Throwback Thursday - Fuge Edition

If you asked me in March 2008 that I would have gotten hired to work for Fuge Camps, i would have told you that after two years interviewing that I wouldn’t be working. If you asked in a few weeks later I would be able to say “YES!!”. Hearing that voicemail from my coordinator, Kyle Cravens, was the absolutely most exciting that had ever happened to me since moving to Kentucky six years prior. Not knowing what I was stepping into but knowing that’s where God had called me was exciting, nerve wrecking and humbling.

I remember going to camp as a seventh grade boy in 1997 and upon meeting my bible study leader and the other staff members that one day I was going to be a FUGE staffer. I felt it in my bones, my heart, every part of me wanted to be a member of this cool team. The love and attention the staff showed to me and other students blew my mind. I was a shy, chubby thirteen year old kid. They didn’t know my story, they didn’t care what labels I had been given by others or the ones I had given myself. They showed the love that all Christ followers should show. It amazed me. I had to be a part of a staff like that.

Fast forward to May 2008 where I got on a plane and flew to Panama City Beach only having met four people on our staff. Twenty five people together to serve all the students and adults that would pass through the location. I still laugh at some of the crazy things we did. All the fun and places we went. I’ll never forget leaving after that first summer. I knew that it was exactly what I knew it would be; an awesome summer serving alongside; and life long friends that I still interact with. I have memories that will last a lifetime from that first summer on. With that first summer I was able to move closer to camp friends and work beside one of our girls for several years as a pharmacy technician. With that brought new life experiences and such.

Working camp was no longer a dream and aspiration and it became a dream come true and I knew that I had to continue to work as long as i could! Having being able to work the years I have has been such a blessing. I’ve been blessed to have jobs that have worked with me to allow me to be off for the summer. Normally when an employee asks off for two months most of the time employers probably aren’t going to allow just anyone to do it, but I thank God every for being blessed with these jobs. Over ten years camp was first and my “real life” job was second. That sounds crazy but it’s so true. Planning my year around camp became a yearly thing. While I loved camp and my jobs it was always hard to ask for that time and ask for my employer to give me the opportunity to work. It’s been awesome!

Camp 2009 in Mississippi College brought me new challenges because I then was placed on a staff, again, where I knew no one. That’s OK though because I made great friends yet again that I keep in contact with and it’s so great. Who knew that that summer would challenge me in many ways. Leading sixth through eighth grade students in bible study, recreation and tracks was a lot different than I expected but it was so great to see God work in my students’ hearts. Our director was such a great example of a true servant leader in how she led our team. People on our staff brought so many laughs, tears and lifelong friendships. The worst part of that summer…. Bleach blond mohawk….. I’ll still never forget a student asking me if my hair color was natural in which I returned with “yes”. Also this summer brought my infamous look that got dubbed the “jkelley look”. If you get this look; you know…. One of my favorite memories from this summer was telling my students that “I know the grass is wet. I prayed this morning that God would allow the ground to be wet. If you tell the grass is wet I will make you lay on the ground and roll from one end of the rec field to the other.” You better believe one boy tested me… and I made him roll.

Little did I know that leading recreation in 2009 would lead to my love of recreation and later fueling my passion for leading as a recreation director. More on that later. This summer also brought my favorite scripture verse that I challenge people with all the time: James 1:22-25. This has become my life verse. So beautiful, so meaningful.

Getting placed at The University of the Cumberlands as an MFUGE track leader for 2010 was not my expectation. I had never seen MFUGE, I’d only heard stories. So “here goes nothing” was my attitude. This summer also brought fun because I was hired as a track leader AND actor. This meant double duty for Jason. I love being on stage and at camp it was so much fun. My acting partner Jessica to this day is one of my favorite people EVER. We saw each other recently and still laughed about some of the crazy shenanigans and those scripts… oh the scripts. We made it work and boy did we have fun with it. As a track leader/bible study I was definitely not prepared for bible study. I spent too much time working on my bible study room and preparing for life on the stage. However through this summer I met some awesome students and adults. I still see posts and see stories about that awesome things that happened that summer and even in their lives today. One of the coolest things from that summer was a simple prayer I had all summer. After moving in 2008 I was not plugged into a church and just couldn’t seem to find the right one and I had been praying all summer long that God would allow me to find the right place. Little did I know that through camp I would host a church from the town I lived in and was able to go home and become a member of that church community!! God works in awesome ways. Let alone I walked away with some awesome friends and great memories I also found a church!! How cool is that?!

