Pilgrim Lodge Director's Log

July 4, 2008,

Happy Independence Day!  It is a picture perfect blue sky dry summer day. Sweet.

It's been quite a ride! Travel, a new database and systems, the sudden loss of a camp cook, a shower of napkins, solar panels and the beginning of a wonderful summer. Let's take these one at a time, shall we?

Travel: I left on April 30 for the city of Budapest.  Atilla, Janos' roommate, met me at the airport and helped me navigate to Janos and Gabriella's hostel.  I slept for 11 hours and then we took a cab back to the airport to meet Scott Harris and Matt Alden and pick up my newly found lost luggage.  We boarded the van that Janos had hired for us and began the 7 hour journey across Eastern Hungary and the border into the Ukraine.  The van brought us to the restaurant where the reception was to be for the next day's nuptials of Janos and Gabriella.  Janos met us, got us settled in our hotel and then we joined Arthur Flanders, Liz Charles, Steve and Sherry Jones and the bride and groom themselves along with a few other guests and began decorating the hall.  The celebration went late but we were all primped, coiffed, and on time at the home of Gabriella's mom and dad at 11 the next morning.  We were welcomed most graciously and served food and drink while waiting for the groom to arrive.  And arrive he did in fine style.  The best man, sang to the bride's parents asking for her hand on Janos' behalf.  After a traditional attempt to pass off another family member the deal was struck.  It was a most charming and delightful first stage of the day.  After more food we were off to Janos' village for the ceremony in a 500 year old church with beautiful music and heartfelt vows; we didn't understand a word but we all felt it and there was not a dry eye in the house.  Then it was off to a 12th century castle for photos.  I looked up the history and was fascinated to find out that its origin is lost to antiquity.  Beautiful photos were shot and the party moved to the restaurant.  Such a feast!  Such a celebration!  OK so I almost tripped while dancing with Janos' mom and I did fall on my behind during the limbo but hey - it was the limbo!  We had a blast.  I think my favorite moment was Janos and Gabriella's first dance. They floated across the floor!  It was so romantic - I texted Deb. I spent about an hour or so deep in passionate talk with Artie and was surprised when Steve and Sherry drove me home to find out it was not 11:30 but 2:30 am 

The next morning came fast but we were up at a reasonable hour. Liz and Artie had been there a week so we said goodbye to them as they began the journey home. I spent the day with Steve, Sherry and the newly married Janos and Gabriella.  Steve, who is an excellent driver, rented a car.  We went to Gabriella's parent's house first.  They were delightful and offered us gifts and food and drink. Gabriella's dad showed me his wine making cellar and we moved on to the local town where we visited the market,  a church and toured the city.  In general I was struck with how much one can still feel the Soviet presence.  In monuments, and in the people's eyes you could see this was an area that has seen its share of joy and hardship.  I'm guessing you have already seen the photos I posted but just in case you can check them out here.  And this is where you can link to the photos of other guests.  Finally we ended up back at Janos' village where I had a very spirited talk with his Grandmother.  She is a beautiful and spirited woman.  What an honor to meet her.  Then we continued on to Janos' parents and had yet more wonderful food with them and Janos' younger brother.  All the stories I'd heard were suddenly so real.  What a treasure to meet them and tell them face to face how much I love and admire their son.

The next day we said goodbye as Scott, Matt and I took the van ride back to Budapest.  I tagged along for the next day staying at the hostel they'd reserved.  We spent the next day walking all over Budapest; and I mean all over. My legs were so very sore by the end of the day.  I was able to visit a lot of places I'd missed when I went to visit Janos in 2006.  These included an ancient church built into a cave by Eusibius, a monument to freedom built above the town at an old fortress and the most sobering 'Terror Museum.'  It was a monument to two eras of torture and oppression. Since much of it was in Hungarian I bought a book to be able to make sense of what we saw.  I still haven't been able to read it. Still, it was very powerful. On the whole though it was a free flowing joyful day.  As Matt and Scott got ready to go out for the night life, I realized that my flight was at 5:30 am and I was not, in fact, in my 20's.  So I said good bye to them and ordered a cab for morning. 

