Have Lord - Will Travel: Pine Village, IN

Through my work with the NOMADS, the Lord allows me to meet the most interesting and friendly people in the world. I ventured to a summer camp in Indiana and met some(more) wonderful people. It is SO nice meeting and making new friends. This is significant to me because for too many years I had few friends outside my workplace. It seemed that once I made a friend through church or my neighborhood, he would end up seeing my wife while I was away. That was no good. Consequently, having my own friends, and good solid people at that, is a nice thing. The Lord was changing that!

I had never spent any time in Indiana, just passed through it on my way east and west across the country. The NOMADS project was at the Pine Creek Camp, a Methodist summer camp located outside Pine Village, Indiana. It occupied many acres of wooded area. Wandering along the many trails one would discover rustic cabins hidden away among the trees, a ropes course, horse stables and arena (and horses), outdoor worship area, retreat building and lodging, cafeteria, pool, and a hill with three bands of heavy plastic for the old ‘slippy slide’. Deer and turkey routinely wandered through as if they owned the place, and they probably did. A river – Pine Creek – bordered the camp on one side. This project occurred in the early part of September (from August 29 through September 15, 2011).

The camp had a new director, a young guy right out of college who had been a counselor or something there for several years. He and another delightful man ran the place. Our team of volunteers helped close the camp and prepare for the winter ahead. Our team included two couples from Florida (I guess folks from Florida head north in the summer to avoid the heat and humidity) and one from Ohio. As I said already, all of them were wonderful folks.

The day I arrived was beautiful – mild temperature, blue sky – the waning days of summer. I pulled my trailer into the camp and followed signs to the RV parking area. What was different about this was the road – or trail – led me deep into the wooded camp by way of a narrow gravel path, across a small bridge that made me wonder if it would support my truck and trailer, and around a rustic area of a shelter, bathroom, and several campsites. Cool, I thought. I love the woods.

No one was around so I picked one of the empty spots and backed in my trailer. Some minutes later, I met some of my neighbors and even later than that, the last member of our team pulled in. I had heard it before that when a person pulls into a NOMADS camp, he (or she) will find instant friends. That is very true. I felt at home, although I tend to shy away from meeting new people.

The routine was very similar to the traditional NOMADS schedule. We met at 8:00am for devotions at the Cafeteria building. We worked sporadically, taking morning and afternoon breaks, and lunch break. Nothing out of the ordinary and the breaks gave us good time to talk, get to know each other, and enjoy each other’s company. We ended each day around 4:00pm. Some of us would head into town to explore or whatever else came to mind. It was very peaceful around the camp.

During our first weekend, Labor Day weekend, I drove through miles of cornfields to see an Amish area near the northern border of Indiana. Along the way, I was amazed to see hundreds of high-tech windmills scattered among the fields of corn. I heard they helped supply electricity for Chicago. I also heard that farmers would associate with the power companies to rent area for the windmills, thus supplementing their farming income. Good thinking, I imagined. The only area taken up by the windmills was the small area for the base. From a distance, the windmill does not look very big but up close, it is monstrous. As I ventured farther north I settled into a local restaurant for dinner. I was surprised to see a section carved out of the parking lot for Amish carriages. I realized that I should not photograph the Amish people but I got a photo of a carriage parked near the restaurant. A tremendous downpour of heavy rain came just as I entered the place. I felt sorry for the horse but glad I was not driving through the deluge. After dinner, I drove along side roads and highways to see many carriages moving rather swiftly, perhaps to avoid another downpour.

Our three weeks included a variety of tasks. We cleaned and winterized cabins, tore down old hay wagons, installed windows, took down some of the ropes course, installed screens, load metal for recycling, and build a shelter on the side of the tool barn. I especially enjoyed helping our ‘technical guy’ on the shelter. The camp had no money to spend on materials so we scrounged wood from the old hay wagons and scraps from whatever woodpile we could find. We had enough to frame the shelter. Tin for the roof came from an old horse barn scheduled for demolition. It was unfortunate that we had to evict some wasps from the old horse barn, but ‘you got to do what you got to do’. The tin was longer than needed so we ‘cut and pasted’ into a new roof. The shelter-building project enforced my building skills. I had fun working on that project and learned a lot in the process. I especially enjoyed working with our ‘construction engineer’. He is a super guy!

During our stay at Pine Creek Camp, our team had two wonderful meals with the Camp Director. The first was at his home where this young man cooked up a bodacious meal of homegrown vegetables. He was quite hospitable, making everyone feel very much at ease. For our second ‘team’ meal, we ventured into town to the local Country Club. I do not mean to say that NOMADS eat all the time, but it may seem that way. Anyway, we enjoyed good, quality time together filled with delicious food, pleasant conversation, and best of all – lots of laughter.

The Pine Creek Camp has a lot of potential for short and long-term work. The head of maintenance and the camp director are both wonderful guys. I would very much like to return to the Camp, whether as a member of a NOMADS team or independent volunteer. I am not sure how hot the summers are or how cold the winters are, but spring and fall should be just right.