Thursday night while I was sitting at Gulftreat thinking about all of my memories of camping at Gulftreat, I felt the need to share my story. So, I typed the following email and sent it to the Fundraising committee for the new Presbytery of Sheppards and Lapsley camp 'Living River'. I thought I would share it with all:
From Elementary Camp to Hurricane Katrina
Camping in the Presbytery of Sheppards and Lapsley
My first memories of camp are as a young elementary aged kid at Gufltreat. My dad was the Youth Pastor at FPC, Selma and he was leading a Work Camp of Senior Highs while my little brother, my mom, and I tagged along and called it a ‘family vacation’. A few years later, we moved from Selma to Atlanta. Even after we moved I attended Elementary and Middle School Summer camp at Gulftreat instead of attending Cherokee Presbytery’s Camp. My dad also began to bring the youth group from Marietta to Gulftreat for weekend retreats and spring break trips. During college, I worked at Gulftreat as a camp counselor and helped lead day camps in Wilcox County, Anniston, Montgomery, and Tuscaloosa. I also helped plan and attended many college retreats at Gulftreat. After I married Morgan, we began to bring her youth group to Gulftreat for Presbytery retreats and we even had a ‘family vacation’ of our own here. Now I am at Gulftreat helping victims of Hurricane Katrina live here and start to put their lives back together.
As you can tell, Gulftreat holds a special place in my heart. I have a lifetime of memories in these old cinder block buildings and I am only 27 years old. I have cried, laughed, sang, shouted, worked, prayed, and played here. I have spent the last week helping to fixing all of the hundreds of things that are broken and not working in these old, old buildings. Even though I see the state of this camp and my head tells me that everything is broken and beyond repair, my heart still hurts to know that it is time to move on.
I know there are many other people that have similar stories about Gulftreat and have similar feelings about how hard it will be when the time comes to lock it up for the last time. I also know that there are many other people who are ready to shut this place down and build a brand new camp that has everything in the world in it. And then there a lot of people like me who hurt for the loss of Gulftreat but are excited about the possibilities of the new camp on the Cahaba. And this brings me to my point…
All of these people are right. We are ALL right because we (the Presbytery of Sheppards and Lapsley) has for generations made camping a priority in the mission of our church. We have volunteered at camps, given money to camps, built camps, lead camps, attended camps, and prayed for camps and that is truly an amazing thing. There are hundreds of thousands of people who remember Gulftreat or Covenant Mountain or a Day Camp in their own church all because WE have made camping a priority. It is not the place that makes a camp special, regardless of how many good memories you have in that place, it is the people and the presence of the Holy Spirit that make a place special. That is exactly why I KNOW that the Living River Camp on the Cahaba will truly be a place full of the Holy Spirit. We have been given a wonderful opportunity to build a camp in our own backyard that can serve us and our kids hundreds of times more than Gulftreat ever could. So, I challenge you to not only give money to help build this camp, and to not only pray for this camp, and to not only tell more people about this camp, but when this camp is built to send your kids to this camp, send your grandkids to this camp, attend this camp yourself, volunteer at this camp, and make sure you bring the Holy Spirit that is SO alive in our Presbytery and our camping!
Peace,
Robert Hay, Jr.
Monday, September 12, 2005
Saturday, September 10, 2005
Gulftreat - Day 4
Well, I finally had to leave Gulftreat to head home. I got up Friday morning and tried to take care of all the little things I needed to and made a list of items to hand off to the Shelter Director and the Pastor. I said goodbye to several of the volunteers and to some of the guests. They all were very appreciative of my time and hard work.
As I drove away, I couldn't help but feel like I was running away from people in need. I know that I just spent the last 4 days working my butt off and using my vacation time to do it. I know what I did was a good thing. However, was 4 days enough? These people will be living this nightmare for the next several months and I get to go home to my wife and dog and house after only 4 days. I get to go home and watch football all day on my comfy couch. I get to go back to my job and my friends and act like this devastation never occurred. The logical side of my brain tells me that there will always be more people I can help, but that I must get on with my life or I will spend the rest of my life volunteering. However, my heart wants to help as many people as I can as much as I can.
At work, we have this concept of 'Work/Life Balance'. Basically our bosses tell us that they want us to work hard, but that they also expect us to balance that with a life away from work so we don't get burnt out. How do I balance my life with a life of helping others?
