Hi Friends!
Adam Trufant here. In this week’s guest post, Chosman Joseph Duncan (’19-’24) shares about his experience as a CKC staff member with his classmates at Hillsdale College. We are grateful Joe passed this along to us, and we hope it may be a compelling invitation to others considering “something a bit adventurous” 🙂
This past summer after high school I decided to try something a bit adventurous. While the rest of my friends spent their final summer before college stretched out on sandy beaches, I slept under a small rain-tarp in the woods. For twelve weeks, I entered this glorious distant land in the heart of the Blue Ridge Mountains, surrounded by mostly strangers. All these people I met were just college students, like you and me. Like I did, they wanted something different, not an internship or summer desk job, but an experience like no other, a chance to grow in character, leadership, and faith, free from the distractions and pressures of the world. College students from across the country and even the world arrived in Brevard, North Carolina late in May last spring, they left forever changed as the counselor Staff at Camps Kahdalea and Chosatonga.
I believe that working on the Staff at Camps Kahdalea and Chosatonga is a lifechanging experience that will help mold any young adult into the person God destined them to be. Therefore, I urge you, the students at Hillsdale college, to apply for the position of counselor at Camps Kahdalea and Chosatonga for this summer.
At camp, counselors strive to uphold three core values that camp cherishes: adventure, friendship, and Faith in Christ. It is by embracing this lifestyle with joy and love that the counselors grow in virtue and faith. Camp explains this mission through the words of poet Karol Wojtyla, who you might better know as Pope John Paul II, he says: “It is only in the sincere give of self that man can find himself.” By completely investing in counseling and mentoring of the young children who join camp’s community, a counselor equips themselves with the courage and love to one day run a business or guide a family, but most importantly, it connects them with Christ’s call to service.
To begin with, camp’s rustic setting among the heavenly Blue Ridge Mountains is the perfect environment for living out its first value of adventure. Rock climbing, white-water paddling, and mountain biking are just a few of the activities at camp, and the best part of a counselor’s role, is you are paid to learn and teach these incredible skills! This past summer, I learned how to build a rock-climbing anchor capable between two trees or natural anchors capable of holding up more than a thousand pounds. Camp provides professional training for these outdoor activities, a skill you can carry and share for the rest of your life. But most importantly, the adventure and challenge of rock climbing creates a space where campers can conquer their fears high above the ground on the rock face and carry that confidence with them back home to school or to work.
In addition to adventure, camp’s mission builds authentic and real friendship. Kahdalea and Chosatonga run longer three- and five-week sessions that allow for the growth of deeper friendships between camper and counselor. Forced to live together, jammed into cabins with another counselor and 6 campers, you certainly find each other’s edges, but you also learn to cope with the imperfections in your neighbor, or bunkmate. I remember a story of a camper we had who would sleepwalk every night, which is a problem because during the week at camp, we’re out sleeping on top of cliffs or in the middle of the woods. So, the counselors would take turns tying themselves to this kid every night to make sure he didn’t die, and sometimes we would forget. He might have woken up in a tree or on the side of the road, but he made it back home alive that summer. It’s little moments like these that forge incredible friendships at camp.
Adventure and friendship help foster camp’s greatest ministry and gift to the staff: Faith in Jesus Christ. Every staff member strives to hold each other accountable for walking a summer in the footsteps of Christ. One of the owners of camp, Adam Trufant, described it like this: “faith is caught when campers see a committed counselor living their faith in day-to-day life.” Positive encouragement, selfless love, and pure joy rooted in the staff builds an atmosphere where God’s grace flows through every person who joins camps community. A fellow counselor and great friend, Chris Young, described camp’s greatest virtue in the staff: “genuine authentic character in each counselor.” When a person recognizes that they are loved by the friends around them and by the perfect friend, Jesus Christ, they live free, free from the expectations placed on them by the world, free from the stresses of college or home. They build a house on the rock of authentic talents and graces given to them by God. It is in this house, camp, where counselor and camper grow closer to Christ.
There was a young boy in high school who struggled to find himself when his family moved across the country. He lacked confidence in his decisions to make wholesome, faithful friends. His relationship with Christ was disconnected and distant. His mom forced him to skip the summer swim season and go to this camp. This camp where he watched his counselors live joyfully, without fear of failure or judgement, living freely every day in faith. He saw their spirit of adventure driving them to embrace any challenge or hardship. That young guy was me; it was my bunkmate; my cousin; my brother, and so many others. You could be that role model for so many kids, by joining in this eternal work. Work that will prepare to build your own families in the future, leading them to the endless graces God has given us.
