From Every Nation

International Staff at HoneyRock

By HoneyRock Center for Leadership Development

August 3^rd, 2023

SET APART, BUT NOT SEPARATED

Camp is a place set apart. It’s set apart not just at HoneyRock, but in Mexico, Ghana, Ukraine, and in every one of the 22 countries whose flags hang in the Chrouser dining hall. These flags are representative of the multitude of countries that HoneyRock staff come from, just one manifestation of HoneyRock’s emphasis on global engagement. HoneyRock partners with Christian Camping International (CCI) to invite staff from around the world to gather together and learn from one another. Whether they are chatting animatedly about life in their home country over a meal, wrangling cabins bursting with energetic campers, or doling out beverages in the kitchen, international staff, like everyone else, share bits and pieces of their unique testimonies while at HoneyRock. Many gain insight into the different ways camp ministry can be facilitated, and they will carry that information with them overseas. Some stay with HoneyRock, pursuing the Fellows program or a master’s degree in Outdoor & Adventure Leadership. All will leave their impact on HoneyRock. The stories of international staff bring character, embodiment, and momentum HoneyRock’s globally-minded mission. God is at work both through the diverse perspectives pouring into HoneyRock, and the equipped leaders sent out into the world from HoneyRock.

“In diversity, we first realize that we’re created in the image of God–but he's not white, or black, or yellow, or green. He's all of it. So that's impossible for any of us to grasp. But if we come together and learn about him from different perspectives, only together, can we realize a better picture of who he is.”

- Muhia Karianjahi

MUHIA'S STORY

Dr. Muhia Karianjahi, a Wheaton College graduate faculty and HoneyRock staff member, is one of many at HoneyRock who helps cast a global vision for camps to be places of transformation and development. His story begins in his home country of Kenya, where he worked as an engineer–until he fell in love with wilderness and adventure experiences at an intercultural organization (NOLS; National Outdoor Leadership School). He left his job and joined them. “Though it was a secular school, I became a Christian gave my life to the Lord,” Muhia says. “I was drawn to that by being in creation for such long periods of time.”

He joined a church in Nairobi, where he served in Christian youth camping “knowing the skills but not knowing how to bring out the spiritual aspects,” he says. “The church started getting into it and started some programs that are very specific to that culture, and those took off. So I was given a camp by these churches.” Reflecting on this experience, Muhia remembers thinking, “It's growing, churches are just flocking into this ministry." This generated a turning point in his thinking, “I need to know what I'm doing. It's good stewardship.”

When Muhia visited a Wheaton professor in the US, where he first heard about HoneyRock, it eventually led him to pursue his graduate studies there. Through HoneyRock, Muhia encountered the global Christian camping movement for the first time—CCI. “I just couldn't believe it,” Muhia marvels. “All these people from all over the world, and they're talking about camp.” Five years later he went on to help establish a CCI association in East Africa and he began helping other countries do the same. Now, alongside Dr. Rob Ribbe through the Global Initiative Program, he partners with the CCI community to invite people worldwide to study and serve at HoneyRock.

“Take people out into the wilderness and they will hear God’s voice.” - Muhia Karianjahi

ENGAGING TEMPORARY COMMUNITY

Camp has enormous potential for missions. “It’s a pretty sweet fit,” Muhia explains. “Primarily because it's a temporary community.” Mission work tends to follow a similar pattern to camp: individuals step away from their permanent community, they experience change and transformation, the temporary community provides opportunities for others to experience this transformation, and individuals depart that temporary community, return home, and ideally perpetuate that transformation in their permanent communities. Muhia elaborates, “Because of the temporary community aspect of it, the fact that we are always in transition – you come in, you are changed, and you leave and go back into the world – it reflects what Jesus did with his disciples. The two relate well.” Much like the global church, each culture’s idea of camp offers unique variations on a unified vision. “Camp exists everywhere,” says Muhia. “Recognizing that as a frontier of ministry, it means that in different parts of the world, people can take what is already indigenous and use it for ministry. It's very organic.”

Adaia Alvarez (Bolivia, kitchen staff '23) and her team begin the Hodag at the Lagoon.

Ruth Arellano (kitchen staff '23) begins the Hodag at the Lagoon.