As I drove away, I couldn't help but feel like I was running away from people in need. I know that I just spent the last 4 days working my butt off and using my vacation time to do it. I know what I did was a good thing. However, was 4 days enough? These people will be living this nightmare for the next several months and I get to go home to my wife and dog and house after only 4 days. I get to go home and watch football all day on my comfy couch. I get to go back to my job and my friends and act like this devastation never occurred. The logical side of my brain tells me that there will always be more people I can help, but that I must get on with my life or I will spend the rest of my life volunteering. However, my heart wants to help as many people as I can as much as I can.
At work, we have this concept of 'Work/Life Balance'. Basically our bosses tell us that they want us to work hard, but that they also expect us to balance that with a life away from work so we don't get burnt out. How do I balance my life with a life of helping others?
Thursday, September 08, 2005
slackers
I interrupt this regularly scheduled broadcast of my experiences at Gulftreat to announce that all you bloggers out there that are reading my blog and aren't updating your own blog are being a bunch of slackers. If I can find 10 minutes at the end of a long day of manual labor to write a blog, then you folks can find 5 minutes to at least make fun of me or something so that I have something to distract me from all of the grief around me. So, snap to it!!!
We now return to our regularly scheduled broadcast...
We now return to our regularly scheduled broadcast...
Katrina and Families - Day 3
Last night a lady who is probably in her early 60's checked into Gulftreat. Her son dropped her off. She is from Bay St. Louis and her apartment complex is completely gone. At dinner tonight I started talking with her and we had a pleasant conversation. It was like talking to one of my grandmother's friends. I learned that she used to be a medical transcriptionists, but she got bored of that life and decided to become a casino dealer. She has spent the last 10 years of her life as a dealer or pit boss in a variety of games. We talked about how all that worked and I learned some interesting information about gambling.
As the conversation progressed we began to talk about her family. I learned that she had a son and two daughters. The son and his family were staying at another shelter down the beach but that shelter didn't have room for a single woman so they sent her to us. One of her daughters was in a shelter in Destin. Her other daughter was not in a shelter. Instead she was staying in her vacation home right here in Panama City Beach. I wanted to say 'Why aren't you staying at the beachhouse with your daughter?' but the answer to my question came pretty quickly. She proceeded to tell me that she hadn't even talked to that daughter yet which was no surprise since they hadn't spoken in several years.
My heart hit the floor. Here is an older woman who has lost everything and she is staying in a shelter less than 10 minutes away from where her own daughter is living comfortably in a vacation home. My family isn't perfect, but I don't think anyone's family is, but I immediately was thankful for my family. Tonight, I am praying for this lady and her family and giving thanks for my family.
As the conversation progressed we began to talk about her family. I learned that she had a son and two daughters. The son and his family were staying at another shelter down the beach but that shelter didn't have room for a single woman so they sent her to us. One of her daughters was in a shelter in Destin. Her other daughter was not in a shelter. Instead she was staying in her vacation home right here in Panama City Beach. I wanted to say 'Why aren't you staying at the beachhouse with your daughter?' but the answer to my question came pretty quickly. She proceeded to tell me that she hadn't even talked to that daughter yet which was no surprise since they hadn't spoken in several years.
My heart hit the floor. Here is an older woman who has lost everything and she is staying in a shelter less than 10 minutes away from where her own daughter is living comfortably in a vacation home. My family isn't perfect, but I don't think anyone's family is, but I immediately was thankful for my family. Tonight, I am praying for this lady and her family and giving thanks for my family.
Wednesday, September 07, 2005
Gulftreat - Day 2
Well, I wish I could tell you that helping people during this disaster is uplifting and rewarding, but the truth is that it is emotionally draining and frustrating. I don't know how my friend Amy does it. She has been working at a homeless shelter in Atlanta and she sits for hours and listens to sob story after sob story. I know in my heart that what I am doing is the right thing. And I can tell on the faces of the evacuees (clients, guests, refugee, we haven't decided what term to use yet)that they appreciate me and all of the other volunteers. It is their stories that drain me. It is turning away people because we can't verify that they are actually from an evacuated area that drains me. But the 'guests' aren't the ones that frustrate me... it is is the other volunteers. Especially the retired Red Cross man who thinks he is God's gift to crisis management. But that is a story for when I am drunk and pissed off and right now I am only pissed off so I can't share it.
