For The Record

Submit birth, marriage and obituary records online.

Personal Ads

Meet new friends today!

Advertising

Put your message in front of 33,000 readers.

PDF documents on this site require the free Adobe Reader:

Get Adobe Reader

2008-04-01 issue:

Electronics threaten camps, traditions

Campers want Internet connections and cell-phone service, ignore nature.

by Anna Groff

Print Article

When Corbin Graber, director of Rocky Mountain Mennonite Camp, Divide, Colo., learned of a youth group’s frustration with the camp’s rule that electronics (iPods, cell phones and more) are not permitted at camp, he thought about what makes a camp experience distinct.
















Camp staff members Cheryl Landis, Brandon Bergey and Malachi Bontrager learn a new camp game at the Mennonite Camping Association convention March 17-20. Photo by Anna Groff.

Mennonite camp staff discussed these types of challenges and named where they find hope at the Mennonite Camping Association’s binational conference March 17-20 at Spruce Lake Retreat in Canadensis, Pa.; 129 representatives from 30 camps attended the conference.

Mennonite Camping Association (MCA) has 50 member camps; it promotes Christian camping among Anabaptist/Mennonite conferences and congregations in Canada and the United States.

Keynote speaker Bob Kobielush, president of Christian Camp and Conference Association, spoke on the theme “Breaking Through Walls” in four sessions related to four areas: a camp’s situation, vision, commission and ministry.

“I came to bring good news and be a realist,” Kobielush said in the opening session.

Kobielush’s association with 1,000 camps, including half the MCA membership, has “never had such tough financial times,” he said. His camps have more beds, but they are emptier.

The camps also listed “lack of appreciation by the church” in their top five perceived threats.

MCA’s experience: Graber, who also serves as president of MCA, said the numbers for MCA camps are a “mixed bag.” For example, the camp he directs, Rocky Mountain Mennonite Camp, had a good year last year.

Lanny Millette, director of Camp Hebron, Halifax, Pa., reports the following general trends in Mennonite camps: a decline in usage, increased expectation for luxury (air conditioning, wireless Internet connections and cell-phone service) and a decreased use of nature. Millette said church groups often come to camp but stay indoors and do not have meetings outside or hike.

But it’s not an “all bad picture,” he said, as Mennonite camps have a loyal following and committed volunteers.

More choices for families: The amount of activity choices available for families and children could affect the decline in usage of camps. Graber knew of some churches that had to choose between attending the San José 2007 convention and attending snow camp. Many families choose between sports camps and church camp.

Millette said that when faced with this choice, families should try to do both.

“They get good stuff at sports camps,” Millette said. “They get life-changing stuff at camp.”

Not meeting at camps: When Mennonite church groups or other meetings do not choose to meet at Mennonite camps, Graber said, logistics are often the issue.

“Should we expect people to drive farther and spend more money to see us?” Graber asked.
However, Millette said that when these church groups use hotels, all their money goes to the for-profit hotel. When groups use camps, the money goes back into the ministry.

“That’s socially responsible spending,” he said.

Millette said the partnership between the church and camp is important. We can provide that “come-away place” to look at ourselves in a new light and then back to the church for follow-up, he said.

Turning back to nature: In his workshop, “Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder,” based on the book by Richard Louv, Millette noted three observations: Free play is replaced by electronic games, intimacy with nature is replaced by knowledge of nature, and solitude and silence are not valued.

Guidelines, such as no electronics, make the camp experience unique, Graber said.
“The more unique we are,” he said, “that will be our strength.” Camp location, an Anabaptist perspective and the sincerity of staff are distinctive characteristics of Mennonite camps.
It is MCA’s challenge to turn people back to nature, Millette said. “We don’t know how much [electronics] rule our lives,” he said.—Anna Groff

Reader Comments

Add Comments