I had a few days to kill before my tour in Israel was to begin and since I was going via British Air, it was no more expensive to spend a few days in London.  Scott was gracious enough to accept my request to take the bulk of my stuff home (story there) and Deb was bringing a second bag to Israel so I was very light. While it was no more expensive by way of airfare: London itself has become amazingly expensive!  It was my fourth trip to London so I was able to focus on some particular things I wanted to see.  Some ruins from the Roman period and several museums.  I also continued to walk everywhere.  I had three glorious days.  (Arriving at 9 am Wed and leaving at 10:30 Friday), the weather was picture perfect. It was good for my soul to have some time to myself.  I was torn between being outside and being inside the museums.  I spent a whole day in the British Museum and a few hours in the national gallery.  I went to the half price booth and bought theatre tickets for both nights.  The first night was a musical version of The Lord of the Rings. It was a bit over the top but I enjoyed it.  The effects were amazing.  I of course had gotten up at 4:30 in Budapest and it turned out to be an almost four hour show.  I was whooped by the end.  And the characters all seemed angry all the time.  The music was entirely forgettable  The next night I went to see Spamalot, which is the perfect show to see in London.  I don't think I'd ever gone to a comedy by myself before.  I laughed so hard even though I knew almost all the jokes from my Monty Python days. I spent the last day walking around, visiting St. Paul's.  Yes, I climbed all the way to the tippy top. After which I boarded the tube for the airport.

I was getting ready to board my plane when the woman in front of me was stopped.  Her USA passport was to expire within the next six months.  Turns out you can't enter Israel with a passport that has less then 6 months left.  Who knew?  I handed my passport over and the flight attendant began to count on her fingers.  I was seized with a moment of "OH NO!"  My passport was soon to be expired too!  She looked at me and said "this passport expires six months from today.  You can get on the plane but in an hour and half from now you could not."  I was meeting the group in Tel Aviv and if I had been with them, I would not have made it into the country.  I got in without a further hitch although we went into the West Bank several times and I sweat every time we crossed back in.

Israel, the Sea of Galilee and Jerusalem were life changing.  So much so that I'm still processing the whole trip. Of course I hit the ground running when I got back so I've not done too much in the process department.  I intend to write up an entire webpage about this leg of the trip (much like I did for the Pilgrimages to Turkey and Rome) so I will not write about it now. That will probably not happen until early fall.  In addition to processing that trip, I need to integrate all three experiences.  Something new is being born in me.  More on that later. 

The Return: Deb and I spent a nice long weekend with my parents and re-connecting with Eric.  And then it began.  The next weekend was to be the Men's retreat. I was so very sad that we did not engender enough interest to make it fly this year. In fact, registration is down quite a bit.  The Young Adult camp and one trip camp have fallen to low registration. My take on it is two fold: 1. the economy is, well you know.  2.  If you drive down Main Street in any Maine town and go to the Congregational church on the green, more likely than not there will be very few gathered for the children's time, or at least less than there was 10 years ago.   sigh. 

Napkins and Panels OK, I admit it.  I was dubious about the whole 'cloth napkin' thing.  But I'm a convert.  I love them.  They add a little class and gentleness to the dining hall.  And man did we get a great response.  We've got napkins from all over Maine. It's so fun to find out which napkin you'll get since we have quite a variety.  Eric is very picky.  Rocky Ackroyd is working on a gizmo that hooks up three old bicycles to an old washing machine.  It's not quite there yet but the campers are eager to hop on and wash those napkins without leaving a carbon footprint.  Speaking of lowering our footprint,  Cabin five is now equipped with Solar Panels thanks to the same Rocky and a troupe of friends.  The panels belong to him but he is helping us by loaning them as part of our environmental education program.  We'd love to buy them but this year's budget is pretty skinny so that looks unlikely.  Allie, our nature director, has developed a program to help campers learn about how much energy we use, and how much we generate.  I've learned a lot this summer!

