By Lori Bredemeyer, Copy Editor
Jan Meyer gets teary-eyed when she talks about her favorite part of Leadership Camps.
“There’s a moment in every camp session when, usually during a praise time, you sense the spirit of God, and you see it in the faces of kids who are just busting out in praise,” she said. “You sense that all of a sudden-wow-they are in this.”
Meyer has been executive director of ACU’s Leadership Camps for 12 years, and together with Bob Strader, director of the camps and of student life, the two devote much time and energy during the summer supervising campers and counselors.
But she said she doesn’t always consider it just a job.
“Bob and I look at ourselves over the course of the summer sometimes, and we’re working 16 to 18 hour days-it’s not playing with kids all day. But you look and you just say, ‘Is it possible that we get paid to do this?’ It is just that amazing.”
Leadership Camps began in 1983 with Kadesh, which is now a small-group experience based on Bible study and service for high school sophomores, juniors, seniors and graduates, Meyer said. In 1986, Learning to Lead was started for 4th through 9th graders; it is now a camp for 4th through 6th graders.
Since 1997 the staff directors have added three new camps: KidQuest, a day camp for 1st through 3rd graders, mPulse for 7th through 9th graders, and Cross Training, an intense, off-campus camp for high school-age youth.
This will be the fifth year for Steve Sargent, head male counselor, to work camps. He said while he always hopes to change kid’s lives, Leadership Camps have also changed his.
“I had never heard of Leadership Camps before I came here,” he said, “and now I hear how it transforms campers’ lives and just how impactful it is in their own spiritual walk. I think back to my own-that beginning camp my freshman year-it was kind of the defining moment when I first started to transition and become more of a man of God.”
Meyer said about 60 students are working camps this year, including 21 male counselors, 23 female counselors and four assistant directors.
She said she is eager to work with the group.
“They’re a crazy bunch of people,” she said. “We have a good mixture of returning people and first-time people. We have people with great hearts, varying degrees of maturity, varying degrees of spiritual maturity, lots of different kinds of life experiences. And so that’s pretty exciting when you bring that all together.
The on-campus camps run from the second week of June through the end of July, and the final off-campus camp, Cross Training, in Sipapu, N.M., begins July 31 and ends Aug. 7. Some of the counselors said when school starts again in August, it is a break from the hectic pace of the summer.
Kat Graham, assistant director and junior communication major from Amarillo, said the long hours and working every day for two months challenges her.
“It’s a big-time commitment,” she said. “We have to be here at 7:30 and sometimes we don’t leave until 1 in the morning. So that’s difficult being so excited all day-if you’re not excited, then the campers aren’t excited.”
Graham will have another obligation in addition to camps; she is getting married in May to Clint Burns, another assistant director. Burns, senior Christian ministry major from Amarillo, said the marriage has influenced him to make new goals.
“I want a healthy balance between the relationship I’m going to have with my future wife,” he said, “but at the same time, I want to maintain a complete dedication to the work that God has planned for us this summer at camps.”
Chelsie Fletcher, senior history major from Midland and third-year counselor, said her biggest challenge is motivating her girls in only a week.
“It’s hard to see the whole change take place over a week,” she said, “but what we try to help them see is they can become closer to God and get a personal relationship with him. It’s something that is tangible and that they can dive deeper into.”
She also said she is anxious about what the campers will be like and with what issues they will be struggling.
“There are challenges every summer that come up,” Fletcher said. “Those kids bring in so much baggage sometimes, and [it’s hard] just helping them sift through that and work with them.”
As assistant director, Burns will not have as much one-on-one time to spend with the campers, and although he said he will miss that aspect, he still feels he is in the right place.
“I think anytime that you dedicate yourself to God’s work and to the work that God has planned for you, God rewards you with a sense of love and fulfillment,” he said. “I haven’t found a better feeling-it completes you.”
