The Fruits of the Spirit

I’ll always remember summer 2007. I have a hard time explaining a lot of the feelings to people who have never worked at Shiloh NYC. It was hard. Yet, it helped shape my views of the way God works in our lives and how we should always seek to build community. Some days I thought I was making no difference and wanted to run head-first into the nearby Catskill Mountains just to get away. The next day, or in some cases, the next hour, I saw real fruit. Let me explain some of the fruits of Shiloh as I experienced them.

Love is the heart of the camp. Love the kids. Show them Christ by loving them. Love would then come back around. It might be the last hour, but it would come. My darkest and brightest memory from teen session each came within an hour of each other. Maybe an hour before the bus pulled away, a camper had tagged a good portion of our porch with a marker. Before he left, I made him remove it all with sandpaper. I told him very sternly (possibly as serious as I had been the entire week) that I didn’t approve of his actions, but that I loved him. We both cried, and I think he understood. Of course, I’m sure he later realized he was off the hook. I took a deep breath and enjoyed breadsticks and endless pizza with the staff that hung around Camp that weekend. I learned in that situation that love from God does not always come from little hallmark cards and hugs. Sometimes, love comes from the streets of Brooklyn in baggy shorts and a heart that longs for direction.

Joy comes flowing out of every time of worship at camp. One of my favorite times at camp is celebration. The first day, the campers are excited just to learn the words. The second day, they’re shouting/singing “Jesus is my best friend”. What a joy it is just to hear them sing that tune. The last day, you end with celebration, and I fought the tears every time knowing I had to say goodbye. That goodbye was joyous, though. They had made new friends and had reason to be more than happy, but to experience what I would call joy.

Peace might be the last thing you think of when walking into the woods with 6 kids from the Bronx and Bridgeport, CT. Yet, each time, it seems, through a prayer time with two campers, or a morning pool workout with staff – there was peace. Almost every child taught me what it was like to be at peace, with God or with the world, while praying. Teresa French got me and a couple other staff members to do water aerobics a few mornings before anyone else was awake. We laughed a lot, but those were some very peaceful mornings. The days I got up before anyone else to journal about my experience made me most at peace. You get the kids out of the city, and it helps them find peace, too. They see things they’ve never seen before and are able to breathe fresh air. It doesn’t take work to see the fruits of peace, it just takes time.

The other fruits were shown day after day. Patience was obviously learned or otherwise exercised on an hourly, no, momentary basis. Kindness was shown in the willingness of the staff to serve the kids and each other. Goodness knows faithfulness, gentleness and self control were fruits that were used again and again without a second thought.

Those fruits will never go away and neither will the lasting relationships with campers and staff. I still keep in touch with a lot of the people I got to know that summer. They’re all mad wack (awesome), and so is Shiloh.

Daniel was a counselor at Camp Shiloh during the summer of 2007 and volunteered during 2008. He has worked as an IT professional at AmSurg for 2 years. During this time he completed 4 full marathons and 4 half marathons. He currently attends Ethos Church in Nashville Tennessee and leads a small group of runners that run to grow and encourage others through community and Christ. He volunteers at Room in the Inn’s Odyssey Program for individuals who were formerly homeless.