Speaking of Allie, one of my greatest joys this summer is watching her with campers.  She has been our Arts and Crafts director for two years (not to mention back in the 80's as well), a camper, a dean and currently is an OMC member.  In all those roles she brings her jubilant enthusiasm and passion, but as nature director she is truly in her element.  I keep looking between cabins, or behind huge rocks, or deep in the woods to find Allie crouched down with a gaggle of campers wide eyed and fascinated to see the snake, or frog, or mushroom, or spider, or plant that Allie is describing in fine detail.  There is learning happening here and it's infectious. 

New Tech: The database switch has gone better than we thought it would, although it's not without complications. We're all still learning and it's not exactly an intuitive program.  But most parents love being able to register and pay online.  We're a little slower on changes and unusual requests, but we're getting it.  Probably the weakest part of the program is the reporting end, which parents never see.  But I understand the company we're working with is improving the program all the time.  The photos and emails have been great.  We have saved SO much staff time with the easy uploading of photos and the once a day email report.  There have been a few parents that are upset that something they used to get for free now has a charge to it.  I can understand that.  But I explained in a letter that is posted here that it really came down to stopping the services or having them pay for them and most agree we made a good decision.  And the fact that we upload photos virtually everyday with as many photos as we use to have in a week has delighted many parents.  The bunk notes (emails) are kind of funky too.  Some parents are choosing to throw in funky borders, or photos, or even puzzles. That caught me by surprise, and the kids seem to love them.  I will agree that going with an outsourced company has made the online feel more commercial, but it has not affected the experience at camp.  Anyway, most parents understand the change when it has been explained, a few are still upset, and most are really supportive.  (I posted one of the supportive notes on the front page.)

And speaking of the front page, I finally decided to go just a little Web 2.0 and jazz up the front page.  I have always liked the simplicity of the logo with the options but there are a a lot of things parents want to know and I'm hoping I've made it a little easier to find that stuff.  I like the banner across the top, particularly since I don't really know what I'm doing and I'm using an ancient web program. 

Hungry Camper: Oh yeah, that whole cook thing.  Darci was scheduled to cook for us again this summer but at the last moment she couldn't join us. We love her and she went with my blessing.  We hope she'll come visit soon.  The mad dash was a little daunting.  It wasn't so much that I minded doing a last minute search, it was all the things I wasn't doing because my time was spent on the search.  After two false starts I looked up and realized how great the meals had been.  "The two Ryans" both former campers, both first year staff were working like a well oiled machine, putting out great meals and using their heads with leftovers and 'making do.'  Ryan Millian is now our head chef, with weekly supervision by Pam Burnham (who dropped everything and helped us out in the interim along with Tina Phillips who just stepped in and did what had to be done) and Ryan Petherbridge is 'First Cook.'  We're also lucky to have Miriam Rimkunas in the kitchen for a second summer. Ryan M is going into his second year as a Hospitality major at UNH, and it shows.  What could have been a hugely stressful time (ok it was) was made manageable by the tremendous, hard working and caring staff.

Blessings. It has to be said: I have an AMAZING staff this year.  Now before you say "you say that every year," let me say "I know - and it's true."  EVERYONE is enthusiastic, helpful and understands this ministry.  All but two are former campers.  One of them, Mollie Landers, joins us from her experience on staff at Hartman Center, a UCC camp in Pennsylvania.  She's our Resource Coordinator. She will be attending Wesley seminary in the fall hoping to prepare for a career in Outdoor ministry.  Every one of us feel as if we've known her for years.  And speaking of knowing each other for years, many of this group came up together as campers.  On the first day of staff training, two staff members told a story of how when in third grade they heard me say that someone from their group would be a staff member someday. They knew at that moment it was them.  Seeds planted; fruit borne.  It warms my heart.