What can I say about summer 2011? I can sum in it up in two phrases “Fire Tires’ and “Where my cell phone at?”. Both of these phrases were uttered by my awesome, awesome roommate from that summer. Daniel has been one of my favorite summer roommates since working camp. His heart for people and his love of camp was beyond anyone else’s. He was amazing. Another person I met this summer, who even just now I was texting, is my best friend Garrison. Garrison is one of those ‘once in a lifetime’ friends I would never have expected to meet and befriend. In 2010 I wasn’t as close to my staff for various reasons so I challenged myself to get to know everyone on my staff and how I could pray for each of them as the summer went on. My goal was to spend just five minutes during training week with each person to hear their stories and their hearts. With Garrison a five minute conversation turned into a two and a half hour conversation!! Two and a half hours?! Are you kidding me? Not at all…. I still look back on this conversation and thank the Lord for his friendship and him being so open with a guy he had met just a few days prior. He continues to be the best friend I’ve ever had come out of camp.

That summer was cool too because I got to lead both MFUGE and Centrifuge! I special teamed (worked a week) at the Cumberlands and got my site from the year before… so cool. I got to lead eleventh and twelfth grade bible study when I had Centrifuge and that was amazing. I got to share my testimony with students and got to see my groups grow close. Very close. One week even formed their own facebook group which was really cool to see. Other than all the awesome things that happened that summer and the funny memories that happened my main highlight from that summer and reaffirming my call to apply for rec director.

I had this amazing student. She was different, she was special, she had down syndrome. While I wasn’t sure how this week was going to play out. I was nervous and a little scared. Thankfully for her mom who kept in contact with me and communicated with me about her and checking in with me daily was reassuring and really helped make this week extra special. Watching my bible study group lift this student over the beam (one of our rec initiatives) brought tears to mine and everyone in my group’s eyes. Y'all I cannot even explain the God moment that came out of that; but it was real and it was unbelievable. I tell this story all the time because it was the best example I’ve seen of the church coming together.

This led to a much bigger love for recreation than I ever thought possible. In 2012 I was placed back at the University of the Cumberlands for another summer of M-Fuge; although I was originally placed at PCB again for another summer there, it changed about 2 months before camp. I wasn’t the happiest about this but I got to work with several people I had worked with before so it made the summer worth it. As much as I had a heart for M-Fuge and the location I was itching to get back to my “roots” and go back to Centrifuge.

Thankfully in 2013 I got my shot to be a Rec Director!! I couldn’t believe it! I was so excited to be able to share my love of recreation and how seeing my student with special needs be lifted onto the beam and off by my awesome bible study group two years prior. That is what fueled my love for this part of camp. Once my summer was over…. Three weeks at Southwest Baptist University; I got to special team once again at North Greenville University for two weeks and get to grow and know that staff that was three times bigger than mine had been for the first part of the summer. That was an amazing experience that I loved. It was great to serve at a location I had been to as a student.

In 2014 I got the ultimate opportunity to go back to my roots where I first experienced camp, Glorieta, New Mexico!! How crazy it felt to be able to go back to where I fell in love with camp and experienced a love from Christ followers that I never had before!! I can not tell you how excited I was and nervous because I was leading a huge staff in recreation as well as having anywhere between 500 and 1000 students just on our side of camp (C-fuge & X-Fuge). I was definitely nervous but excited to be a part of this location.

I think that up to this point this was my hardest summer because the location had changed ownership and they changed so many things. It felt like they didn’t want FUGE there; and probably didn’t. The site contacts were hard to work with, rude and really just acted like we were a burden to them. Even through all of that we had an amazing staff that loved each other and loved on students and adults alike. I cherish many of the friends that I made that summer. My prayer partner and I still communicate; along with several others. I’m telling you God knows what He’s doing when he puts these teams together. I’m so grateful for the summer and all that I learned and how God and business can work together or can clash like an epic battle.

Fast forward to the next summer where I was once again placed at Mississippi College. In 2015 I experienced a different side of camp. I had an amazing staff and I loved the location but I struggled to make connections with our site contacts. A lot of the time we were pushing back with things because the location was very specific and very OCD with their facilities. I understand that though because it is a very nice school and they like to take care of their properties and such but goodness gracious lighten up sometimes. All of my favorite things about MC were there and all the things I didn’t like were there as well but I learned so much about my FUGE career and how hard I needed to work to keep camp as fun and exciting as it was my first summer and prayed daily for God to change students’ lives and the lives of my staff and me. God definitely came through. It was another summer that seemed hard in the moment but in hindsight it was another amazing summer.

