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Emmi Hanson
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01/24/10

Psalm 84:1-4

I was ten years old my first summer at Silver Lake. And I didn't want to go. As it turns out, that was one of my best, most life changing weeks ever. On Sunday afternoon, my parents dropped off a reluctant pessimist and when they came for me on Saturday I was in tears, not wanting to leave. I haven't missed a summer since then and I cannot imagine what it would take to make me miss one in the future.

That first week I learned how to love and be loved, that I could just be myself and that was ok, and how wonderful it felt living in community working and playing in God's backyard.

My time as a camper encouraged me to bring home the normal camp stuff: new songs, games, art projects; but it also encouraged me to bring home a stronger connection to my home church, a better understanding of mission work and a true sense of belonging for the first time in my life.

The summer before ninth grade I knew I would begin confirmation class in the fall. Although, in order to be confirmed, I first needed to be baptized. My parents were brought up in a fundamentalist background encouraging believer's baptism. So, they did not have me baptized as an infant. Instead, they left the decision for me to choose if and when I thought it would be best.

Having such a strong spiritual connection to Silver Lake, I worked with my pastor and the original (and then) director Alden Tyrol and we arranged to do it the Saturday following my Summer conference just after the rest of the campers left. And so, two days before my fourteenth birthday I was immersed in the lake with one other camper, my deans, counselors and some of summer staff as witnesses.

As soon as I was old enough, I applied to be on camp staff. I wanted to be like the people who had made such a difference in my life. The summer I turned sixteen I was on Camp Family, a special part of staff for first years under the age of eighteen. They do the grunt work: dishes, small maintenance, cleaning buildings and helping out other parts of staff as needed. I worked alongside my brothers and sisters for ten weeks, sixteen hours a day, six days a week doing some of the most demanding physical labor I have experienced. We were paid a stipend of five hundred dollars for the summer, which, when broken down works out to about thirteen cents an hour. And. It was the BEST summer of my life.

And I came back. The following summer I was on Resource assisting conferences, running games, sorting mail...

Once I needed to be working full time , I settled for volunteering one week a summer. First as a counselor, and now as a dean. Through all of these experiences I learned the skills that made me a better Christian educator and youth leader.

It is this level of dedication that keeps Silver Lake alive. We volunteer our time, money and talents to give back what was given to us. To show each camper that they are good. Teach them to love God, love their neighbors and most of all, love themselves. And in the end we challenge them in the same way we were challenged: to live our faith every day and figure a way to take a piece of Silver Lake home with us and out into the world.