The other not-a-PL-camper is John Rimkunas, my assistant this summer who came in after his teaching job ended and immediately starting  juggling and hasn't stopped.  He's figured out what needs to be done and taken care of it. My leadership team is rounded out by Becky Muller, now the "Sr. Staff Member" on the waterfront.  There's something that happens to those Colby women!  It's confidence, and passion and competence.  And thank God for Steve and Karen! There will be more staff members to tell you in future entries for sure.

So here we go.  Beauty all around us, surrounding us and filling us. God present in the trees; in crouched campers surrounding spiders; in the swaying trees and singing raised in the chapel; in scripture read by 8 year olds; in nervous deans wanting to give the same meaning they took in as children; in the nightly loon concerts, in lifeguards happily chopping carrots and in the eyes, and hearts of everyone who gives to this ministry.  Amen.

April 8, 2008

Steve started back to work yesterday.  It's a week later than he usually starts and still the snow is about up to the boardwalk railings.  I'm guessing we'll have snow in some wooded spots on June 1.  Usually the ice is out by now. Of course in 1862 it didn't go out until May 5.¹ What a whacky year that was, huh?

I've been project hopping since returning from vacation last January. I hope you've seen some of the results.  As mentioned previously, the brochure is out, and for a lot less money than in previous years.  The cover is dark, but I kind of like the look of the light shining off the labyrinth such that you have to look twice to see it.  As promised none of the rules and legal jargon were in it.  Instead they've moved to the three guides that are now available online.  I think it was a good move as parents and adults can access those at will and we didn't need to pay to print and mail that information 4000 times. 

Next is was on to online registration.  The research as to which company to go with was done in the fall.  Now it was getting PL's registration up and running.  We'd advertised the date of Saturday, March 15 and lo and behold I worked all week before, and all day and night on Friday and hit the send button at 11:57 PM.  Three minutes to spare and we had our first camper registered 20 minutes later.  The system has been working very well and we've gotten lots of positive responses from users.  Only one has written with issues, and we were able to take care of it fairly easily.  Thanks for all the feedback.

As soon as the kinks were out (not that I don't expect more) I jumped into the Deans' retreat which was the weekend after Easter.  It's always fun to share time with the deans in one space.  The OMC worked hard to set a festive atmosphere. We cut the retreat down to one night which felt quite short to me.  We squeezed quite a bit into those 24 hours together.  Photos are posted.  Our theme this year "Handle With Care" refers to the creation.  I think everyone is excited about the possibilities this offers.  The OMC is prepping some ideas for the further greening of Pilgrim Lodge.  Some of them are pretty whacky (in the fun sense of the word) so we'll see what transpires.

Speaking of updated photos, it occurred to me while uploading the new photo of the month ("Jonas & the Serpent") that most of the old photos of the month were still on the website, but with no way to access them.  If you take a look at this month's photo you'll see a new feature: a button that scrolls through all the older photos, or at least all the photos still on the site.  Some go back as far as 2002. 

Last week was to be my big catch up week.  The day after the deans retreat, it hit.  The flu that my doctor tells me is "rampant."  Deb had it and missed the retreat.  Man it's a long recovery!  I'm still not at 100% but at least my brain is off the frying pan a bit. 

Throughout all of the above, with Karen's help, I was working to get the summer staff hired.  Letters have been sent and soon we should have some announcements.  Looks like a tremendous group this summer.

Now the goal is to get the camp open enough for Jump Start Weekend.  Usually that is not an issue but the aforementioned snow load is heavy on my mind and on the PL boardwalk.  Here's the thing: Steve will work to get us open and be there on Saturday of Jump Start and then Sunday, he and his wife fly off to Hungary and the Ukraine, along with Artie Flanders, and Liz Charles.  The following Wednesday I fly out, followed by Scott Harris and his friend Matt. We are all off to the Transcarpathian Mountains to a little village just over the Hungarian border to witness the nuptials of PL staff members Janos Meysar and Gabriella Barta and to dance at their wedding!  How I am looking forward to that!

