Recently it was announced that Camp Lakeview had to cancel their normal summer camp due to Covid-19 restrictions. It is a sad time for so many kids, and here is another normal thing that changed.
As I was falling asleep last night I was thinking of the two camps that shaped so much of our childhood. Also how the story of us, wouldn't be a story at all without both of those camps. Just wanted to document how a little change in plans, many years before we met, set the course for us to become, us!
It's like God knew what he was doing. ;)
Camp Lutherhaven has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. From work weekend, to chicken dinners, to my first cabin (7!) It was a constant, and a second home.
Camp Lakeview was a camp that served the southern part of the state. We didn't know anything about it until my oldest brother became a counselor there.
Here is where it all begins. James went to church at Grace Lutheran in Lafayette, Indiana. An hour south from where I lived. One Sunday his mom picked up a brochure for summer camp. She meant to grab the one for Lakeview, but instead got the one for Lutherhaven. I am so thankful she did.
He spent a few summers as a camper, met a counselor who would become a great friend/mentor to him.
After our time as campers, spending one week in the summer, we moved up to work kids. We would volunteer for 2 weeks, and help in the kitchen, with maintenance, and just enjoy making friends and helping.
After a few years of that I got to be a CIT (counselor-in-training) Still there for 2 weeks, but working alongside a counselor and being with the campers. (No more cleaning toilets!)
It was during those 2 weeks that I wrote in my journal "I met a cute work boy named Jamey."
The rest is history...
That church James attended in Lafayette? My brothers all started going to when we were at Purdue.
James and I broke up, for a time, but Grace continued to be our church.
My future sister-in-law took confirmation classes with the pastor.
My parents started attending when they needed a new church home.
Pastor Morrow was the officiant at all the Vandercar kids' weddings, and one Hildebrandt!
That counselor James had, Ben Haupt? He became a pastor and took a call to the first church James and I attended after we were married. Reunited in Georgia, and crazy enough, there was another counselor from Lutherhaven that attended that church too!
Ben baptized his Goddaughter, Eliza June.
He and Pastor Morrow, helped our new pastor (Josh Cook) with Delia's funeral. They were there as friends in the hospital, and Pastors when we needed guidance and support.
After working at Lutherhaven for a full summer as a counselor, I did go on and spend two amazing summers at "the other camp." It became home.
My brother Dav is now the Executive Director at Camp Lakeview. It was hard to see him make the announcement yesterday. I know how important camp is, for so many people. Kids, young adults, parents. It will be weird to not have that escape. Just remember that a change of plans, is still all part of His greater one. Who knows what this year will bring? I pray for happy, unexpected surprises. I know my life was changed by quite a few of those!