For all of you liberal, 'Save-the-(fill in the popular item/species/race of the day)', Wal-mart Haters, you will love this part of my post. So, I am drained physically and emotionally and I just need some time to experience something normal. So I get in my car and head to Wal-mart. I don't need anything particular, I just need some time alone. This is no normal Super Wal-mart, nope. This Super Wal-mart is close to the Beach and it has a liquor store in it AND an Air-brush store where you can get you own personalized PCB (that is Panama City Beach) air-brush t-shirt or any other item that they sell in the store (including sand-dollars). If you have never been to the 'Redneck Riviera', anything airbrushed is cool.
So, I just walked around Wal-mart looking at items I had looked at a million times. It was strangely refreshing and familiar. I am sure some of you are thinking to yourself that it is quite ironic that I would find so much spiritual renewal in such a heathen filled corporate mega-store. But to you I say "Always low prices, always!" And to you Presbyterian Seminary nerds who hate Wal-mart more than any group of people I have ever meet, remember that Sam Walton was a good Presbyterian who gave lots of money to the denomination that you are about to work for. You may have your issues with how he made his money, but I don't and I personally would like to give a shout out to Mr. Sam Walton (who is also a frat bro of mine) for building such an American store that it has made me feel better just for walking through it.
Thank God for Wal-mart,
Robert
For all of you liberal, 'Save-the-(fill in the popular item/species/race of the day)', Wal-mart Haters, you will love this part of my post. So, I am drained physically and emotionally and I just need some time to experience something normal. So I get in my car and head to Wal-mart. I don't need anything particular, I just need some time alone. This is no normal Super Wal-mart, nope. This Super Wal-mart is close to the Beach and it has a liquor store in it AND an Air-brush store where you can get you own personalized PCB (that is Panama City Beach) air-brush t-shirt or any other item that they sell in the store (including sand-dollars). If you have never been to the 'Redneck Riviera', anything airbrushed is cool.
So, I just walked around Wal-mart looking at items I had looked at a million times. It was strangely refreshing and familiar. I am sure some of you are thinking to yourself that it is quite ironic that I would find so much spiritual renewal in such a heathen filled corporate mega-store. But to you I say "Always low prices, always!" And to you Presbyterian Seminary nerds who hate Wal-mart more than any group of people I have ever meet, remember that Sam Walton was a good Presbyterian who gave lots of money to the denomination that you are about to work for. You may have your issues with how he made his money, but I don't and I personally would like to give a shout out to Mr. Sam Walton (who is also a frat bro of mine) for building such an American store that it has made me feel better just for walking through it.
Thank God for Wal-mart,
Robert
Tuesday, September 06, 2005
Hurricane Katrina - Day 1
It has been a while since my last post and a lot has gone on in my life, but I will have to share that stuff at another time...
As you all are aware, Hurricane Katrina ripped through the Gulf Coast (AL, MS, and LA) early last week. Not only did the winds do tremendous damage as the Category 4 storm hit shore, but it also made a near direct hit on New Orleans, which we are all aware of now, was surrounded by levies that would only protect it from a Category 3. The devastation and the number of people who have suffered is greater than any tragedy that this country has seen in a long time and it is definitely the greatest tragedy of my lifetime. As I watched this tragedy unfold on every news channel, I wondered what it was that I could do. Morgan and I spoke about it several times, but felt that the only thing we could do was give money (which is not a little thing to do, they need lots of money). So, when my dad called and said that he had opened his camp in Panama City Beach as a shelter and needed some help I felt that was someone (upstairs) trying to tell me something. Fortunately for me, my managers were very understanding about the situation on such short notice and allowed me to take the time to come down here and help.
For those of you who don't know, my dad is a Presbytery Executive for Nurture for the Presbytery of Sheppards and Lapsley. Basically that means he runs all of the camps, conferences, and retreats for the Presbyterian Churches in the middle portion of the state of Alabama. The Presbytery that he works for owns a camp, Gulftreat, that is located 2 blocks from the beach in beautiful Panama City Beach, Florida. I grew up coming to this camp, have worked at this camp as a counselor in college, and have attended this camp as an adult chaperone for youth groups. The camp backs up to a Presbyterian Church called Gulf Beach Presbyterian Church. The Presbytery that my dad works for is in the process of raising over $20 million to build a new camp on the Cahaba River closer to the churches in Alabama. As part of that process, Gulftreat has been sold to Gulf Beach Presbyterian and the presbytery is currently leasing the camp back from the church until the new camp in Alabama is built. So, the church down here owns the camp, but my dad runs it. This makes for a unique dynamic as both parties wanted to open the camp as a shelter for Katrina Victims.