Mercy Danso (Ghana, Residential Elementary Cabin leader '23) and Doreem Arellano (Guatamala, Residential Middle Cabin leader '23) raking leaves during all-staff service day in front of the chapel.

Adaia Alvarez (Mexico, kitchen staff '23) making cookies in the bakery.

PUTTING PRACTICE INTO ACTION

“I discovered you don't just cut and paste. I learned how to contextualize, to use what was useful because in other parts of the world, camp is not a noun. Here in the US, it’s a facility. Camp out there is what you do. It's a verb."- Muhia Karianjahi

Zeal for camp ministry is alive and growing around the world. In Nigeria, for instance, eagerness for camp is checked only by limited resources. Samson Oroka, a Residential Camp Elementary Cabin Leader from Nigeria, explains that “camp is a strong tool to transform kids. Many parents are finding it difficult to coordinate their children. Mostly because they don't have time for kids. So camp finds a way of structuring time for those children, leading them to Christ, giving them focus, helping them see the love of Christ in their life, and how they can see themselves in God's big plan. And to do this you need a camp. Take Sunday school for example, meeting those kids once a week is not enough. I think camp will go a long way in helping our kids to become who they ought to be.”

Camp in Nigeria lacks campsites, and resources such as beds and electricity. “If we can get support for CCI to get a safe place we can call camp, that will go a long way,” Samson says. “In fact, those basic resources would solve half our problems and those will be some of the greatest gifts we can ever have. A place for kids to come to know Christ and to be able to have a focus.”

Staff at HoneyRock are not only inspired, but making plans. Muhia hopes to start a Global Cohort within the MA of Outdoor & Adventure Leadership, supporting the growth of more camps by providing training. “That is what we desire – that people can go back and use what they’ve learned to join in the work that God is already doing in their home countries.”

Learning empowers initiative.“I can start camp,” says Sampson. “Some of the things I'm seeing here can be replicated. I have land which I've been thinking on how to develop. I wanted to use it for something else before coming, but as I'm here now, I think I'm discarding the other plans. I just want to dedicate the place for camp now.”

Samson Oroka (Nigeria, Residential Elementary Cabin Leader '23) posing with two of his campers before camper worship.

LEARNING FROM DIVERSITY

"This learning that we do, I think there's a mutuality to it. It's not like HoneyRock has all the knowledge and we're going to give it out, we don't dish it out. We don't know everything. We share what we have, but we also want to learn.” - Muhia Karianjahi

Integrating other cultures involves both giving and receiving. “It's a messy business,” Muhia acknowledges. “As soon as you come in, everybody's wondering: ‘How do we become hospitable?’ This “messy business” involves a lot of learning – learning to see yourself through the eyes of another culture and learning to be hospitable. Like all learning work, perseverance and humility are required. In the end, we have learned more about who we are and who God is.

By inviting diversity into HoneyRock, we create a space for biblical unity and hospitality to be practiced – for the individual, for the community, and for the global church. “Being from different cultures is not an accident,” says Muhia. “It's right there in Scripture, right from the beginning, all the way through to Revelation 7:9. When Christ returns, we’ll retain our tongues and colors, I'll be whatever color I am, and you'll be whatever color you are. I'll speak in my language of Swahili, and you will understand. Why does God do that?”

According to Acts 17:27, “God did that so that we might search for him and perhaps know him.” Muhia relates diversity in God’s kingdom to a diamond: “In two dimensions, it looks like that boring thing in the cards. But if you had somebody looking from all sorts of different angles, then it becomes this beautiful prism, indescribable, that you can't tell how good it is until everybody is in conversation. And so I think that's what it is in Christian camping. So we learn about what God's doing in other countries and acts of faith.”

“Don't stop trusting God. Be with your heart, eyes, ears, arms open for everything.” - Sofia Frielle, 2:22 Cabin Leader

Sofia Frielle (Argentina, 2:22 Cabin Leader '23) beginning a bike ride.

SOFIA'S STORY

The life of Sofia Frielle, a Cabin Leader from Argentina in the 2:22 Wilderness Tripping program, testifies to the reality of this vision. With parents in Christian camp ministry in Argentina, Sofia was shaped by camp at an early age, where her faith became her own. This was the beginning of Sofia’s desire to be involved with camp in the United States. “It was a dream, a childhood dream,” she says.