At some point you have to tell yourself that you’ve got to move on and grow up but it’s hard to walk away from something you love as much as I love camp. For several years I had told people I would be done after this summer or that summer. Honestly it is hard to say goodbye when you’ve invested so many years in something. I decided I wanted to hit a benchmark in my FUGE career. I mean come on, I had worked 8 years already that’s more than most; so what’s wrong with another one or two?! Most people do like 1-3 summers and call it. Even my sister worked 7 years of camp. It’s hard to say goodbye.

May 2016 I drove to Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia for the inaugural year for this location. Yet again I was placed on a staff with some returnees and then a BUNCH of first year staff. This summer was crazy for all kinds of reasons. Not only did the staff move housing 5 times throughout the summer we also had to move bible study rooms and our worship area location several times. It was wild. Throughout all the madness that was that summer we had some amazing guys and gals on this staff that I got to hang out with and get to know. Heck on our week off we got to go to Washington, D.C. on the fourth of July!!! We even went to the beach that same week. It was so much fun! God blessed me with some awesome connections that summer. Even then I knew my FUGE time was coming to an end, but not yet. I believed I had one more year in me.

So I thought. Picture it; Union University May through July 2017. What a summer. I was not prepared for what happened. While I was excited to be on this staff for my TENTH summer and serving at a location I had never seen it was tough. I could go into so many details about the things that happened that broke me mentally and emotionally but I”m going to take the high road because I don’t want to bash anyone or shame anyone. I also had some downfalls too so I am no better than anyone else on that team. We had a lot of younger staff, people who had never seen FUGE and some that had seen it for years but were not ready for the summer. I learned a lot about myself this past summer. One of the things was that I should’ve pulled the plug on my FUGE career after 2016. As much as I love camp this was a trying summer for me. I never knew working camp could be this hard. That is hard to say for someone who has worked camp as much as I have.

Through all theses ten years that I worked I would not take back a single moment. In the ten summers I worked with so many people. I don’t even think I could put a number one it. I’ve met some amazing men and women of God who; even today, challenge me to be a better man and I am forever grateful for each summer. For every paycheck, for every staff gift and for every student that I made an impact on and the people who impacted me. God used me and other people to show students that loving God is not some tired old cliche but it’s exciting, it’s an adventure, its not a one time decision but a life. In ten summers I went from being a 24 year old chubby guy to a 33 year old man who learned the value of fitness (which is one of the reasons I got into fitness because of my first summer of being a Rec Director). I cannot even begin to thank each person for the impact they had on my life but if they read this I hope they know how much I appreciate all that I learned, the respect and love I have for them.

While I decided to hang up my whistle after 2017 camp is forever ingrained in my life. There’s not a day that goes by that I’m not rocking some type of FUGE gear or I have something with me that is camp related. The impact camp had on my life is literally eternal. I spent 20-21 months over the last ten years getting to pour into something that I fell in love with 21 years ago as a shy chubby seventh grader. Who knows what type of impact I’ve had on others; not boasting just saying. I guess I’ll never know this side of heaven the lives that I got to be a part of that have moved on and worked camp, who have become Christ followers or even walked away from mental, physical, emotional spiritual harm. I know that through all these things it was not me but the Lord.

If you’ve ever been a part of FUGE you know how much it’s been a part of who you are. If you are reading this and you are working camp for the first time or returning to work camp know that God is going to use you in many ways. He will bend you and stretch you and challenge you. Even on the hard days don’t give up. He has great plans for you and you never know the impact you may have on a student who may decide that following Christ is better than committing suicide or cutting or using their body for attention from people. That sounds crazy but these stories exist and happen at camp. Pray that God uses you as a vessel to pour into and out of and not a sponge that just soaks him up and doesn’t share the gospel. Know that even if you don’t see it; God is working in their lives. He’s even doing things in you. I could go on but I want you to know that I am praying for the summer of 2018 as FUGE turns 40!!!!

It’s weird to know that I am not going to camp, that I’m not leading a group of college students through how to lead recreation or a group of students through bible study or recreation or even taking a track group out to build a porch or mow a lawn or even play with some kids at a park in the middle of nowhere, but I know that ministry is happening and God is going to continue to do great things through this awesome ministry I got to be a part of even if for a “short” time.

Because of FUGE i am the man I am today and I’m forever grateful for that.

God bless.