A Spot Around The Campfire
One evening at this year’s Family Camp 2, a seven year-old friend of mine (and future staffer) pulled person after person after person down to the lakeside amphitheater, declaring “This is Portage Lake Covenant Bible Camp – there’s a place for EVERYONE at the campfire!”
This tidbit is just one of many in which God has shaped and sustained me through your example, your story, your friendship, and your welcoming spirit. I have had the opportunity to play facilitator and host in my many different positions over the years. But it has been because of your encouragement and friendship that I have felt at home at each kids camp, family camp, retreat, and Covenant church across Michigan. My favorite thing about camp has and always will continue to be how God works through and bonds all His people – YOU!
As I begin a new chapter of life in Grand Rapids, I’m eager to cross paths with you again. And if I don’t see you there, I’m sure I will see you at the Camp Gala, or a Family Camp Sunday, or some other gathering! God works too serendipitously to simply say goodbye, so instead consider this a “see you around the bend!” And know that even though I will no longer be living and working at camp, as my good friend said this summer, there will always be a spot for you around my campfire!
Let’s quick remember and celebrate together all that God has done in our camp family these past few years:
In this QUEST, I have been TRANSFORMED by working both for and alongside my faith HEROES, CATCHING A WAVE from the Holy Spirit that calls us both OUT OF THIS WORLD and BEYOND OUR NEIGHBORHOOD. Year after year, God has FLIPPED our rocky situations into ones blessed BEYOND OUR IMAGINATION to a point of OVERFLOW. Each summer, fall, winter, and spring, we have seen the distance between earth and heaven grow litmus paper thin at camp, where KINGDOM COME is a tangible reality. Each of us, our families, our churches, our camp (shameless plug to donate to the new Dining Hall!), will be continually be UNDER CONSTRUCTION until God calls us home. But until then, I am so grateful to be ROOTED together in His love with each and every one of you, embracing and sharing the VIVID life of joy that is knowing and following Christ our King!
-Peter Ek
