My heart- Blue Mountain Christian Retreat

For those of you who don't know about Blue Mountain Christian Retreat, you should. I've been a camper there for 10+ years and as of the summer of 2010, I was a Children's Ministry staff there. Despite the hard work and dedication it took, I loved the job, and my co-workers. One thing that boggles my mind the most is my Sr. High counselors Matthew and Julianne,  go from being my counselors in the summer of 2009, to my co-workers in the summer of 2010. Summer of 2010 was filled with many different experiences for me.


I went to Guatemala on a missions trip with many close friends, and right after I got back from the trip, I was shipped off to Blue Mt. to start my work as a Jr. high Childrens Ministry Leader. It was interesting to finally be behind the scenes of everything that I've experienced as a camper there. I got to live in a room with 6 bunk beds, and 5 other girls. It was definitely an experience. We now have many inside jokes, and got to be really good friends. We learned to love one another just the way we are, let our guards down, and became sisters.

A summer at the Mt. includes, waking up at the crack of dawn (that's what it feels like), breakfast (if you make it on time), devotions (created and lead by a CM staff), then service begins. Blue Mountain is a family camp. Children/youth come with their families and we are only responsible for them during services, and during youth/childrens ministry activities.  We (campers and staff) all worship together, and then brother Chris (the founder of the camp) speaks and dismisses the children to their classes. Kids and their families normally stay for a week (Tuesday-Sunday morning) and we have two services/classes a day. One lesson out of the week we have a campfire night, pool morning, in-service night, and gym morning. All in all it's a pretty amazing job. I get to be a role model to kids/youth and I get to work with the most amazing people and touch lives of the people around me. After I left Blue Mt I wasnt sure if God was calling me back there, and so I told my friends I wasnt sure. They all said I would be back and that they would pray for me to be back. I went to visit the Mt. and my co-workers and youth at Youth weekend at the end of October. It was a nice reunion. I did in fact re-apply to BMCR and got hired back again <3

On November 18th at 2:30 AM, the main building at Blue Mountain which included the sanctuary, lobby, offices, dining area, kitchen, snack shop, nursery, and preschool, burnt to the ground.

When I found out I feel like I had lost a part of my life. The building where I had spent years as a camper, and the building that I walked into everyday of last summer, was now rubble. It is going to take a lot of money and a lot of time to rebuild the new building. *If you would like to make a donation towards the rebuilding of this wonderful, family-oriented retreat, it would be greatly appreciated.  Checks can be made out to Blue Mountain Christian Retreat and mailed to: 1 Christian Lane New Ringgold, PA 17960-earmarked for "Rebuilding".  You can also visit their  website at http://bmcr.org/.  * It unfortunately will not be rebuilt by this summer, but we are praying for a miracle. I am trying to design the t-shirts for this years CM staff. Here are the ideas. (I really wanted to incorporate the fire and the growth that is coming out of it on the design. )

So as I end off my junior year of college, I am looking forward to summer 2011 as I travel to the Dominican Republic on a missions trip with my church, and in June I head off to the Mt. for a summer with my kiddies, and some new CM staff, and some old ones. This will indeed be a summer of growing and learning, laughing, and memories.
Give them bouquets of roses instead of ashes,
Messages of joy instead of news of doom, a praising heart instead of a languid spirit.
Rename them "Oaks of Righteousness" planted by God to display his glory.
They'll rebuild the old ruins, raise a new city out of the wreckage.
They'll start over on the ruined cities, take the rubble left behind and make it new. -Isaiah 61:3 (The Messge)




 

To see the video I made for Blue Mountain, feel free to watch it: 

Also check out Trina Schellhammers blog about the camp and it's new designs for the building!