All of that is a long way of saying that essentially the church (Gulf Beach) is running a shelter out of the camp (Gulftreat) that they own but that they have no experience of dealing with or running. The buildings are old and there are all sorts of things that need fixing and that is where I come in. My dad needed someone here that knows the camp and that can keep the camp programs in mind as decisions about changing the camp are made. So, essentially I am dealing with all of the things that are broken at the camp; hot water leaks, broken showers, broken toilets, broken A/C, broken refrigerator, broken sprinkler system, etc. I have become the 'handy man' and general contractor of the shelter. Tons of fun.
Anyways, most of the people who are staying here are from the New Orleans area. They are mostly blue collar, working class people and each of them is either actively looking for a job here in Panama City or is helping around the camp. These people have lost everything, but they are all motivated individuals who will survive and will get through this tragedy. Some of them were staying in hotels previously and either got kicked out for Holiday weekend reservations or were maxing out their credit cards. I haven't had much time to interact, but they are all very thankful for what we are doing and most of them are feeling thankful that they are alive. Their courage during this tragedy is amazing. I can only hope that if I ever have this kind of tragedy in my life that I can handle it with half as much courage and optimism.
More tomorrow, now it is sleepy time ...zzzzz
As you all are aware, Hurricane Katrina ripped through the Gulf Coast (AL, MS, and LA) early last week. Not only did the winds do tremendous damage as the Category 4 storm hit shore, but it also made a near direct hit on New Orleans, which we are all aware of now, was surrounded by levies that would only protect it from a Category 3. The devastation and the number of people who have suffered is greater than any tragedy that this country has seen in a long time and it is definitely the greatest tragedy of my lifetime. As I watched this tragedy unfold on every news channel, I wondered what it was that I could do. Morgan and I spoke about it several times, but felt that the only thing we could do was give money (which is not a little thing to do, they need lots of money). So, when my dad called and said that he had opened his camp in Panama City Beach as a shelter and needed some help I felt that was someone (upstairs) trying to tell me something. Fortunately for me, my managers were very understanding about the situation on such short notice and allowed me to take the time to come down here and help.
For those of you who don't know, my dad is a Presbytery Executive for Nurture for the Presbytery of Sheppards and Lapsley. Basically that means he runs all of the camps, conferences, and retreats for the Presbyterian Churches in the middle portion of the state of Alabama. The Presbytery that he works for owns a camp, Gulftreat, that is located 2 blocks from the beach in beautiful Panama City Beach, Florida. I grew up coming to this camp, have worked at this camp as a counselor in college, and have attended this camp as an adult chaperone for youth groups. The camp backs up to a Presbyterian Church called Gulf Beach Presbyterian Church. The Presbytery that my dad works for is in the process of raising over $20 million to build a new camp on the Cahaba River closer to the churches in Alabama. As part of that process, Gulftreat has been sold to Gulf Beach Presbyterian and the presbytery is currently leasing the camp back from the church until the new camp in Alabama is built. So, the church down here owns the camp, but my dad runs it. This makes for a unique dynamic as both parties wanted to open the camp as a shelter for Katrina Victims.
All of that is a long way of saying that essentially the church (Gulf Beach) is running a shelter out of the camp (Gulftreat) that they own but that they have no experience of dealing with or running. The buildings are old and there are all sorts of things that need fixing and that is where I come in. My dad needed someone here that knows the camp and that can keep the camp programs in mind as decisions about changing the camp are made. So, essentially I am dealing with all of the things that are broken at the camp; hot water leaks, broken showers, broken toilets, broken A/C, broken refrigerator, broken sprinkler system, etc. I have become the 'handy man' and general contractor of the shelter. Tons of fun.
Anyways, most of the people who are staying here are from the New Orleans area. They are mostly blue collar, working class people and each of them is either actively looking for a job here in Panama City or is helping around the camp. These people have lost everything, but they are all motivated individuals who will survive and will get through this tragedy. Some of them were staying in hotels previously and either got kicked out for Holiday weekend reservations or were maxing out their credit cards. I haven't had much time to interact, but they are all very thankful for what we are doing and most of them are feeling thankful that they are alive. Their courage during this tragedy is amazing. I can only hope that if I ever have this kind of tragedy in my life that I can handle it with half as much courage and optimism.
More tomorrow, now it is sleepy time ...zzzzz
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