During our camp season on Good SOIL, to highlight our seasonal staff, we’re taking a trip around camp to all the favorite places they hold dear. For many, Camp Mount Luther is a haven, a place of peace, good memories, and fun times. Usually there’s one (or maybe a few!) place where a person feels particularly drawn: their favorite place to go. In those special spots, camp becomes embodied, and we grow deep roots into the very landscape of Camp Mount Luther. It’s not just a building. Or a campsite. Or a worship space. It’s a memory, a feeling, a place of community.

Let’s continue our tour of staff members’ favorite places…

Feeding a crowd is a big job. Feeding that same crowd multiple times a day for a week is an even bigger job. With a jam-packed schedule and hot ovens, it’s good to have a place where you can escape and cool down when things get stressful. Don’t you think the disciples handing out fish and bread to a crowd of 5,000 would have appreciated a walk-in cooler?

Camp Mount Luther’s cook, Toni, wears many hats and has a special talent for being in five places at once. One moment you’ll find her zooming across the sports field on the lawn mower. Then you’ll find her lifeguarding. Then you’ll see her returning from running errands. Then you’ll see her cleaning. Then you’ll see her commanding the kitchen, her center of operations. Toni takes good care of us here at camp, and sometimes she needs a moment to herself.

We all need a place we can go to escape and reset, especially when we feel pulled many directions at once. For Toni, that place, her favorite spot on camp, is the walk-in cooler. When she feels overwhelmed, she steps inside and shuts the door. No one bothers her there. She cools down, eats a piece of her chocolate stash, and comes out feeling like a new woman. She’s refreshed and ready to go for the next round of her many responsibilities.

Jesus and the disciples withdrew to a deserted place to rest before the feeding of the 5,000. Similarly, Toni steps into the walk-in cooler for a break. Then, like the disciples passing out the miraculously multiplied fish and loaves, she emerges to serve us plenteous and tasty meals. As Matthew says:

When it was evening, the disciples came to him and said, “This is a deserted place, and the hour is now late; send the crowds away so that they may go into the villages and buy food for themselves.” Jesus said to them, “They need not go away; you give them something to eat.” They replied, “We have nothing here but five loaves and two fish.” And he said, “Bring them here to me.” Then he ordered the crowds to sit down on the grass. Taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven and blessed and broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds. And all ate and were filled, and they took up what was left over of the broken pieces, twelve baskets full. And those who ate were about five thousand men, besides women and children.

For much of the year, camp can sometimes feel like a deserted place. But then the summer arrives and so do the crowds, ready to soak up God’s Word. Blessed with cooking and planning skills, Toni ensures we all eat and are filled. Let’s follow her example and trust that God will multiply our talents and gifts bestowed upon us.