Just about every camper that attends Camp Bear Creek knows what it feels like to splash through the creek and race down the mudslide. They know what it feels like to sink deep into the mud, feel the cold water splash on on their legs, and watch the minnows swim against the current. At almost any time of day at Camp Bear Creek, if you were to take a hike toward the creek bottom, you’d hear the laughter and squeals of campers getting very, very dirty in Bear Creek!
At first glance, creek stomping and the mudslide look like simple camp fun—a way to cool off and burn energy. But if you look closer (and maybe wipe the mud from your cheeks), there’s a profound spiritual truth hiding in the muck.
In a world that constantly asks us to stay clean, curated, and filtered, why do we find so much grace in the mud?
Faith is an “Outdoor Sport.” We often treat faith like a Sunday morning activity, something to be done in our “good clothes” where everything is tidy and quiet. But the Bible tells a different story. It’s a story of dusty roads, stormy seas, and a Creator God who literally got his hands dirty to breathe life into the clay.
When we jump into the creek, we’re reminded that faith is incarnation. It’s physical. It’s messy. To truly experience the beauty of Bear Creek, you can’t just watch from the bluff above. You have to get down into the valley, feel the cold water, and embrace the sticky mud. Our faith is lived in the chaos and the messiness of life.
Faith isn’t a performance. Modern life—especially for our campers—is a constant performance. Social media demands a perfect “look,” and school demands a perfect “score.” But the mud is a great equalizer. You can’t look perfect while sliding down the mud slide. You can’t worry about your outfit when you’re helping a friend navigate the slippery bank. In the mud, the filters come off. We can be our most authentic, joyful, vulnerable selves, unburdened by expectations.
At camp, we know that you haven’t really seen a person’s true, authentic self until you’ve seen them lose a shoe in the creek and laugh about it or put on a silly costume and dance in the meadow or climb the rock tower soaked in sweat and happily sun-kissed. There’s no reason to hide behind a filter. You can just be you.
Stewardship starts with connection. It’s hard to care about the environment and our natural world when these things are just an abstract concept. It’s very easy to care about a creek once you’ve named the minnows swimming under the rocks and painted yourself with its mud. By getting in the mess, our campers develop a literal connection to the earth. This is stewardship in action. We learn to love the land and our world, not because it’s a pretty backdrop for a photo, but because it’s a living, breathing gift from God that we’ve felt between our toes.
There are so many lessons to be learned in the mud:
- Don’t fear the mess: Whether it’s a messy friendship or a muddy season of life, God is present in the middle of it, not just at the clean finish line.
- Presence over perfection: The best memories aren’t made when things go perfectly. They’re made when we’re fully present in the moment.
- Community support: You can’t claw your way out of the mud alone. You need a hand to pull you up, which is exactly what your camp and faith community are for.
So parents, next time you unpack those muddy clothes after a week of camp, take a deep breath. Those stains aren’t just dirt; they’re marks of a week spent discovering that God doesn’t mind the mess—in fact, that’s often where the most growth happens.
So we’ll see you this summer, mud and all, at Camp Bear Creek!
Welcome