It feels like ages ago, though it was only a couple months, that Camp-In-A-Box was just an idea. A phrase being thrown around as people learned the word pandemic and we began to imagine a summer without overnight campers at Ferncliff. I remember the zoom call staff meeting where we began to dream of what this summer would look like and how we might follow God’s call in these strange and uncertain times.

Fast forward and Joel, Emily, and I are reading through a curriculum for camp bible study times and wondering if we could make it the foundation for a box of activities for kids to do at home. We came together around the idea of supplying something that was (1) screen-free, (2) encouraged outdoor play, and (3) minimized demands on parents. With those as our core ideas, and the bible study curriculum in hand, we mapped out what kinds of things might go into our box.

Joel walked out of the meeting dreaming of how this box could serve churches, presbyteries, and other camps through this season. He found some wonderful ministry partners – which you can see more about here! The idea grew and grew!

We began to work on logistics and content. Emily came up with all the tools we used for folks to let us know they wanted to purchase a box (or 100!) and began taking orders. I worked with InsideOut curriculum company on using their bible study materials in new ways, and then began to shape the Guidebook from there. I remember sitting on the floor of my office brainstorming with Emily how many fun things we could fit into one box, and the amount of research she and Martha put into finding exactly which magnifying glasses and inflatable globes we would order.

Much of my time was spent trying to get as much fun onto each page as possible. I remember days of formatting and reformatting to get the trees and the leaves and the lines and the text all just exactly where I wanted them. I spent a while with each Bible passage, hearing it anew in these days, this year, and for these kids. I prayed and prayed for them. And I got excited for them to have these activities this summer. I tested out all of our activities (and erased the ones that did not work!), and took pictures all over camp for what would become our instructional guides.

And then we waited. When all the pieces were finished and ordered, I remember this odd week where we all took a breath and got ready for the process of assembling. It was in that week that the Jubilee Team began to arrive, and they were here to carry in all of the cardboard boxes that would soon hold our dream. (The “Jubles” live in a house together on-site, and don’t have to wear masks around each other.)

We transformed the CAB (Christian Activity Building) into Camp-In-A-Box headquarters and began assembling boxes. The Jubles designed a sophisticated assembly system that made sure everything got placed into every box.

At some point in there we received a grant from Grace Presbytery for the Guidebook to be translated into Spanish! We were thrilled to send off our materials to be translated, and then craft boxes for campers entirely in Spanish. I remember a staffer writing “Lunes” on hundreds of day bags as we made those boxes, praying for each camper as we went.

Pretty soon, the boxes were flying! We were excited to hear from churches and families as they opened their boxes and used the materials we had crafted. You can see one church’s slideshow of camper pictures here and another church’s article about the way they shared these boxes with their community.

Some folks ordered 1 box for their grandchild, some 10 for the families in their church, and a presbytery came together to order over 150 – and even drove to us to fill a trailer with them!

The days flew by and the boxes flew by and the orders just kept coming. Fast forward and Joel and Emily are deciding just how many boxes we would make. 700? 1000? 1300? 1500! We would make 1500 camp-in-a-boxes!

I remember reaching the last 200, and scaling down our set-up in the CAB. The number of cardboard boxes slowly dwindled and we were able to shift our assembly line just in time for our Summer of Jubilee Day Camp to begin. We brought on some more Jubilee Team members for that, and they were here to help with the last boxes, and we celebrated a bunch when we closed box #1500. With our Camp-In-A-Box and Jubilee Day Camp programs this summer we served 1643 campers – more than we had ever served in one summer before!

In the end, Ferncliff Camp-In-A-Boxes went to at least 22 states and 87 different cities! Maybe even more with the church partners that distributed boxes to families in multiple cities! The closest box went 12 miles away, and the farthest traveled 2,281 miles to Washington. Emily put together this awesome map of all the places our Ferncliff Camp-In-A-Boxes reached a camper this summer.

Along the way I think we learned a lot. We learned about partnering with presbyteries and other organizations to spread the word farther than we thought possible. We learned about how difficult it is to buy chalk in bulk. We learned about UPS mailing labels. We learned about taking orders and confirming addresses. We learned about “bleed marks” on professionally printed guidebooks. We learned how much contact paper is on one roll, exactly what 40 inches of string looks like, and how to make thousands of buttons. But more than anything, I think we learned that God moves in wild and mysterious ways. And its just up to us to follow.

 

Blessings,

Jocelyn