Observations on Kamp’s “Progress” in the Time I’ve Been There

Having just recently finished my 5^th summer of work at Kanakuk Colorado, I’ve noticed a few things about the change (or lack thereof) that I’ve seen over the years.

Some Background:

Kanakuk Colorado officially became a branch under the Kanakuk dynasty in 2001 to offer kids an alternative to hot, sweaty Branson. Kids are also able to branch out a bit from their normal sports and activities they could enjoy back home (which is usually somewhere in the south/south-Midwest). They get to pick from five ‘specialties,’ which are Mountain Biking, Rock Climbing, Backpacking, Fly Fishing, and Wet & Wild (river rafting and lake sports.) Ironically, despite our offering of “something different,” the most popular specialty by far is the one that most of these kids already do nine months out of the year; tubing, waterskiing and wakeboarding. Coincidentally, hoho, it’s also the laziest specialty you can choose. Fly fishing at least requires you to stand under your own power and not be towed about by a boat.

We’ve had basically the same options offered each summer with a few small tweakings. The sameness of the sports year after year for returning kids isn’t too big of a deal, since they can always choose new specialties, and the actual trips that we take them on change almost yearly.

Another aspect of camp is Andy’s “Institute.” Don’t let the name scare you too much, it’s only half as creepy as it sounds. Roughly every other day, the kids are presented with a series of talks from Andy on “Christian worldview” issues with an apologetic leaning. These include taking a look at the media that these kids are immersed in, defining and examining dating relationships, and exposure to other major religions of the world in relationship to Christianity. A lot of work goes into these talks, lots of research and tons of resource-gathering time. During the two weeks that the kids are here, they’re certainly given a bit of info on a multitude of issues that a young Christian deals with. And therein lies the first flaw that I’ve noticed.

The problem can be pretty much summed up in the phrase “A mile wide and an inch deep.” Andy ends up flying through a lot of material just to get through it all. Not only is he not always able to mention everything he intended to, but the general atmosphere suffers greatly when he ends up kicking it into hyperdrive and zooming through PowerPoint slides. No one wants to hear about morality issues with the speed of a cattle auctioneer. It’s hard to think of something as important when it’s flying by you without time or chance for reflection or question.

I’ve known a few campers that have decent heads on their shoulders and aren’t too shabby at thinking for themselves. As soon as they pick up on the fact that Andy is making sweeping generalizations for the sake of time, they tend to have a hard time putting any faith in what he has to say afterwards. On top of that, kids that come for a few years are getting almost verbatim the same talks every summer.

Hearing the same material a few times isn’t necessarily a bad thing. And given that there are quite a few new kids each summer, it’s all new material to them. The problem that I see is that kids who have gotten past the basics that Andy spends most of his time on (evolution, sex, racy movies, etc) and are ready for something deeper are pretty much out of luck. They’re going to hear the same thing they heard last summer, and the summer before that.

What this tends to do is keep kids in a stagnant spiritual state. The common cliché associated with camp is to come off of two weeks with other Christians, “get your life back on track,” and experience “The Camp High.” And of course, like any other altered state, it goes away when you stop shooting it and you’re usually in worse shape than when you started. Camp as a whole suffers from this still-water problem, as the aim is for college kids to be around and influencing high school kids. Staff at K-Colorado average one or two summers of work. With a turnover rate like that, how can you expect to grow as a whole? We’re so busy bringing new people up to speed that it’s a battle to just hold our ground. No thought is really given to maturity as a body.

Now I try not to criticize something at this length without offering some semblance of a solution, so here it is:

Institute: I feel that if Andy were to pick one of the many topics he works with every summer and really focus on that and take the time to explain it clearly and critically, campers would gain more from it. For example, next summer could be all about Creation and Evolution. Appropriate time is given for all the subheadings involved, and he could work without the pressure of everything still to cover in the time given. Next year, focus on the media. Not only would this give everyone a chance to slow down and really examine the issue at hand, but it would work well for kids who come back for multiple summers. They won’t hear the same thing for 11 years (yes, I had a camper who was on his 11^th year). There’s also more of a sensation of moving forward, towards something, instead of each summer being a copy of the previous.

I’m afraid my idea for the problem of staff turnover doesn’t have as technically applicable a solution. More or less, people need to want to be there. It truly pains my soul to hear co-workers at camp just finishing their freshmen year of college talking about summer school and internships to fill the next few summers. If you’re “good at camp,” by all means, take advantage of the fact that you have summers off of school and can work at place like K-Colorado.

Up Next: Night Life at Camp or How We Make Camp Sweeter For Those Who Already Love It, and Consequently More Painful For Those Who Don’t.