Year Eleven: We're Going Back to Camp

Sometime this week, Adam and I will pile into the car and point ourselves toward Oregon. We'll wind through Siuslaw National Forest until the signal drops and the trees get tall, and we'll pull into Drift Creek Camp for the eleventh time.

Eleven years. I still can't quite believe it.

What started as a one-week SOOP mission trip through Mennonite Mission Network involving our family, a few nervous grandparents, and absolutely no idea what we were getting into has become one of the most anchoring rhythms of our year. We went to serve. We ended up being the ones changed.

This year, Emma, Sydney, and Garrison are making the trip with us. Ivan and his wife Alyssa are sitting this one out as they're in the middle of selling their home and moving, which is its own kind of adventure, but they'll be with us in spirit, probably stress-eating takeout somewhere between showings and closing dates.

The kitchen will be in our experienced hands. I'll be something of a head cook as I try to manage the chaos while Adam is my right-hand man, a steady and unflappable sous chef who somehow makes everything run smoother. Emma is a dietitian who bakes like a Mennonite grandma, precise, generous, and completely at home with a batch of bread dough. Sydney cooks from the heart, which is a polite way of saying the measuring cups are optional and somehow it always turns out exactly right. And Garrison? He'll pitch in where needed, but his real ministry at camp is elsewhere. He’s happiest on the trails, camera in hand, moving through the forest at the pace God intended. There's something holy about the way that kid finds quiet.

We'll spend the week feeding counselors & staff, making everything from scratch, and logging more hours elbow-to-elbow as a family than we manage in the rest of the year. There will be bread to bake, onions to chop, and at least one moment where something goes sideways in a way that becomes a story we'll tell for years. That's just camp.

I'm not packing light (I never do) but what I'm really bringing is the willingness to unplug, to work hard alongside people I love, and to let the forest do what forests do.

Drift Creek has a way of stripping things back down to what matters. No wifi. No algorithm. Just the creek, the kitchen, and the people God keeps putting in our path.

We'll be back next week, probably tired, definitely fed, and already looking forward to year twelve.

So if your order is running a little behind, now you know where I am - elbow-deep in food prep somewhere in the Oregon forest, completely off the grid, and exactly where I'm supposed to be. I'll be back at the cabin soon. Thanks for your patience. -Jen