine. There is also a Conference Center affiliated with the camp during the non-summer months. In short, it's a multi-faceted organization.
As a result of COVID-19, virtually all of this has ground to a halt. One small exception is what Aidan and I are attending now - "Winnipesaukee Weekends." Camp Brookwoods has opened their facilities for a family weekend with masks and social distancing in place.
Liam and Jonah also expressed a desire to come but later canceled due to other obligations. For Aidan and for me, this Winnipesaukee Weekend has been uplifting in many ways.
We're getting some great bonding time. He's an incredible young man for whom I have the highest admiration.
The weather was a mix of clear and rainy, reflected in the below pictures. I didn't ask permission to include pictures of individuals, so these are mostly human-free pictures. But a large and friendly group of families came up to Brookwoods this weekend, make no mistake about it.
Here are some pictures to give you a sense of the beauty of the place:
Welcome sign
Moose Hall
Elk
Adirondack chair on front lawn
Chapel
Occasionally rainy
Frequently sunny
Moose Hall
Dining Hall
Weathervane
Porcupine cabin, my cabin years ago
I made an effort to connect directly with as many people as possible this weekend. Interestingly, there are multiple French families, which provided a fun opportunity to speak that language.
Everyone was just great and very friendly. A smart and accomplished group, as well. Additionally, each person seemed to have their own story about coming to faith in Christ. This is a less common phenomenon in New England, but certainly one I am familiar with.
What is the nature of modern American evangelicalism in the 21st century in New England, one of the US's pockets of secularism? Well, it is clearly a different thing than I see in the South. And it's definitely vibrant. I sense it's also numerically much smaller, when compared to the South or Midwest.
As I reflect back on the first half of my life in New England and the most recent half of my life in North Carolina, I know well the difference between New England and the South in terms of the spiritual landscape. The question of how God and culture interplay (or don't) with one another is one of those main differences.
Being a New Englander by birth who has also spent most of his adult life in the South, as well as being a person committed to life in Christ... I feel very much at home at Camp Brookwoods.
And as I pondered these things, it was such a gift to be presented with vistas like those below, which I found astoundingly beautiful.
Explaining why Brookwoods is important to me involves recounting a few stories.
When I was a camper here, I had a unique experience. I remember sitting in the dining hall and I felt a very profound movement within me. Something at the heart level. That's really the only way I can describe it. A very strong sense of peace came over me for a few moments. It was brief, and also pretty powerful.
There's not really an easy way to describe what happened in those few moments. What I can say for sure is that I had never felt anything like that before.
Days later, at the end of the two-week session, the Brookwoods campers all sat around a camp fire to mark the end of our time together. I remember some of that night. A few counselors stood up and recommended a new movie that had just come out, it was named Caddyshack.
Funny.
I remember a few kids standing up and talking about not being excited to leave camp and return to their schools. A few seemed to be having a really tough time with the idea.
Poignant.
I also remember one camper who stood up and spoke in a passionate way about how his life had been altered when he had asked Jesus into it. I had never heard of such a thing before. A completely new concept.
Impactful.
Then I stood up to the edge of the fire and spoke. This was extremely unusual for me to do something like this as an 11-year-old.
I recall that I said something about how I had a hard time understanding how outer space could just go on forever. I explained that I also had so many questions that I didn't know how to answer. How could God have existed before the world? I think I said that it was really cool to think about how to light from stars was actually really old and it was sometimes getting to Earth thousands of years after it had left the stars.
I sat down when I was done and I recall a counselor leaned over to me and whispered, "That was awesome."
Maybe it was awesome. Maybe he was just being kind. I am not sure. What I can say without a doubt is that I felt enough courage to stand up and talk in front of a group about some of life's big questions... that was a huge deal for me at the time.
Later that summer, I was with my family at Compo Beach in my hometown of Westport. I recall that we were enjoying some time with friends at a beach picnic.
A bunch of us were swimming in Long Island Sound that evening. I ceased participating in the game of Marco Polo and dried off with a towel. I then walked to the back of our family station wagon, bowed my head and accepted Christ.
Then I went back to playing Marco Polo.
And that is how I recall that it all went down that summer many years ago. It was a summer of deeply consequential small moments on which the entirety of my worldview pivoted into something new. A newness that continues to expand and grow right up to this very moment, in fact.
This morning, we held service out on the front lawn, to enable social distancing. The pastor spoke about wisdom versus folly. It served as a great time to pause everything and enjoy song, fellowship and some food for thought.
Wisdom versus folly
Song sheet
After church, we started to wrap up this fantastic weekend. As Aidan and I walked back to our cabin to start packing, I noticed the stream that flows through the grounds of Brookwoods and was reminded of Psalm 42:1:
As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, my God.
Of the "church visits" that are part of this spiritual pivot, this has been an especially meaningful one because the backstory that is woven into it is my own story.
Great time this past weekend with great people.
Thanks, Camp Brookwoods. Until we meet again!
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