BBC Blog
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Family Affair: Father and Sons as Camp Counselors
Last summer I worked for a week at BBC as a counselor. As a parent of three sons who have loved camp for a decade, I was excited to stick around past drop-off and get an insider’s look. When I arrived on Sunday afternoon Meatball handed me a grey staff shirt. The shirt had the…
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Time and Talent. Making Camp Happen.
Bethany Birches was very fortunate to have two young, retired, volunteer couples join the team summer 2021. Rita and Lowell Peachey from Kansas, and Mark and Kathy Alt, of Maryland. Head cook Amber “Cheeks” Bergey who worked with them asked a little about their experience. How’d you find Bethany Birches? Kathy: We found them on the…
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Full Circle: From Camper to Counselor
When it comes to long-time campers who love camp Maja is as loved and well known as they come. Maja has been coming to camp since 2014, when she was 7 years old, and has had the experience we hope all campers can have at camp. I asked Maja how she would describe her experience…
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Be Still And Know That I Am God…. even in the chaos
Hi. I’m Flora, or at camp I’m Gigi. This summer I’m the Day Camp and Leadership Training Director. Every summer I’ve worked here I’ve seen God clearly in the campers, in nature and the community among the staff. This summer I’ve seen him in each of those places, but I’ve also been challenged by the…
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God of Every Season
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]When I first came to Bethany Birches the summer of 2013, I remember thinking that the fog on the hills looked like God blowing on His knuckles on a chilly morning. This should have been a clue as to what this place would soon mean to me—a signpost pointing toward a God so vast and…
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Expedition Impact
The summer of 2017 was the most attended summer in the history of BBC. Praise God! Well over 400 campers came over the course of 7 weeks of summer camp. Serving this many campers required that we also have one of the largest staff teams in the camp’s history. Many different marketing events, individuals, and…
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A Counselor’s Experience at BBC
Einstein once defined insanity as doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Working at camp involves a lot of repetition, and as someone who generally revolts against rigid routines, sometimes I felt like I was going crazy. But somehow, beyond all my expectations, God met me in the repetition. I…
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Living Water
Thanks to Erin “Tye Dye” Dye for this guest post. Tye Die is the camp shepherd this summer: Thursday evenings this summer have been an opportunity for holy moments. Counselors have gotten to know their campers really well by the 5th night, campers submerse in good vibes from the week and excitement to go home,…
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Finishing The Pavilion One Step At A Time
This past summer a camp supporter, Yogi, noted that the kitchen was not near complete. He asked me what one of the next steps was to finish it. A week later, a friend of his and camp supporter, Mark, asked him what else was needed at camp on the pavilion project. Yogi told him quite…
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Mission Success
It is challenging to gauge success when trying to accomplish a mission like Bethany Birches’. We do some surveys after summer and winter seasons to see how we did in a couple different areas. I just LOVE what came from the surveys this past summer. 33% of survey respondents (parents) rated their child’s experience a 10 or…
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