Big Sandy Church of God held its Family Camp in the Bear Paw Mountains from Thursday, July 28, to Sunday the 31st. This is the 4th year of the newly revived Family Camp get together, organized by Rebecca Wiehe, who grew up in the church.
When I asked her about the reason for organizing the outing, Rebecca explained: "I have way so many amazing memories as a kid of camp and all the fun that we had up here. Having kids was a big part of starting this back up again. We have a church full of kids. We are getting back out in the mountains and experiencing something different."
Rebecca reminisced about many things from her church camp experience, some of which have become regular parts of the new camp experience, like kids playing in the creek all weekend. She also fondly described " We had probably 50 to 100 families learning all the crazy, goofy camp songs, campfires at night, and then, watching all of the adults have fun and goof around and be silly." She also described the times of community that stand out to her as a precious part of the gatherings.
Rebecca commented on the spiritual aspects of the weekends as well: "Also realizing it's okay to just come and rest in God's creation and have time together. I'm trying to figure out how to get a little more Bible stuff into it, a little more Jesus. But, just gathering and resting together is okay too, because you don't get time where you see families sitting around playing board games together any other time... playing cards together with people that you wouldn't see playing cards together is something that's happening here." That community is an important part of the weekend outing. The Church of God (based in Anderson, Indiana) has a long history of camping as a part of its culture. This goes back to the camp revivals of the Second Great Awakening, when the Church of God was formed. Since then, regular camp meetings have been a part of the Church of God. State organizations typically hold their own camp meetings, with some individual churches doing the same.
The timing of this year's Family Camp is a point of particular interest. It was initially scheduled for the weekend of July 7th through the 10th. That weekend was postponed due to the lack of rain over the preceding months. The campsites were too dry for our large gathering with campfires. The event was moved to the end of the month. Over the original weekend, flooding took place throughout Beaver Creek. In many places, including the Lion's Campground where Family Camp took place, the sites flooded and were dramatically altered by the weather. Had the date not been changed, the trip would have been flooded out. Rebecca pointed out that one of the final years of the event when she was a child was flooded out, altering the campsite and essentially ending the practice of the church camping in the mountains.
The weekend ended with church around the fire pit, with worship being led by Larry Bitz, Jeramie Erie, and Rebecca. Jeramie preached the sermon for the morning. The service was well attended.
I have attended the church family camp for the last 4 years and have especially enjoyed the opportunity to read in a setting with no distractions, go for walks in the woods without having to drive all day, eat meals with friends, take crowds of kids fishing, and sharing campfire coffee with close friends in the early morning chill.
