Guest Post: Shira of Water 2

First off... let me say water 2 is having a wonderful time at Ferncliff Presbyterian Camp... Being here at Ferncliff is such an eye opener for others and me. Ferncliff has shown me so many things in just a couple a weeks, such as: teamwork, welding, demolishing a cabin, building a deck, salvaging wood, and plenty more. The best lesson that I have learned is to be more grateful and thankful for the things and people around me.


Ferncliff has been, and still is, such a big impact on the community. I have not once heard any bad comments about it. When we first arrived we were greeted by the security officers who just happened to be David Gill’s, our sponsor’s son Joel, Joel’s wife Ashley and cute little daughter named Margie. They were all very nice and welcoming, as were the rest of the staff and residence of Ferncliff... It felt like home. Soon after, we met our work supervisor Steve Wilson. Steve is very nice and easy going. He knows just about anything and every thing when it comes to fixing things and can teach you every thing he knows in under 5 minutes

We took a tour of Ferncliff Presbyterian Camp in a 15-passenger solar cart. Ferncliff is as beautiful as the pictures make it look. It’s a very peaceful and serene environment and there are plenty of things to do on-site. We all have gone on great hikes, bike rides, took a paddle boat on the Ferncliff Lake, bon fires, and we have attempted to fish.

Here at Fern Cliff our objective was to build a deck and fix up things on site. The first thing we did was pre-set the deck and demolished a house, which we did in two weeks. We also salvaged wood for future use and welded things together for the deck. It has been a great experience. I realized how hard it is to be a construction worker. Some of us are doing things we have never seen ourselves doing in a lifetime but we love the feeling we get after each day of work. Water 2 is GETTING THINGS DONE!!!

For my very first spike with Water 2, Ferncliff was the best decision made for us... it has given Water 2 a great chance to get to know one another and the history of greatness.

Ferncliff has a lot of history and has changed a lot of lives. So we are very proud to be apart of the legacy. There have been numerous AmeriCorps teams before us. When you walk the camp you see the marks they have left; and pretty soon you will see water 2 Class 17 2010.

Shira Bradley

AmeriCorps NCCC class 17

Water 2 2010

Rockin' Around the Clock

The annual staff Christmas Party was held last night in the Dining Hall. All present partook heartily in delicious food, holiday gags, and general merriment. Here are a few snapshots I was able to capture.

Katy, Abby, and Hannah

Margie with "Pam Pam"

 

 

The only photo ever taken of Luke McGhee not moving

Shelly and Mark McGhee engaged in dinnertime conversation with Vicki Gill

We're so glad Water 2 was able to join us! Emily and Jeff look glad too.

Chris, Michelle, and Silas at the Gift Exchange

Papi keeping Margie out waaaay past her bedtime

It was truly a joy to celebrate with everyone's families. It reminds us how much Ferncliff staff feels like family, too. Thanks to all who pitched in to make the night such a fun time!

Belated Welcome to Water 2

Here are the faces and names of the hardworking men and women of AmeriCorps NCCC's Water 2 team, living and working here at Ferncliff right now. We are praying that they find their time here as much of a blessing as we find their presence and their labor!

 

Michelle

Hometown: New Orleans, LA

What are your plans after the NCCC? After NCCC, I plan to pursue nursing school and potentially work at a nonprofit focusing on healthcare.
Fun Fact about yourself: My initials are the same upside down.

 

Shira

Hometown:

Las Vegas, NV

What are your plans after the NCCC?  Go to school.

Fun Fact about yourself: I will try everything at least once. 

Katie

Hometown: Boise ID

What are your plans after the NCCC? 

 I plan to attend college for an undetermined degree and to travel across the U.S. and beyond.

Fun Fact about yourself: I like jumping into lakes of all temperatures and sizes.

Jeff

Hometown: Rockaway, NJ

What are your plans after the NCCC? 

I want to start grad school for Ancient History, be a TL in NCCC, or work for a non-profit.
Fun Fact about yourself: I’ve played trombone for 13 years and I’ve been to Norway.

 

Grace

Hometown: Fullerton, CA

What are your plans after the NCCC? After NCCC I plan on attending college.

Fun Fact about yourself: I am not very graceful.

 

Erik

Hometown: Dayton, OH

What are your plans after the NCCC? I hope to get involved with a non-profit organization and/or work for our government.

Fun Fact about yourself: I have been to Japan and I play a mean guitar.

 Emily

Hometown: Orange County, CA

What are your plans after the NCCC? After NCCC, I will start law school in hopes of becoming a human rights lawyer.

Fun Fact about yourself: I can touch my tongue to my nose.

Dani

Hometown: Seven Valleys, PA

What are your plans after the NCCC? I plan to either go into the Peace Corps or get a job in either disaster relief or archaeology

Fun Fact about yourself: I did an archeological field school in Bermuda during the summer of 2009, so I got to spend 5 weeks in Bermuda digging.

Chris

Hometown: Oak Grove, MN

What are your plans after the NCCC? I am not sure what I want to do after I leave NCCC.
Fun Fact about yourself: I dig stuff up.

