Category: 2025 missions/Bethel Camp

Spring is coming to a close and so did my internship. However, before I stop posting I have an update for all of you. Over the last few weeks we have had a wonderful thing, that being work groups. Bethel Camp, being a non profit along with most every nonprofit, greatly appreciates volunteers. I really loved getting to know some wonderful individuals from Hicksville, Ohio. One such of these individuals was named Austin. I did work with others, but a majority of what I did wound up being with him. Together we helped clean a lot of the Sylvan House, cleaned up brush, chopped wood, changed a door knob(a complicated one) and a lot of other stuff. Their teams were painting boys cabins, fixing two leaky roofs one being from the fallen tree, beginning to side the Sylvan House, sealing the floor of the chapel and dining hall and so much more. During the first few days they were there, I was called upon by George to help pull wire for Riverside’s new apartment.

I got to work with some very tallented people over there. Other talent that was displayed during the week was Woolly, our neighbor, and Roger for worship on Wednesday. The next day we had another game night and when Tobey showed up we was missing something, his hair. He was doing a fundraiser and buzzed his head only to shave it later that evening.

The close of the week also marked Mother’s Day and my last weekend at Bethel Camp. So to celebrate both the Voth’s and I went hiking in the Red River Gorge. We saw sky bridge, a cool tunnel and a smokey the bear sticker that I just had to buy. To end the day, we went and got pizza at a really cool pizza place. The next day was my last to teach chapel, proceeding chapel I went to Lexington to pick up the newsletters. So the next day, naturally, we stuffed envolopes. As I did so I reminicsed on last night’s Bible study being my last with that group. On Wednesday I had yet another game night with Nate. Our game nights started with just Nate and I and slowly as the weeks passed more and more people joined us. Our game nights poetically wrapped up by ending with just Nate and me.

“We were not made for death, God did not make the world, add death and say this is good. He made us to be with each other and him forever. In a way goodbyes are death, because they are partings so there is no good way to say goodbye, they just hurt. But we have eternity with God and each other to look towards.”

-Roger Voth

I left for Bethel with a lot of baggage and pain. As I got to work with Roger and Cody, I got stronger physically and spiritually. As I talked with Roger, Ruthie, and Cody I was able to work through a lot of that baggage and I was pointed towards the cross and the cross is where I left the pain and shame I was carrying. The cross, now more then ever, will guide me and will continue to through the rest of my life. Thank you all for your love, support, and prayers. I will see you all again one day soon.

It’s crazy that my time as an intern is coming to an end with my last day being the 16th of May, only two short weeks away. I go to Riverside Christian School every Monday and Wednesday to share during elementary chapel. As the months have gone by, I have played a lot of sheeps and wolves, and they have learned that there is no shot of making far or long if I’m in the middle. My lesson plan has been, up until Easter, reading a bit of Hebrews 11, and then talking about the character from the Old Testament. We finished right at Easter and transitioned over to talking about Jesus’ death and resurrection. For an Easter lesson we got crescent rolls, marshmallows, melted butter, and cinnamon sugar. We then took the body(marshmallow) anointed it(dipped in butter) put spices on it(cinnamon sugar) then wrapped it in linen cloths (crescent roll) and put it in the tomb for three days(oven at 350 for 10-11 mins). Afterwards, when we opened the tomb and all that was left was the cloths, the body was gone! That is how it would’ve gone, but I didn’t have the oven properly preheated. Instead, we played bubble gum bubblegum on the floor of the kitchen for 30 minutes while our crescent rolls cooked. Still, the kids liked it, and they were delicious.

I haven’t been able to write about everything that’s been going on, so I figured I’d take this opportunity to write about the in-between. The in between being the calms between work and sharing at chapel, etc. One thing I don’t know if I’ve shared or not but camp has a Monday night Bible study for a few young adults in the area. As I’ve been attending them I’ve been able to grow closer to the people who attend and gotten to share bits of life together. Four of those individuals also work at Riverside, so I get to hang out with them, too. Often, in between sharing at chapel and helping the maintenance guy (who attends bible study), I get to chat with two others. We always have a good time. We’ve planned a few game nights outside of Bible study that have been a blast. One particular girl who attends I’ve known for quite some time now, and asked her a question years ago that was never answered, and after three months of meaning to talk about, we finally reconnected.

And now, these are my random thoughts. I bought a smaller LEGO set with part of my tax return. I received new earbuds from a neighbor. Roger, his son, and I went fishing, I intentionally fell into quicksand. I reconnected with a friend from Africa. I made homemade brownies, then failed to properly cover them and also left the oven on while they sat on the stove, and they were hard. I gave my brownies to the Voths. I’ve gained a reputation for chili.

