“Alright. You can inquire.” Words spoken to me by my husband back in January. We had just received an email about a call for adult volunteers to work at Glorieta Adventure Camps this summer.

As my husband tells it, “The next thing I knew we were on a phone interview and signing up to serve!”

Yep. That’s pretty much how it went down.

A little backstory: Since my husband and I met and married at Glorieta in 1990, it has always held a very special place in our hearts. In fact, we had visited Glorieta with our kids several times. During these visits, we would see older people pouring coffee and interacting with the campers—telling their own stories of Glorieta. I told my husband over the years that I wanted to do that someday when we retired. He kind of affirmed that thought. Or maybe I heard a huff or a groan. Whatever it was, I took it as a positive response of “one day…”

We are no strangers to Glorieta, as I mentioned we met and married there, but even before that, my mom told me that in 1966 she went as the church pianist with her church’s youth group. In fact, she told me the other day, that on Father’s Day of that year, she called her dad from the bank of telephone booths in New Mexico Hall to tell him Happy Father’s Day. She said that when she got off the phone, she was crying and praying to the Lord that someone in her family would get to work there some day! Boy, was that prayer ever answered! Not only did Rob and I work there, one of our daughters did the Walkabout program and worked a summer as a wilderness guide there as well.

If I’m doing my math right, my mom’s phone call in 1966 happened when Rob was five days old. God’s providential plans are perfect—even if they seem like they take forever.

So when the email call for volunteers came earlier this year, my thought was, “Let’s do this before we are too old to to do it!” Thus began the interview process…

Long story short, we went to camp and served for the first two weeks (session I) at Glorieta Adventure Camps and had an amazing experience.

Here are a few of my camp reflections that I recorded of our time:

Day 1: I love the kitchen staff! They are amazing people. Everyone communicates SO well. The flow of the family-style dinner is awesome—they have it down! Yet, they are always in tweak/make-it-better mode. Excellent problem solvers and on-the-fly, make-it-happen creatives. Always encouraging! I love this place!

Not sure of the day (as the days began to blur): Lest it seems like all fun and games, we had a flat tire on the way out here. A huge reminder to depend on God. Always. Thankful for His mercies!

“I wish I could give you all a dollar because you’ve been working so hard!” -middle school camper

Thankful for the ones who came up to say “thank you.” Not doing it for that, but it sure is encouraging to be thanked.

Do/undo—ministry of the smile. (setting up one way—then redoing it another)

Communication barriers—hand motions are wonderful!

“Hi Hi Hi Hi Hi Hi”—the extent of some of my morning conversations. “Hi” with a smile.

Day 7: Fatigue—follow through. Ministry. Prayer. Serving. Redoing with a smile. Encouragement.

Smile: A smile takes you from feelings of inadequacy to encouragement.

Kindness of the kitchen leadership spills over to the crew: always checking on/doing things alongside/affirming afterwards

Forged in the fires of fatigue—that’s when the Holy Spirit takes over… as spoken by one of the oldest members of our team. Mate´ Man, Energizer Bunny, and Samson are some of his nicknames….

When telling one of the kitchen managers how amazing she was, her response was that anything amazing is “only Jesus!”

Ending thoughts: I started the session with worries in my heart about “getting it right.” Thoughts of the famous I love Lucy scene where Lucy starts eating the chocolates on the conveyor belt because she’s too slow, permeated my mind. I kept asking detailed questions up front about how this or that was done and at the end of our training session/tour, the tear-filled reply from leadership that it was more about “interpersonal relationships than food prep” was all I needed to hear and see to set my fears of inadequacies aside and enter into the joy of serving people. Free to serve. Burden lifted. Right mindset.

Also, the next time I see pats of butter/BBQ packets and salt and pepper shakers arranged just so next to the napkin holder, I will know that someone, a person, a real-live human placed them all there. I will never see condiment packets the same way again.

Camaraderie and shared work between generations is such a joy. Hearing the music blare (when the service crew cranked up the massive dishwasher aka the dragon) with a range of songs… songs that were old when I was young… and current ones that I knew or did not know… loved being in the “back of the house.” Great vibes….

Or referring to the back, back, back storage room that houses all the paper goods as Neverland… and then people joking that they did not see Peter Pan there or Michael Jackson or (I thought) Metallica. Generations may have different view points of reference but they can still work together and get the job done!

Also, I finished reading a book about great master artists entitled Rembrandt is in the Wind by Russ Ramsey during my time there. One of the paintings discussed in the book was New York Movie by Edward Hopper. This paired perfectly well with my time of service. The painting depicts a uniformed movie theater employee standing awkwardly aside while waiting—being on call, if you will–while the moviegoers watched the movie in the beautiful theater. She looks a little nervous, invisible to the theater goers, pensive, not being intrusive in any way, but ready to jump in Johnny-on-the-spot if needed. I totally felt like this woman at first—during meal times. Standing aside waiting to meet any needs—a baggie for ice, more silverware, a missing plate… you got it! Then eventually learning to relax, to pray for the people as they ate at their tables, to pray for their safety and salvation—not to think about me, but to pray for them. It took a bit to lose the awkwardness, but then it was such a burden relieved.

Lastly, Rob and I left with joy in our hearts over our time at Glorieta. But this time, we left with not only thankfulness to God for each other, but for also thankfulness for other people. We met some AMAZING staff and co-volunteers. They love Jesus, love and care for each other deeply, and truly live the love and joy of the Lord! I feel so enriched just by knowing them.

Hey, Rob, do you want to sign up again for next summer?? I can almost hear the phone ringing…. 🙂