Kindness

We love our Honor Code at camp. It gives a simple answer to the question How do I succeed at camp”. It goes like this:

I commit to showing kindness, seeing the good, and taking ownership of what I do. This is how I will have fun, make friends, and glorify God both in this place and in the world.

Today we considered the many benefits of Kindness, especially when we do a nice thing (even a little thing) for another person. Such a person is a delightful friend, daughter, sibling, team member… a wonderful person to have around.

We encouraged the girls to show kindness as a part of their mental growth this summer… for you have to think about being kind (it isn’t natural for most of us). Look for ways to encourage another person, even if it is a simple “hand heart” in passing. Such little things add up and overflow. It makes camp a wonderful place to be! Kindness has a HUGE impact because it directly reflects the character of Christ.

Jesus did kind things all the time. Each miracle was a deliberate kindness on His part. Each time he stopped to speak to a person, it was an act of kindness. Each person who experienced the kindness of Jesus was impacted by the love. God is glorified when we are kind.. so be kind! That is our Breakfast Club thought for the day!

We are experiencing a heat wave (as are most of you!). The temperature is high, the humidity is high, and the ice huts are broken. A recipe for grumbling anywhere else, but not at Greystone. Instead, we look for the good! All these situations could have led to a disgruntled group of campers and counselors… but we have overcome the challenges together!

• Broken Ice Hut replace all of our super nice ice machines with better ones! Six years ago we provided ice huts around camp to encourage water drinking (drinking water out of a fountain is no comparison). Now we can’t imagine living without them. The replacement parts are unavailable this summer, so we ordered top-of-the-line nuggat ice machines with infrared filling sensors. These machines were out of stock last Friday but available yesterday… God is good! We now just need a truck to deliver from the Scottsman warehouse!
• Hot Cabin extra cabin fans for any who need them!
• Too hot, we delight in the surprise rain showers that unexpectedly arise (it is raining now!).

A kind person has other good traits. They are also grateful, helpful, sensitive, and unselfish. A kind person is a delight… and kind people form the backbone of our camp. Margaret and I were present at a restaurant in Nashville a few years back with a wonderful Greystone mom who said that she always struggled to describe camp to friends who “don’t get it”. She finally “cracked the code” on a long ride home with her daughter after a great session. She was struck by the “feeling” of camp that her daughter described in detail as the hours ticked by. She said that she now very quickly observes when asked: At Greystone, kindness is a currency. What a thing to say!

One of the things that I get to do is take photos around camp… a delightful way to check out how things are going. Yesterday put me at High Ropes and High Adventure on the side of Apple Hill, the eastern edge of our camp program area. Let me just say that these girls are FEARLESS. They scamper up the 40-foot wall with the ease of a squirrel. They do not hesitate on the most challenging of elements (the Leap of Faith and V-Swing give most “regular people” pause… they certainly scare me!). Part of this confidence is just being young, but most of it arises from the encouragement of the counselors (who the campers absolutely love) and many campers (some in other classes yelling from the ground). It is wonderful!

A few words about our Food: IT IS AWESOME! Our food is good because it is simple. We seldom use prepared food. We make our meals from scratch, and that includes the famous Greystone Bread that we smell baking every day of the week. We crack 800 eggs when we serve scrambled eggs. We dice 50 pounds of onions, carrots, and celery when making spaghetti sauce. We make our own pizza dough, scones, cookies, cakes, meatballs, hummus, tabouli… the list is huge! What Gervais, Alli, and Thomas accomplish with their dedicated crew of amateurs (mostly teenagers from Greystone families) is amazing. They play music, laugh, sing, and work in a job that most of you would never consider as worth the effort… and our entire community celebrates their accomplishments every day.

• Breakfast Corn Beef Hash (deliciously crispy)
• Lunch Ham and Cheese sandwiches
• Dinner Spaghetti Casserole
• EP Group Fun Night (same thing that we did last Saturday, but the groups will go to different stations).

Thanks for checking in.