HoneyRock - Sensing God’s Fatherly Presence in Wild Places
I always get the question: how did your family from Marietta, Georgia end up at HoneyRock, an outdoor camp owned by Wheaton College located 1000 miles away in Three Lakes, Wisconsin? It started in the summer of 2005 as I finished middle school and my mom found out about the camp through our youth pastor’s family who had history with Wheaton College & HoneyRock. I was actually reluctant to attend as I usually spent my awkward, rebellious pre-teen summers wasting away with junk food, video games, skateboarding, or chatting with girls on AIM. However, my mom was persistent and weeks later I found myself in the middle of Wisconsin near the Canada border with no cell phone, no ipod (1st generation), no familiar friends, and a lot of uncertainty.
I felt quite out of place as a Korean-American from Georgia in a predominantly White midwestern context. However, by kicking off our Advance Camp program with an intense wilderness backpacking trip where we were destroyed by bugs, exhausted from miles of hiking, and cooking meals with WWII army equipment, our cabin’s group of boys bonded quickly through shared challenges and experiences.
Back at camp after our trip, we spent most our other days playing sports and games, building skills in mountain biking, climbing, or archery, eating grilled cheeses at the dining hall, singing worship songs, playing games, sharing our life stories around campfires, and spending time in reflection on some of the most beautiful lakes I have ever seen. I did not realize it at the time, but my time at HoneyRock enabled me to experience God’s presence, worship, and authentic community through fun, adventure, and nature where I felt so much more inspired and engaged in a Christ-centered life than I had ever felt through my time in church back home.
Jacob Sorenson (2021) writes on the unique gifts of Christian camps, “faith-centered camps do not separate the fun, highly participatory camp programs from the faith activities” (p. 110). Up until this point, I had always felt guilty or sinful when I felt less engaged at our local Korean church where we spent hours sitting inside dark rooms arbitrarily reciting scripture verses, singing hymns, or listening to Korean sermons in pews where I was anxiously waiting for the service to end. Stepping into HoneyRock felt so freeing where I was allowed to have fun, be wild, and enjoy laughter as part of worship and faith formation. I started to see God less as a rigid dictator ruling my life with His commands but more of a warm gracious Father who delights in seeing His children full of joy and freedom.
August 2023 at HoneyRock Camp: Cousins + Uncle
I am so grateful for my mom’s love and courage to send her sons and nephews to this sacred place. In her humility as a single mom who recognized that she could not be both a mother and father, she always invested her resources so that I could access opportunities, environments, and relationships where I could be mentored, pastored, coached, and cared for by many spiritual fathers, such as the many HoneyRock camp counselors who poured into my life and helped inspire me into a man of faith and character. After I attended, our moms, aunts, and uncles sent all 12 nephews and nieces in our family from 2005 until 2023, where I recently had the opportunity to work at camp as a HoneyRock Graduate student alongside my youngest cousin Calvin who was finishing up his final year as a counselor (pictured above).
HoneyRock is not perfect but for our family it is a sacred place where we could intimately experience the presence of our perfect God.
Sorenson, J. (2021). Sacred Playgrounds: Christian summer camp in theological perspective. Eugene, OR: Cascade Books.