Now some of you dear readers will remember that four years ago I travelled to Turkey with Marcus Borg and John Dominic Crossan.  Then two years ago I continued that trajectory of study on my own in Rome. Well, the final chapter of this lesson plan is happening next month.  Borg and Crossan are leading a group through Israel: from the Galilee to Jerusalem. I'll fly from Budapest after the wedding, and spend a few days in London then meet Deborah and the group in Tel Aviv.  The timing is just awful in many respects, but I decided that this trip, with these scholars may not happen again and I moved heaven and earth to get a seat on the bus.  I'm very humbled and very grateful by the opportunity.  The Maine Conference and the UCC are both helping me with continuing education scholarships.   For most of my adult life I've studied the historical Jesus and the birth of Christianity so to go where it all happened, and with my two favorite scholars is a tremendous opportunity.  I did not intend this to be so, but the three steps of the journey are: Paul, and the spread of earliest Christianity (Turkey), Rome and the study of the empire to which Jesus' ministry developed in reaction against, and finally to the Holy Land itself.  I am truly blessed to be able to explore my passion. 

The difficult part is that I will be gone for much of May.  When I return the first event, (the Men's retreat) will be a week away and it's a roller coaster after that.  But I know we can do this. 

Do remember to sign up soon, some of the camps are already nearing full!  We are so richly blessed.

Peace and blessings to you,

Bryan

February 7, 2008

This was going to be an easy year: no anniversary celebrations, no ACA accreditation, no fire, no ice, no major systems failure, no big changes. What is that echo I hear through the forest?  Why it's, yes, it's divine laughter!

Most of November was spent researching on-line registration companies which turned out to be interesting, but time consuming. I had vacation time that was to be used up so I had a nice break in late Dec and early Jan.  Upon return I felt a need to re-visit the 2008 budget based on numbers from last year.  Since the 2009 budget will be due soon I submitted that as well.  Now I'm onto the brochure and staff hiring albeit a bit behind the calendar on both.  Since it looks like we will in fact move to on-line registration I need to be setting that up as well.  No lack of winter tasks to be able to bring about PL 2008.  Thanks to the web, the schedule has been posted since November so mom and dad can make their summer plans. 

The brochure will be lighter this year.  Without the registration stuff (yes, there will be a way to effect paper registration) and due to changes in size to keep mailing cost down it will be smaller document.  At this point I'm looking at early March. 

The OMC has several policies born of feedback and long discussion.  I've posted those on the news page along with an explanation of why these policies have come about.  There is also an announcement about pricing for next year which will see a larger than average jump (about 10%).  This is because of rising costs of operation and the fact that we've now used all the capital funds from the last few campaigns.

You heard is first here news: this summer will feature two new camps, a second CIT training event held in March at Rockcraft retreat center and "Rainbow Family Camp" for families with members who are gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender.

I assume you saw the note about the passing of Mr. Barnes, PL ice cream man for half a century.  His son Dick does not intend to keep the business going although he did not rule out the possibility of some occasional treats from the magic basement. Still, it was the end of an era.  Rest in peace Mr. Barnes.

On a personal note I was deeply saddened to hear of the passing of Dan Fogelberg.  I've spent many hours listening to his music over the past 30 years. In an odd coincidence (if you believe in coincidence), my wife Deborah, who I've never heard play his music in 18 years of marriage, picked out a DF CD to play one afternoon over the break.  That very night we heard to news of his passing earlier that day. Fogelberg died after a long battle with prostate cancer at his home in Maine on December 16, 2007 at the age of 56. Thank you Dan.

...I heard a sound, like the beating of heavenly wings. And deep in my brain I can hear a refrain of my soul as she rises and sings anthems to glory and anthems to love, and hymns filled with earthly delight, like the songs that darkness composes to worship the light. -Dan Fogelberg 1951-2007