Newsletter
Summer 2007
NEW CAMPSITE STARTED!
The Woodsmen are mostly finished with construction in their campsite and are currently building a tent at the new campsite. Recently, camp received a grant from the Annette J. Hagens Memorial Foundation to purchase needed items for beginning that campsite. Tim Klei from Sarasota donated the pipe to run the water line and that is now in place. He also donated the lumber to build the foot bridge over the low area. Mattresses have been ordered and other needed supplies purchased. We thank God for meeting these needs at just the right time. Our goal is to be ready to serve the Lord by helping the boys God brings to us. God has even sent two young men to look into being the Chief’s for the next group.
THANK YOU
New Life Baptist Church of Arcadia, FL gave us a used running 15 passenger van.
Calvary Baptist Church and Rodney DeLoach, also from Arcadia, repaired our F350 dump truck.
Judge Don Hall gave the boys tickets to the July 4th Arcadia Rodeo.
Palm Grove Mennonite youth planted 3200 pine trees and God sent rain to water them!
Salt and Light Productions of Sarasota made a great DVD about Camp.
Bethel Mennonite Church gave generously at the Gator Camp dinner, July 15.
Some new regular supporters.
Faithful long time supporters.
Fruitville Grove of Sarasota gave produce.
Education At Camp
By Chief Art Dagg
Camp’s educational approach is very different than the usual classroom experience and sometimes people have a hard time understanding. Our main concern is attitude and problem solving; education is secondary. But there is also the fact that over the years of wilderness camp history, boys who often were way behind in school, will usually return to school and test back into their grade level. What is the educational program that is so effective? What are we doing that will result in a boy who has been at camp only three months testing three grades higher at his former school? These are remarkable results. Is it the plans that the boys write each week? Is it the writing of menus which involve writing, addition, multiplication, and division? How does a boy who was unable to comprehend the concept of division, grasp and enjoy division?
What Is Happening
Over the years I have explained it through the scriptures. The Bible says “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom: and the knowledge of the holy is understanding.” Prov. 9:10 It is also the fear of the Lord that is the beginning of understanding. With understanding knowledge comes easily. Knowledge involves education; it is learning information and how it is applied in life. Another verse, Proverbs 15:14 says, “The heart of him that hath understanding seeketh knowledge: but the mouth of fools feedeth on foolishness.” When the heart is right, knowledge becomes desirable. Further we see in 2 Peter 1:5 the instruction to “add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; and to knowledge temperance;”. . Notice that knowledge is third in line. Faith is the first. Faith is related to security. When we are secure we are free from fear. Over and over again the Bible says not to fear, but to fear the Lord. God wants our security to be in Him. In fact, we either fear the Lord or we fear man. When we fear God we have peace. Then comes virtue or moral character. Sometimes we need to have self discipline to sit and learn, but notice it is “self” discipline, which means we discipline ourself. As security grows and we have the desire to learn, then we will discipline ourselves. But, if we try to teach before these two are in place, knowledge becomes something that makes us proud rather than something useful and exciting.
Boys come to Camp full of fears. Often, they have not done well in school, nor believe they can, but at Camp when they write a pizza menu, cook it in their Dutch oven, and enjoy the results, they cannot deny their success. When they look up an interesting history story, teach the rest of the group, and write it on the time-line chart, they have learned something more than facts. School work takes on purpose; it has cause and effect relationship, from the plans they write to the things they do. Their school work becomes important. At camp, school is not a place to go, but something boys are involved with all the time.
The Awesome Sight
By Jacob
This morning we set off to go flying at the Port Charlotte airport. I had a lot of fun riding in the airplane. I was with Jimmy and David. While we were flying we saw our campsite. We saw the A-frame, the rectagon, front pond, back pond, and the mine. We had a hard time finding it. We wore headphones with a little microphone hanging down. We asked the pilot how high we were and he said 2000 feet. We also asked him how fast we were going and he said we were going about 155 miles per hour.
Learning History
By Wayne
This session we started learning about American History. We learned about the Titanic, George Washington, Abe Lincoln, the pilgrims, WWII, the gold rush, Pearl Harbor, Neil Armstrong, the French and Indian War, the Civil War, the battle of Gettysburg, Johnny Appleseed, the Louisiana Purchase, the Silent Services, D-Day, V-E Day, and the Declaration of Independence. It has been awesome working on learning all this cool stuff and having Study Buddies, book readings, and games. I have learned a lot more about history and I have enjoyed learning.
The Morning Routine
By Wesley
Our day starts at 6:30 when Chief wakes us up. Everyone is eager to flip their mattresses and to make their beds. Next thing we do is move our footlockers so we can sweep under them. Then we holler, “Tent check” and Chief comes in and checks our footlockers to see if they are neat and not messy! Now we have a great devotion from one of our expert Chiefs. After devotions we do our team chores in a great attitude. When that is done we work on crafts if we have time. Every Wednesday and Thursday we have a cookout and the group plans our own menus. Then Friday-Tuesday we go to Chuckwagon for our meals. After supper we take our showers and then we go to pow-wow. During the day, we plan different projects. This session our big project has been to build a tent in the new campsite.