Who Is My Neighbor?

Sundays are a joy at Alpine. As I type this cabins are spread throughout camp enjoying cabin time together. Some have chosen to play an active game on the field, others a hike in the woods. And one cabin of young boys, Cliff Dwelling, with counselors Tristan and Logan, are playing a spirited game of Apples to Apples on my screened in porch. I can hear them laughing and carrying on. In a few minutes program director, Richard Cox, will serve up cold, sliced watermelon out on the team sports field.

This morning pastor Bill Boyd delivered a wonderful message from Luke 10 entitled “Who is my Neighbor”? The premise: the teacher of the law in Luke who asked this question did so because he knew in his heart he was not fulfilling Jesus’ command fully to love your neighbor as yourself. He was seeking to justify himself. Bill reminded us that none of us can do it perfectly, none of us can justify ourselves. Only Jesus can do that, through his death and resurrection. But that we are more fulfilled and grow in wisdom and in strength as we learn how to love our neighbor more fully. And our neighbor is anyone around us! Bill specifically mentioned our cabinmates and our tablemates and for staff our co-counselors. To love them might mean to help them in cabin inspection or to be patient with them if they are getting on our nerves. Our neighbor is not just our friend from home or boys that are just like us.

Before worship stacks of pancakes awaited us in the dining hall, accompanied by sausauge patties, cereal, canteloupe, and syrup. We also managed to knock out a camp necessity - cabin and individual photos. Our friend and professional photographer, Lane Park, snapped photos. She is amazingly talented! Your boys will come home with those prints as a memento from their term.

For lunch, a Sunday tradition continued: fried chicken, green beans, rice and gravy, sliced pears, and yeast rolls, followed by Mayfield Moosetracks ice cream.

Yesterday was just about a perfect camp day. We woke up at 7 to our camp doctor, Avery Mixon, playing Reveille on his bugle. After a morning watch (singing and devotional time) and breakfast, campers took off for their first activities of the term, three before lunch. The next two came Saturday afternoon, after a rest period and snack at our Camp Store.

On Friday afternoon campers signed up for 10 activities. Plus all campers are automatically signed up for Team Sports. They participate in that as an age group. So 11 total activities, 5 each day, forms a rotating schedule. We like it because it gives the boys variation. In other words, you don’t have a chilly waterfront at the same time each morning. For example, Saturday held periods 1-5, Monday 6-10, and Tuesday will bring periods 11, 1, and 2 in the morning and 3 and 4 in the afternoon. Wednesday will be 5-9 and so on down the line. On occasion Richard pops in a block period during the two afternoon activities - a break for the 11 classes they signed up for. Richard will assign specially formulated age group activities for those afternoons, often a welcome change of pace.

There’s much freedom in structure, especially for boys. Within the bounds of the schedule and their activities, they are free (and expected) to move from place to place on time, with their friends. This combination of structure and freedom provides a conduit for boys to take huge strides in independence and personal growth. Of course, every activity and every meal counselors take roll, so there’s tremendous accountability as well!

I’ll look forward to bringing some highlights from specific activities over the term.

Thanks for reading and good evening for now, Glenn