At a place as lovely as Ridge Haven, it’s easy to see how the kids have fun. Campers enjoy swimming, hiking, and paintball — building relationships while having an incredibly good time. Daily chapel messages and cabin Bible studies allow campers to hear the gospel and grow as Christ’s disciples. With 6,000 campers and retreat guests each summer, and 12,000 total guests in 2021, Ridge Haven’s student ministry is bound to have an impact.
But to Wallace Anderson, Ridge Haven’s executive director, the camp/retreat center’s most significant ministry might be to the high school staff working in the Camp Summer Intern (CSI) program.
“CSI is an incredible ministry with lifelong impact,” Anderson said. The program started about 11 years ago as an economical way to bring in more support staff and keep older teens engaged when they are not old enough to work as counselors.
The CSI program is like a multiweek service project. The job pays nothing; in fact, the 40 CSIs Ridge Haven “hires” pay a modest room-and-board fee in exchange for their hard work and long days. But in the upside-down world of servant leadership, high school students relish the experience for the leadership skills they develop and strong bonds they forge.
Discipleship Through Service
Teens can apply for the CSI program as early as age 15. CSIs are divided into teams with each one taking a six-hour shift working behind the scenes as housekeepers, lifeguards, or in the kitchen. Each team also takes a four-hour shift leading games and activities..
Ridge Haven hires college students to work as CSI directors, living with and supervising the CSIs. They mediate conflict, lead Bible studies, and make sure the CSIs get their work done, but in the process they provide relational, life-on-life discipleship.
“The CSI program is discipleship through service. Everyone else should have someone they are mentoring, discipling, and investing in,” said Cameron Anderson, Ridge Haven’s director of operations. “It works the whole way up the ladder.”
Following Christ in an Occupation
Lily Gerrell first came to Ridge Haven for church retreats, then as a camper, and finally working her way up through Ridge Haven’s staff positions during her six summers on staff. She began as a CSI for two years, then served as a counselor, then the counselor director. She also worked as a kitchen manager.
Now she is studying hospitality management at the University of Georgia and plans to work as a Reformed University Fellowship (RUF) intern when she graduates. While Gerrell said she already knew she wanted to study hospitality management before working as a CSI, the experience furthered her passion for serving people
through food.
Her years as a CSI were lessons in humility. The long hours of laboring in anonymity in the kitchen helped her understand that God sees her work, even if no one else does. And working as the kitchen manager gave her opportunities to help sisters in Christ work through the inevitable conflicts that come from working, playing, eating, and sleeping in close proximity to the same people.
“Everything is ministry, but sometimes ministry is mopping the floor, turning off the lights at 1 a.m., and doing the dishes.“
Wesley Sheffield
For Wesley Sheffield, Ridge Haven has always been a place of belonging. He first came to camp when a friend invited him at age 9, and he kept returning. As Sheffield approached high school, Wallace Anderson invited him to apply for the CSI program. The work was exhausting, especially for a kid who describes himself as lazy and aimless. But Sheffield loved it.
After high school he stayed on as a full-time CSI while he figured out his next steps in life. During the summers, he worked through the Ridge Haven leadership tracks. He learned to handle minute logistics so that counselors and youth directors could focus on their campers. He even learned to play guitar so he could help lead worship on the Program Team. As others taught him how to lead worship, he passed along those lessons to those working under him.
When he enrolled at Appalachian State University, he quickly got connected with RUF and started assisting with music for large group gatherings. He got a job at a restaurant, where the lessons he learned in hospitality and logistics from Ridge Haven transferred well, making him a standout employee. Now he’s the restaurant’s general manager.
“Ridge Haven has shown me what it looks like to follow Christ in an occupation; everything is ministry, but sometimes ministry is mopping the floor, turning off the lights at 1 a.m., doing dishes, and making sure things look right,” he said. “I learned to follow Christ in contexts that aren’t specifically ‘Christian.’”
Sheffield’s time as a CSI did more than change an aimless teen into a diligent worker. It gave him a taste of Christian community.
“The CSI experience was seeing people a little older than me accept me and talk about what their relationships with Christ mean to them. It made me feel valued, and made me value faith,” he said.
The experience not only builds character but, Lord willing, will equip teens to build and strengthen their Christian communities when they return home. “Their lessons in the joys of serving prepare them for a life of service to Christ’s kingdom,” Cameron Anderson said.
“We hope we’re training men and women who will want to invest in youth ministries, churches, schools when they go back. We want them to find ministries to invest in.”