Reflecting on the Past and Vision for the Future
As the Camp Deerpark board and leadership looks toward the next fifty years of ministry we will hold precious the collection of stories compiled in the previous pages. We will not forget where and how God has led us to this point. We will look back to learn and look forward with renewed faith. We will work toward keeping our eyes and hearts open to a vision for the future while maintaining a realistic expectation for today.
Working in the present, while also developing ideas and plans for the future, is one of the executive director’s biggest challenges. If directors move too far on the side of vision, they may be perceived to have their head in the clouds. On the other hand, if directors focus excessively on the struggles of the day-to-day operations, without developing future plans for improvement, they may appear to lack vision. Over the years I have worked to balance these responsibilities, sometimes tipping the scale too much on one side or the other. But I have also watched camp grow and flourish, and am grateful for those I work with, such as a strong board, to help provide clarity.
Documented core values have been the most helpful guiding tool in creating a balance between vision for the future and the practical application today. The core values have become the playbook for ministry operation. Both our visions and dreams for the future and our daily practices can be regularly checked against our documented core values.
In 2008 Zachary Garber joined our staff as the Program Director. He came with a wealth of outdoor and camping experience, but he had never spent a summer at Camp Deerpark. It goes without saying that there was conflict in expectations. The summer children’s camp had evolved into a beautiful program with strongly held, yet unwritten, values and practices. In part to provide clarity for Zachary and in part to prevent mission drift in the future, we proceeded to place on paper the essence of Camp Deerpark. On an October Saturday in 2009 at a back table in the IHOP on 232nd Street and Broadway, I sat for several hours with the summer staff leadership team of Zachary Garber and Veronica Dingwall as we talked through the thirteen points that continue to guide our ministry.
A few years later the five Core Values of Camp Deerpark again came out of a bit of a crisis. Deborah’s parents live in Florida and our family has often enjoyed spending a few weeks over Christmas in sunny Florida. On one of those trips back to New York I was overwhelmed with dread of returning to camp. I sought counsel from several trusted friends. Two friends essentially told me to put my big boy pants on, stop whining, and get back to work. Board member Hyacinth Stevens was a bit more compassionate. “If you are going to leave, you need to tell the stories of camp before you leave. The current staff need to know who we are and what God has done for us. ”Over the next few months I dedicated time at each weekly staff meeting to tell a new story of God’s faithfulness to Camp Deerpark. I told about the day we received an insurance rebate check the same day the electricity was scheduled to be disconnected. I told about the soil tests and the new sewer system. I told about Brubaker Excavating offering the Kubota tractor a few hours after we said we would start praying for the exact same tractor. Remembering and telling the stories reignited my passion for the ministry of Camp Deerpark. Along with the storytelling exercise I began to document what I saw as the core values of Camp Deerpark.
The board and staff discussed and processed the core values over several meetings in 2013. They recounted what we have done in the past and looked ahead to what we agree as a community to continue. In September of 2013 the board officially adopted our current five point document of core values. Following are stories of how the heart of Camp Deerpark was lived out through the hands, feet, and attitudes of our staff and board.
Express the Love of Jesus and Biblical Principles.
A few years ago one of our neighbors was doing some construction work at his house and because he had limited driveway space asked if the excavator he was renting could be loaded and unloaded in the camp parking lot. At the end of the week they again asked if the machine could be parked at camp until it was picked up. The gentleman hired to do the work added, “We have twenty unused hours on the rental agreement so feel free to use it if you have any projects”. Of course my eyes lit up and I worked all afternoon replacing a culvert at the bottom of the tubing hill. As often happens there was a misunderstanding and our neighbor was convinced he had been charged $300 for additional hours. I knew the charge was for an earlier rental, but several attempts to communicate the truth only added to the conflict. In the end the camp board made a decision to value relationship over money. At a time when finances were extremely tight I wrote a check for $300 to our very wealthy neighbor because it seemed like the best way to express the love of Christ.
Stay Tightly Connected to our Original Mission.
Camp Deerpark is owned by the New York City Mennonite Churches and our mission is to serve those churches. In the fall of 2014 as we were looking toward the completion of the first four Promise Woods cabins, we invited four different owner churches to take on the responsibility for ongoing maintenance of each cabin. As we gathered to dedicate each cabin the construction supervisor, Kenton Baer, handed the keys to the primary donor. The donor then handed the keys to a representative of the sponsoring church. Finally, the church handed the keys to our facilities director, Sean McConaghay.
Zimmerman, Bedel Kiah, and Elijah Woods clean their Promise
Woods cabin #7, Glory.