But after years of trying, Sofia grew discouraged. “The answer was always no,” Sofia remembers. She deleted HoneyRock from her phone notes, if not her mind.

Sofia shelved her dream of finding a camp until her last year of university–until a camp found her. Exhausted, Sofia grabbed her phone one night to find friends asking if she needed prayer. Sofia said yes: what was the next step in her life? The next morning, the directors of CCI Argentina approached Sofia with an opportunity to serve at Honey Rock.

“I started looking for the hidden cameras,” Sofia laughs. With a mixture of excitement, apprehension, and doubt, Sofia filled out the application and hit ‘submit.’ “God, I have no idea what I'm doing,” Sofia remembers thinking. “But if this is Your will, I will be there on May of 2023.”

After submitting both the application and to the will of God, the pieces of Sofia’s redeemed dream began to click into place. Booking flights, securing a visa, and lining up accommodations all went smoothly. Fast forward to May 2023, Sofia had made it to HoneyRock.

“God was faithful,” Sofia says. “He gave me this opportunity, this adventure. Since that day, I felt that God was opening a box with a title that says, “Sofia's dream,” and with His hand, grabbing a childhood dream from the bottom of that box, and taking that dream out. I was feeling God saying to me–‘Do you remember this? This is your time.’ And that was the moment that I realized that I was not crazy for having that dream. If that was in my heart, it was because it was God's dream.”

With her faith and future enriched by experience, the post-HoneyRock chapter of Sofia's adventure is just beginning as she returns to Argentina. “We are capable of everything when God wants us to do something,” she says. “Don’t stop focusing on God. I remember the first time I tried to carry a canoe; it was impossible. And I can tell you now that I'm able to do it. And it's because there were leaders and partners who told me; ‘you can do this, it's not impossible. You're capable of big things.’ I love being journey-minded, enjoying every minute, every detail of the journey. Stop breathe, reflect, rest, enjoy discovering new things. Those are the moments with God speaking to your heart.”

Edem Dogah (Ghana, Cabin Leader '23) taking a break from frisbee with his cabin on the pumphouse field.

Angela Sosu (Ghana, Residential Middle Cabin Leader '23) holding up her riflery target in front of the range.

Anastasia Grouper (Ukraine, Advance Camp Cabin Leader '23) leading one of HoneyRock's miniature horses in the barn.

Jonathan Christie (Jamaica, Guest Services '23) bagging an order in the Beehive.

Adaia Alvarez (Mexico, kitchen staff '23) waving the Mexican flag as her team passes under the bridge to begin the Hodag.

"You can teach the most in the ways you respond to situations and questions from campers. I want to dig into that deeper, and that's something that I want to share with camps and counselors in Ukraine."

-Tatiana Levchuk, OAL '25

Tatiana Levchuck (Ukraine, OAL '23) canoeing on the summer 2023 Vocational Leadership School staff trip.

HONEYROCK AS A SENDING GROUND

There are many others like Sofia and Samson being equipped and sent out on their quest to further share the Gospel through camp ministry. Though our international staff view HoneyRock through a rich array of cultural lenses, they testify to seeing a unified vision. “Here at HoneyRock, I can see that you live for real according to the core values. You're not lying when you say authentic community,” says Sofia “You give everything to God, each corner of this place. Each life, each meal, each activity. I love the passion and how you work to do big stuff – it’s like, ‘I’m going to work and do this with excellence, because it is for the Lord.’ You can live with joy here.”

Global perspectives come together to reveal the unifying elements of the story we all share as children of God, redeemed by Christ– a dream, a calling, a step of faith and obedience, a challenge, a learning experience, a hope for the future. Every member of the Church has their own version of this story. “The most constant thing that happens is change,” Muhia says. “There’s a lot of flexibility and willingness to listen to what the Lord is saying and not to allow your feet to go to sleep. That kind of posture is important here–waiting on the Lord to teach you. I think those things are really what HoneyRock contributes to the world.” As disciples of Jesus, we are all commissioned for a journey, a voyage. Wherever that mission takes us—back home to our families, school, the public sector, overseas, or our neighborhoods–we carry a rich exchange of experiences with us to love and serve others in a way that more fully reflects our Creator.