Aug
27
2010
Staff, counselors and former campers tell why they return to Caswell year after year
By: Melissa Lilley
At the mouth of the Cape Fear River stands Fort Caswell, once a barrier for North Carolina’s coast against enemies on the sea. The Fort is named after Richard Caswell, North Carolina’s first governor, and was used during the Civil War and both World Wars.
In 1949, the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina (BSCNC) purchased Fort Caswell, which was designated as war surplus and assigned for disposal. Today, the NC Baptist Assembly at Fort Caswell on Oak Island is open year-round for conferences and retreats.
Throughout the years summer camp quickly proved one of the most popular events at Caswell, and the summer camp ministry has only continued to increase its influence. During the 2009 summer, about 7,000 students attended camp, known as Youth Weeks. Last summer alone 400 students received Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Savior and 71 students surrendered to the call to full time Christian ministry.
For many North Carolina Baptists, Caswell is a place of spiritual renewal and a place they call “home.” What is it about Caswell that keeps them coming back? During a recent summer Youth Week, a few people shared what the Caswell experience means to them.
Karen Pruette
For 19 years Karen Pruette has served as youth minister at Fork Baptist Church in Mocksville and nearly every year brings her group to Youth Weeks at Caswell. Pruette went to Caswell several times as a teenager and now, serving at the church where she grew up, is making sure the next generation experiences Caswell.
Pruette knew as a teenager she wanted to serve in youth ministry. Thirty years later, “God is still calling me into youth ministry,” she said. Caswell is one place where, year after year, God affirms this calling on her life. Pruette watches as the Gospel of Jesus Christ changes the hearts of youth she had almost given up on.
Each year Youth Weeks focus on a theme, such as discipleship or evangelism. This year the focus is on apologetics and teaching youth how to be grounded in their faith. “Youth are looking for more concrete proof about everything,” Pruette said. “They don’t just take your word for it. They need to be able to answer for themselves. We want them to know the Bible is true, and not just be something they heard or something I told them.”
Jackson Perry
Jackson Perry is 22 years old, and for 21 of those years he has spent a week at Caswell. Perry’s dad served bivocationally as the youth minister of Oak Dale Baptist Church in Rocky Mount, so when the youth went to Caswell, Perry went to Caswell. He made his first trip at six months old. “This is where I grew up,” Perry said.
Perry learned many things during summer camp at Caswell, one of the most important being how to serve others. He also learned what it means to be someone who seeks after the face of God and longs for the character of Christ.
Perry worked the past three summers at Caswell doing a job far from glamorous: cafeteria dish room staff. The job was long, hot and came with little recognition. Yet, Perry made friends with other staff and learned what it means to serve others with little regard for self.
This year Perry returned to Caswell, but in a different role. This year marks his first year at Caswell as a chaperone with the Oak Dale youth group. The youth group is in transition as the church seeks a full time youth minister, and Perry said he couldn’t leave them without help. Perry didn’t just commit to working with the youth at Caswell; he committed his entire summer to serving.
Andrew Burnette
Not until Andrew Burnette came to Caswell did he learn how to and even want to grow his relationship with Jesus. Burnette, now a junior at Campbell University, still remembers as an 8th grader sitting outside Hatch Auditorium and reading in Luke about passion week. He came to the part when Jesus prayed, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”
In that moment Burnette understood that in his own strength he could not forgive like that. The Lord opened his heart to get a glimpse at just how much he was loved by his Heavenly Father.
This is Burnette’s second year serving on the recreation staff at Caswell. Coming into his first summer on staff Burnette said he was “weighed down by a lot of stuff.” Within the first three weeks the Lord used Matthew 16:24 to change his heart. “I was putting my own dreams and desires ahead of God,” he said. “I broke down and said, ‘God, I give it to you.’”
Kylie Nall
When Kylie Nall enters UNC-Charlotte this fall as a freshman she plans to focus her studies on nursing. Nall wants to be a “nurse missionary” when she graduates. For now, Nall is using her time on staff with Coastal Explorers to focus on the missions part of her future career. “I’m learning more about my faith,” she said. “Right now I’m working on growing in my faith.”
Coastal Explorers at Caswell is a day camp for middle school students. From leading devotions to crabbing and kayaking, Nall builds relationships with the campers and looks for opportunities to share the Gospel.
Nall came to Caswell Youth Weeks five years as a camper. Last year she worked in the Drift-in, the Internet café at Caswell. Around the time Nall was preparing to come to Caswell last year her parents were going through a divorce. Being at Caswell, enjoying fellowship with staff and attending worship services “brought me peace,” Nall said. “You can feel God’s presence here.”
Dwight and Lissa Munn
In 1985, Lissa Munn and her parents set out to make the drive from Louisiana to Fort Caswell so Lissa could begin her summer job in the cafeteria. Lissa had not heard about Caswell until a friend recommended she apply for summer staff. When Lissa and her friend arrived they planned to spend their free time at the beach and had no intentions of trying to invest much time in getting to know anyone else.
They certainly didn’t expect to meet their future husbands at Caswell. Lissa met Dwight her first summer at Caswell, which was Dwight’s second year on staff. Dwight was about three years older than Lissa and after Caswell they parted ways. Four years later they were engaged, and when it came time to celebrate their 15th anniversary, they headed back to Oak Island.
Of course meeting his wife was the highlight of his Caswell experience. But Dwight, now minister of education at First Baptist Church in Monroe, La., still values the “deep and abiding friendships made in a key juncture in life.” He also learned to “pick up the towel and the basin and serve people.” Dwight and Lissa knew their work behind the scenes, whether in the cafeteria or guest services, helped facilitate a setting where youth could experience a week of life change.
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