I have a puzzle out. I’ve made a latte almost every day. Since my first fire, I’ve mostly made one-match fires. I miss boba. I think this is unreadable. This isn’t cohesive or coherent. I guess those are my random thoughts I felt you all needed to know, I at least hope you can chuckle at this in some way. 🙂

In the next two weeks, we have a work group coming. Things we are hoping to get done are siding the house, putting in ceilings, painting, some flooring, and a lot more, I’m sure. So, pray that they would have safe travels and that we would be safe and stay cool as we work. For me, I would appreciate prayers as my time closes and that I will transition well.

The weeks have been full and I have so much that I’d like to share with you all. We had another retreat at which I counseled. It was for high schoolers, so in the game 9 Square, I felt significantly less skilled. Can I go back to the 5’7″ 7th graders? While we were in the staff meeting divvying up tasks, I begrudgingly gave up board games for a steep hike. On this hike, which I wasn’t overly excited for, Olivia, that’s the other counselor, and I had four students with us, one girl, three guys. We naturally split up somehow into two groups, guys and girls. If I wasn’t prepared for the hike, I certainly was not ready for the vulnerability of these teens. All of your prayers would be cherished and needed for these brothers in Christ. They were inspiring as they shared about suicide, abuse, and substance abuse. I did the best I could, talking to them and letting them know I loved them. It truly was the best hike I’ve ever been on.

During the week, Roger and I visited the Hazard airport (Wendel H. Ford) and talked to Jordyn, a flight instructor there. On Tuesday of the next week, I was scheduled to fly out of courtesy of camp. The visit made me miss all of my pilot friends from EAA 9 who are building an RV-12 build kit (a type of an aircraft). The Tuesday on which I was supposed to fly rolled around, and in an unfortunate twist, the weather was far too windy, so we rescheduled for Wednesday. So on that day, Jordyn and I climbed into the school’s Beechcraft Musketeer sport (code BE19). I did none of the preflight or takeoff because I was not familiar with the plane and extremely rusty at flying. At first, I was so nervous, but then once we were in the air, I took the controls and realized even though I wasn’t familiar with everything, it was still a plane and I could fly it. We flew over Bethel Camp and then did some maneuvers.

Upon our return to Wendel H. Ford, Jordyn took control for the first landing, then switched to only controlling the power for the next landing leaving me to work the controls. With just the controls, I my landing was extremely smooth. On the third and final landing, it was all me, and it was as smooth as butter. Praise God for giving me such a good instructor and being able to help me wet my feet again in that industry, which I love.

The final thing I want to talk about is Roger and my project for the week. We went to the neighbor, Hiram, who locally is pronounced harm. Again, I ask for prayer. He is living in a camper,

which now, thanks to Roger and an intern, is partially roofed. He is adding on, and Roger gave him a roof, then we sided his add-on. Our friend came this weekend to help hang drywall in the Sylvan house, which went extremely well. We now have 80 percent of the drywall done and will start mudding this week once we finish the drywall. On Saturday, I had a few friends over and we played board games from 2-8, which was an amazing close to a great week.

This next week is starting wonderfully with the remembrance and celebration of our Savior’s rising and victory over death. Personal prayer requests are for me to have more energy and motivation.

Thank you all so much for your prayers, and continued support.

Disclaimer: no one proofed this under normal circumstances my chief editor(mom) gives the ok

At Riverside this week we finally had a full class. Over the last few weeks we had been ravaged by ailments, one day we only had five kids. Now I know I’m not teaching a class of 100 however 15 feels significantly larger than 5 and I felt lonely. I thought that 5 people might open up more, I even tried sitting on the ground. I have now been teaching these kids for a month and a half, maybe two, and still no one answers any questions. Now for that month I taught I have used the same technique and not really gotten any interaction. So the class was full for the first time in weeks and I didn’t prepare as well as I should have, but it was about Joseph so I decided to retell the story in my own words while wearing a crazy poncho and referencing the Bible. For the first time, I had complete attention, questions were answered and thoughts were shared. It was great. I thank God for blessing that day. So the next time, I used the same strategy and it worked again. The kids are now excited to see me.

