Camp Luther Rocks: Christ at the Center Each and Every Day
Early on as a student at Concordia University Nebraska, I spied an ad on the bulletin board that shared that interviews for camp positions would be available, for those interested in this type of summer ministry opportunity. I had fond memories as a youngster, attending Camp Pioneer, in western New York. That time in my life really stuck with me. After my sophomore year ended, off I went to begin my journey of embracing camp ministry as a leader. From that experience, I attained lifetime memories of serving children, had incredible fun, bountiful time in Scripture, daily worship, meaningful conversations, and relationship building, and much, much fun in God’s creation between the woods and water adventures.
Camp names were par for the course. Everyone had them. Mine was Zeb! That’s how we all knew each other, and we all loved these monikers. As we opened the camp season, we invited the public to come to an open house, setting up their tents or RVs on the beautiful Camp Luther land. It was then that I met some of the most wonderful families I could have imagined. Even after all these years, the relationships are still solid and meaningful. But the campers – oh, my! How we fell in love with them, and we got to share Jesus every single day. Over my three summers I spent most of my time as a counselor and did some maintenance work, along with some creative projects. The camp and program directors allowed us to put some creativity into our lessons, which gave us the opportunity to use the gifts and skills God had given us. Examples that I participated in included blazing new trails, building a bridge, assisting with the making of an outdoor shelter that was built from the ground up, using lumber from the trees that we cut down. Also, blacksmithing to make nails, and putting the logs together using tools of yesteryear like the broadaxe, drawknife, and spokeshave. There was sheep shearing, too! But the time at Lake Melanchthon, in the chapel for worship, sleeping out under the stars, and campfires were the best. We even called in screech owls, to the astonishment of all.
As staff members, we became quite close. In fact, the summer before my senior year at CUNE, I began to fall in love with a fellow education student from Concordia. There really was no better place for this to occur than at camp. The chaplain we came to know (we fished together early mornings) married us, and many of the children from camp came to our wedding.
God gives us His good gifts, as shared in these Scripture promises:
“God saw all that He had made, and it was very good.” – Genesis 1:31
“The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it.” – Psalms 24:1
In summary – my life is different today because of Camp Luther. The Holy Spirit worked through all there to spread the Gospel message – a life changing blessing to me and to everyone who was part of camp ministry. We give God all the glory…
Dr. Thomas Wrege
Camp Counselor and Maintenance, 1982-1985