The exercise was meant to celebrate several landmarks. First we celebrated the completion of the construction work and all of the volunteers who helped make it possible. Secondly, we celebrated the financial gifts that helped to make the cabin possible. Third, we publicly noted the commitment of the owner church to: pray for the ministry that would happen in the cabin, spend one day each year deep cleaning their cabin, and make an annual contribution toward the depreciation costs of the cabin. Finally, as the keys were passed to Sean we acknowledged that it falls on the camp staff to take day to day responsibility for physical maintenance and ministry program. One person noted, “The easy work is finished and the hard work begins.” It was important to the financial donors, construction workers, and camp staff that the owner church was in the middle of the Promise Woods dedication and ownership.
Hospitality is Central to our Summer Camp and Retreat Ministry.
Soon after Rick Weaver joined the camp staff in 2008, he served pork chops with a Jamaican Jerk spice and they were amazing. As the host I went through the dinner buffet line last and was a little discouraged to discover the pork chops were completely gone.
As I was reluctantly loading my plate with salad, rice, and the vegetable of the day, I noticed a pretty large man along with his family in the corner of the dining room with five pork chops wrapped in a napkin. At camp we have can all you can eat policy, but it is not an all you can eat and all you can carry policy. I was more than a little upset. A few minutes later one of the long time members of the church came over to me and said, “Isn’t it great? This is their first time coming to church.” I was immediately humbled as I remembered that hospitality is our core value. If a few extra pork chops will help make a new family feel welcome then I will happily eat rice and broccoli.
In May, Camp Deerpark hosted several families along with a church retreat group. One of the families had lost a daughter to cancer less than two months earlier. The mother told us, “I just needed to get to camp, to sit and allow God to heal me.” Of course she also spent time speaking with Deborah Bontrager who was able to give comfort as only one who has been through the death of a child. On this Sunday afternoon, hospitality was a hug and a listening ear.
We are an Organization that Considers Policy in the Context of People.
In 1997 Hyacinth Banks (Stevens) was serving as our summer program director. Together we had reviewed the list of summer staff and felt very good about the team that she had assembled. However, on the second day of staff training I noticed an extra five-year-old girl on the playground. I pulled Hyacinth to the side and was told that one of the kitchen staff had brought their little sister. “I don’t know, she just showed up on the bus.” I am embarrassed to say that my response was less than compassionate, “Well, she needs to get back on that bus and go home.” Our policy did not allow for summer staff bringing their younger siblings along to camp. A few days later I came back to Hyacinth because the child was still at camp. I was informed the family had recently experienced a fire in their apartment which left them living with an uncle. There was no way the family could leave a five-year-old daughter with the uncle. Hyacinth had the wisdom to place the organizational needs in the context of the individual need. As it turned out, there was another five-year-old staff daughter at camp that summer and the two spent hours on the playground together.
Be Good Stewards of the Resources God has Given Us.
Dear Camp Deerpark Staff
I am 91½ years old—live alone and cannot afford a constant donation. Enclosed please find a check for $20.
God Bless You Eva
A few days after we received this gift from Eva in 2003, I was in the Otisville Hardware to pick up a few items and my total bill came to about $20. I remember thinking very soberly about the items that I had just purchased and the ninety-one year old woman on a fixed income who had made significant sacrifice to support the ministry of Camp Deerpark. We will never take lightly a gift of any size. As we follow our core values, the Camp Deerpark board and leadership has a vision to complete the Promise Woods Children’s Camp Village and then address our need for expanded food service and dining room facilities. We will keep pushing forward with leadership training for pastors and young adults. We will continue to encourage and strengthen families through our August family camp programs. We will strive to host the best summer children’s camp with the most loving summer staff in the world. Camp Deerpark is a ministry that has always been short on resources, but strong on mission. We have seldom doubted the important role that this place has in the life of the churches in New York City and larger church. We have always had more ministry outreach opportunities than resources to meet those needs, which is why we will always need the financial support of our friends. It has been a joy to follow great leaders like Dale and Doris Stoltzfus, Jerry and Leonor Kennell, Miriam Cruz, Jim Baer, Jay and Joyce Sauder, and Marian Sauder Egli. This place and the people who have made it possible are a gift from God to the churches of New York City. It is a gift that provides more than we ever thought it would and perhaps more than we will ever know. It is a gift that none of us deserve, but one that we appreciate beyond words. Thank You, God, for Camp Deerpark.
—Ken Bontrager, current director.
Bontrager, on steps of Promise Woods cabin #5, Blessing, 2017.