Recess is always tiring and leaves me exhausted for chapel. Last recess I was waiting my turn on the swing when a conversation with a kid turned to credit scores, somehow. He then proceeded to ask me how credit score worked. I handed him my keys picked up two pieces of bark and said that the keys cost three bark. Then I told him I only had two bark but with a credit card I could buy something that cost three bark when I only had two, but in a week I have to give the third bark. If I wait two weeks instead of a week then I get a bad score but if I pay it on time, I get a good score and if I have a really good score then with my two bark I can buy things that cost five bark. My explanation seemed to help him to understand, but how can one really be sure. An interesting note about the swings, George and I put them in the day before and we naturally had to test them for quality control, don’t you know. That is why I was in line for the swings.

In other news, the horses came back to terrorize our field again. Fortunately, Roger and I were going to the ball field and unlike the way I chased them with Cody, we chased them up the hill and screamed at them to scare them to their normal grazing grounds. I felt very odd chasing them to be honest, but it worked.

A couple things to pray for for me are that I could motivate myself easier and still the cooking aspect of life.

These last two weeks leave me confused. I don’t know when one week ended and the next began, mainly due to a conference that Bethel camp staff and I attended. It took place in the middle of the week so we left for it on Tuesday afternoon throwing my days off.

On Sunday, I taught junior high and high school Sunday school. For which I had no material and barely any prep, though this didnt matter because no prep I did would’ve prepared me for over half my class of three outright denying christianity. I do not judge; it’s not what we are called to do, but I was caught off guard in the bible belt, and I didn’t expect that at church. I did as well as I could with this by telling them I respected their belief, disagreed with them, and would pray for them. We had teen time that afternoon, and I invited a kid from Sunday school, and he came. Teen Time is a once-a-month youth group at which I volunteer.

Monday and Tuesday mornings went pretty normal. Monday night we had bible study. A friend and I raced and I won! Tuesday we left for the CCCA (Christian Camps and Conference Association) sectional gathering. It was refreshing to be around other interns and hear about their experiences; however, there was one stark difference between myself and the others, everyone else had a team. I’ve been enjoying my time here. Honestly, I’m not lonely, but hanging out with others my age was nice. It did throw off my week completely because it felt like a weekend.

This week has been normal. I’m struggling to get inspiration, so I’ll tell you why this is late. This weekend, we have the young adult retreat. I’m excited to spend time with my friends and, once again, people my age. Also, I got a glimpse into what planning a retreat looks like when Roger asked me to help. I didn’t do much besides watch and suggest a few things. Nonetheless, seeing a little of what goes into an event here at camp was fun and cool.

Before the retreat twice i had to scoop horse poop, because wild horses are coming to the ball feild to graze.

Here are some prayer requests:

• I’m better about cooking but I’m struggling again

• I feel a little better, but I think I’m under the weather

• For the kids in that Sunday school class

• Energy, I need energy

Well about another two weeks have passed, two very cold weeks to be more specific.. Wow, how the time flies. As I’ve settled into my new home I’ve realized just how hard it is to keep up with the dishes. They haunt me at this very moment, I have a large pile up from some beef stroganoff that I had made. Speaking of my delightful beef stroganoff, cooking has also been a learning curve. The first week I made a lot of instant foods with about one meal mixed in. This was an unhealthy, choice with how busy we’ve been here at camp because it didn’t provide me with enough protein. As usual, we had our Monday morning meeting. Typically, after my meeting I would go to Riverside Christian School. However, my initial meeting with the principal was slated to happen on Wednesday so I once again worked with Roger. At Riverside Christian School I will teach elementary chapel, play at recess, and help the maintenance guy. Working with Roger, I did more jobs by myself like painting some shelves and wiring different miscellaneous projects.

Over the weekend I did some cooking. I had some grilled cheese, then started a fire, and was once more snowed in. At the beginning of the weekend, Roger and I visited a local airport hoping to find an FBO(fixed base operator). Instead we visited a weather station and got a 2.5-hour long tour. It was very educational. If you want more details, text me, I’m happy to talk about it. Martin Luther King Jr.’s day and weather

once again left me to work at camp rather than at Riverside. However, this work week was different. We have a couple and one other volunteer with us to knock out most of the things to do upstairs. Contrary to last week I have had a homecooked meal every day and intend on keeping up the trend.

On a more personal level, I have felt convicted about my jokes and therefore have been calling them out as I make them to help me stop. I would greatly appreciate your prayer in that area. I also restarted a small group that has actually been really great. I’ve also been doing a great devotion on increasing in God’s love, which recently has been reminding me to try to love selflessly. My theme verse for the week is “Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests but also to the interests of others.” Philippians 2:3-4