Summer camps are done for me. I love this part of my life so this is always a sleepy (I may be the oldest camp speaker out there!) and sad time of transition for me.

My camp theme for this summer was received well—very well by some of the faces I saw as I taught and faces I saw as we talked. May these wonderful teens not contort Jesus into something false just to make sense of a temporary situation and may these wonderful teens not contort themselves to find love—often a temporary love.

During a staff meeting at one camp I was given brief overviews of the campers. One cabin staff of young teen boys said that only one of the boys in the cabin mentioned having a girlfriend. The rest of the boys seemed to still be at that awkward yet wonderful boys stage. But it was this same boy who also opened up his suitcase to unpack and to his horror realized he forgot to pack underwear for the week. So we made a new rule for dating: You cannot have a girlfriend if you don’t pack underwear for camp.

This rule could “teach” in so many ways.