Baptist camp comes alive for employees and their families

Posted: 8/12/05

Baptist camp comes alive for
employees and their families

By Elizabeth Martin

Baylor University

Residents of Tigona, a village on the edge of the Rift Valley in the hill country west of Nairobi, serve as staff for Brackenhurst Baptist International Conference Centre and live on the camp grounds, located a short distance from the village’s market.

Although their children live within the gates of the resort-like camp, they generally can’t use the camp’s rock-climbing room or tennis courts. That changed when an outdoor recreation team from Baylor University made the conference center their base camp for missions.

Team members spent most of two weeks in the nearby towns of Limuru, Tigoni and Banana Hill. But three nights were just for the staff and children.

Brackenhurst serves as a summer camp for missionaries’ children, a vacation spot for missionary families and a location for various foreign missions conferences.
“It was great to give the staff the opportunity to use the tennis courts and rock room. They all helped to build this camp, and I’m glad they have finally been able to enjoy it,” Camp Administrator Amanda Clark said.

The male staff members had the first turn on the second night of the team’s stay at Brackenhurst. At first hesitant to climb the walls, the men voiced concern at the prospect of an American woman, team member Sierra Toney, handling the ropes. With skeptical frowns, the men eventually decided to climb at the urging and reassurances from the American team. Later, the wide grins on the faces of the men who reached the top of the walls assured the team of the night’s success.

“I was so proud of Sierra,” Baylor tennis teacher and Outdoor Rec. team member Darrell Thompson said. “The men didn’t want to trust her, but she never let it get to her, and we all ended up having a great time.”

Later that week, the female staff members took their turns on the indoor climbing walls and, like their husbands, began the night with concern etched on their faces. After much encouragement from the American team, however, the Kenyan women eventually shed their characteristic shyness and enjoyed their first chance to climb. It was the staff’s children, though, who most visibly enjoyed their climbing experience.

Cries of excitement and unrestrained laughter echoed from the rough yellow climbing walls and concrete floors the cool night of the children’s climb. More than 50 children strapped on harnesses and mounted the walls. So many children came to climb, the entire American team was called to help manage and belay. Each child climbed several of the high walls, practiced without harnesses in the low caves and grinned as they snapped pictures of their friends and siblings hanging by ropes 20 feet overhead.

The next afternoon Thompson, brought racquets and tennis balls to the camp’s tennis courts to give a lesson to the staff’s children. With only four balls and five racquets for more than 20 children, Thompson organized several relay-type team games for the children. With the help of his wife, Missy Bice-Thompson, and several other team members, he gave the children a chance to enjoy a game previously they had only observed.

“The tennis lessons with the staff kids was one of my favorite activities of the trip,” Baylor junior Jennifer Bubel said. “They had such a good time, and I absolutely loved watching them laugh and play.”

Though tired after several long days serving the Kenyans in the villages outside Brackenhurst’s high iron gates, the American team recognized the importance of serving the camp’s staff those nights and afternoons. The men and women who staff the Baptist camp served as maids, drivers and cooks for the Americans with smiles—smiles that only grew wider when the Americans decided to serve them and their children in return.