Pathfinders Week 1, where apparently fluffy is something that projects

Just a couple things I realized about Pathfinders students this week that made me feel old:

• they were born in 1998 or later. I remember those years pretty well.
• they don't remember dial-up internet
• you mention AIM to them and you get strange looks
• trying to chase down teenagers during capture the flag – not as easy as, say, 9-year-olds. Actually, I couldn't catch them.

Well, week one of camp is over, and those Pathfinders went home Friday evening. But what a week it was.

There was a total of 17 high school students this week; that's total, both boys and girls. Pretty small camp, but that also made relationships amongst all campers closer. Carla, the other female Pathfinder counselor, and I combined our cabins into just one room, as there were only 7 girls. It was really good to be able to work alongside Carla, the only other female counselor returnee and so someone I already have a good relationship with.

Unlike other camps, though, we didn't do much of anything as a cabin group. Instead, we had 2 small groups that mixed boys and girls. My co-leader for our small group – Projecting Fluffy (name created by the kids) – was Kyle. God totally set up that pairing because we worked well together, my weaknesses made up for by his strengths and visa versa. Plus he's a really fun guy to work with and we grew close over the week.

We had some, uh, interesting stories from the week. One of those stories will live in Pathfinder legend for at least the rest of the summer, if not into next year.

Our activity for the night was a geocaching hike with our small group; the other small group would do this hike later in the week. It was the first time they were doing something like this, but the leaders thought it would be a good high schooler activity. One of the core staff hid various objects around Grace property and then recorded the coordinates for the kids to use the GPS to find. After an orientation to the GPS, we were off.

One thing to understand about this story is that I am the lone counselor on this hike for the first hour of it. We get an hour off per day as staff, and Kyle was on his hour off for the first part of the hike. So it's me, directionally challenged, and 9 high school students. Okay, resume.

We found the first two objects in a relatively quick manner – marshmallows and graham crackers. So we guessed what we were looking for next – chocolate. They read the next coordinates and we set off through the woods.

We're walking along the paths that wind through the forest of Grace property, climbing hills, trying not to trip on sticks, and me asking the students to not touch that dead baby raccoon. We pass high camp, a place I visited during staff training so I know where we are. We continue walking, and I grow less sure of if we're still on Grace property; I don't know how far our property reaches. And then we climb this hill and come out to a vast expanse of.... sand dune. Off to the side is this ramshackle silo. Well, we aren't on Grace property for sure now. The kids with the GPS find exactly where they think the coordinates lead, which is the middle of this dune. No chocolate, of course. At that moment the batteries on the GPS die. The kids look up bewildered. What do we do now? Funny for me to watch, only because I had been given extra batteries. I quickly rescue them from panic by producing new batteries.

The kids are sitting around the sand dune, saying how we're probably going to die out here and contemplating how deep to dig their own graves. Oh over-dramatic high school students. We are not going to die, I tell them, and try to think logically. I try to listen for cars to find a road which we can follow back. Nothing. Crap. Then I remember the other objects were found in a familiar place, so can lead us back to camp if we just find those coordinates again. I'm in big-time driver mode (meaning I take charge and just want to get things done) and so I tell the kids the plan is to forget the chocolate and go back to the coordinates for the graham crackers. No one objects. I tell them the coordinates and some of the students say that to get there we have to walk further across the dune. Heck no, I'm not doing that. I want to go back to the woods, where at least part of the time I was sure of where we were. I get a couple protests, but my teacher voice of firmness comes out and they all slink back to the woods. One of the students figures out the GPS allows us to retrace our steps, so we begin to do that. By this time, I know people know we're lost because Kyle's hour off ended half an hour ago, so he'll be wondering where we are, and we were supposed to be moving onto our next activity soon. We start retracing our steps and then I hear voices. “Pathfinders! Becca! Hello!” I shush everyone and yell “Hello?!” Then up over the next hill comes Kyle racing towards us with Silas, the adventure core staff and designer of the hike, directly behind him. We're found.

Apparently there were a total of 5 or 6 people searching the woods for us. Good thing we went back there, huh? What happened was the students were correct on the first and third coordinate of the north directions, but failed to take into account the middle coordinate, and so we were one degree off. According to Silas, that was about 1.5 miles further than where we were supposed to be and we walked a total of 3 miles that night. As I begin to process, the fear that was pushed aside on the dune takes over. But I'm given my full hour off, and by the time I rejoin the group I am able to laugh about it. Even writing this post I'm laughing about it.

Good things came out of this adventure. First, the students kept more positive attitudes towards one another than most students would in the situation. Sure, they were saying they were going to die, but they were also laughing and joking about what was happening. Second, it built the team. Getting lost in a sand dune tends to bring people closer as they laugh over the shared experience. Third, it allowed them to learn from their failure. Later, as I talked to my core staff, she apologized for causing me panic because I didn't know what was going on, but also said she wouldn't have wanted me to do anything differently if I had known. It was their failure to have and learn from. They learned to pay attention to all details for sure.

Besides these daring adventures, a lot more happened during Pathfinders week 1. We worked through the Journey curriculum, we discussed the 5 major worldviews, we talked about who God is, why the Bible is reliable, if and why Christ rose, and healthy relationships. I'll be honest, I wasn't always 100% sure what the kids were soaking in or what went in one ear and out another. But during one-on-ones and the final campfire I saw that I was wrong, and that I should've trusted that the Holy Spirit was working even when I didn't see it. Some of my girls told me their favorite part of the week was those lessons in the evening or the worldview discussions. At the campfire, students who had been acting difficult all week shared valuable lessons they had learned. Our God is amazing and works in wonderful ways.

So here we go, into week 2. The schedule may be similar, but the week is going to be totally different; new kids, new memories, new lessons learned. I'm looking forward to seeing more reapings of the seeds we plant.