A Summer Staff Experience
Samuel Fralich was a Service Project Ministry Coordinator at Camp Baker Mountain in 2024. He is a student at Indiana University and attended Mountain T.O.P. as a camper with his church, Brandywine Community Church in Greenfield, IN.
I came to Mountain T.O.P. for the first time after spending countless months in quarantine due to the COVID-19 pandemic. I remember being most excited to just be with people. This first summer experience was wonderful. The theme that year was "Home," and I had never felt more at it than I did that week. When I talk about Mountain T.O.P., I still tell stories from that summer. I regale people with memories of how my group bonded with Rhonda Aarp over star grass and her dog Patches. I share about the transformation I saw in myself and my peers from my church in such a short time. Whether that looks like conquering a fear of heights or having a conversation with a stranger, I was drawn back to the mountain each year as a camper and now a summer staffer because of the people I encountered and the transformations I witnessed.
I began staff training with overwhelming excitement about the work I was going to be doing this summer; however, I arrived unaware of the work that was going to be done in me over the next ten weeks. I learned the most, often when I was supposed to be the one teaching. More than once, I gave advice or guidance during a daybreak or a message that I needed to hear.
This showed me that I cannot grow even in seemingly simple ways without God's guidance and provision.
God reminded me this summer that we often grow through times of adversity. I always had considered this to mean times of intense change or unforeseen circumstances, and yet this summer I learned that even the most foreseen circumstances can be a time of struggle. Unfortunately, my staff did not have campers during week one. This gave us three weeks of pre-camp, which sounds nice, but we found it extremely difficult to maintain positive attitudes and a focus on our mission without seeing any return for the work being done. The repetitive days melded together and tested our staff relationships. While we were diligent to incorporate practices to encourage ourselves and each other, even that sometimes was futile. The one focus that motivated me through the most was the people: My partners at home who were praying words of affirmation and perseverance, the homeowners I was first visiting every day who shared invaluable time with me recounting their life stories, and the campers I had not yet met, but was giddy to greet on our first Sunday process.
God gave me a billboard-sized reminder of the reason why I fell in love with Mountain T.O.P. in the first place. It is a chance to experience people in such a transformative way.