Brandon

Hometown: Vinton, IA

What are your plans after the NCCC? I hope to move after the NCCC or go to college.

Fun Fact about yourself: I have approximately 200 pets at my house.

Anna

Hometown: Cranford, NJ

What are your plans after the NCCC? I plan to attend graduate school to study public policy and women's studies.

Fun Fact about yourself: I am a former competitive figure skater and fencer.

Window View

This photo was taken by Linda Brockinton, Queen of Ferncliff food service and champion dulcimer player.

Local Color!

Ever wonder what your favorite place to be in the summer looks like in the Fall (for a few days, at least)?

Summer Retrospective

One of our superb counselors from this past summer, Morgan Gilley, just posted a Note on Facebook, in which she reflects on her time as a part of our summer community. Her words warmed all of our hearts, and we can only hope to have future leaders as adorable, compassionate, and soulful as she is. Counselors like her are the reason our campers love camp! She was kind enough to give us permission to share her words here:

This summer I embarked on a journey that I really didn't know where it would lead me. To my surprise it turned out to be one the hardest; yet, rewarding summers that I think I will ever experience. I worked at Ferncliff a Presbyterian church camp in Little Rock for basically 9 weeks. [...] These 9 weeks were spent with kids from the ages of 7 to 19. [...]I spent everyday for 9 weeks, reading the Bible, praying before every meal, and leading a Bible study for an hour a day. Most of you all are thinking, so whats the big deal? Try doing this in blazing heat and screaming kids, some days you prayed way before your meals just to get you through the day. God tested me in so many ways this summer. Not only did he test me he blessed me with some of the most amazing people I would ever meet. My co-counselors were seriously like family to me. It was so easy to connect with them because we all had the same thing in common. We believed. We didn't care about people judging us. We were just us. I could be my own person. I guess what I'm trying to get at is now that I'm away from camp it sucks. People care waaaaayyyy too much about what others think of them. Just be YOU. God made you that way. Embrace it. If you have a weird looking nose, well darn! I have a crooked toe! It doesn't matter. Love yourself. I hate it when people say "I'm so fat, or I'm ugly." Who cares! Be your own person and not something someone wants you to be. I wish life now could be like camp then. A bunch of kids running around trying to capture the chicken (its a game) without a care in the world. Its hard to explain what this summer was like, but I know my other co-counselors will know. It's something you can't explain, it's something you have to experience. How one summer can finally make you realized nothing in the world matters except God. You can finally be your own person and be comfortable in your own skin. And you can finally embrace life like it was meant to be embraced.

Thanks so much, Morgan, for reminding us what's special about this place. We're so fortunate to have known you, and we hope you'll consider Ferncliff a home away from home!

Dirty Summer in the Dirty South

Margie has been getting down and dirty at Ferncliff this summer. No, really. Down. Dirty.

Sometimes a little dirty...and sometimes a LOTTA dirty.

But thank goodness she still likes cleaning-up!

Gill Reunion, Post Two; or the Post-Reunion Post

Would you just look at these faces?

And, for that matter, have a look at these behinds:

Thanks for that.


From my perspective, the Gill Family Reunion of 2010 was a big hit. We came together for swimming, fishing, boating, laughing, reminiscing, shady chute-ing, eating, volleyballing, talent showing, and sundry other sorts of merrymaking.

One noteworthy trend in the Gill Family demographic of recent years is the booming 0 to 6 age group. Little ones! So, yes, the weekend held much adorableness, much "awwwwwe"-ing, and many photo opportunities such as those above. It also held a quite a few opportunities for talking about playing nice, and particularly about sharing. When I think of it now, sharing is really what the weekend was about for all of us, not just the babies and toddlers. We shared smiles and tears. We shared meals and dances. We shared news from our lives. We shared space and time. We shared prayers (spoken and sung). And--as Jason mentioned in his sermon on Sunday morning--every time we come together we just dive right into the sharing with no hesitation. As a Gill-by-association, I marvel at how at-home I feel with the whole Gill clan and how they have been willing from the start to share their family with me. 

For this and for everything we shared, I thank God.

Gill Family Reunion, Post One

This weekend is a BIG one for the Arkansas branch of the Gill Family tree! All of our relatives from Papi's side of the family are coming to Ferncliff for a Gill Family Reunion. Gills (former Gills, honorary Gills, and Gills-by-association) will trickle in from places as diverse as California, Wisconsin, Georgia, Costa Rica, and England!  This works out nicely for Joel, Margie, and me because we only have to walk a few yards to attend! In fact, the last time we had a reunion here at Ferncliff Joel and I managed to sneak our wedding onto the itinerary. 

Margie looks forward to meeting all of her "new" cousins!

So I pledge to make a full report of the weekend of family fun. Happy Labor Day (and safe travels) to all!

Back to School

So, September is just around the corner. School is now underway for most central Arkansas students, and the highs are dropping just below 90 degress. Granted, it's not time to break out the sweaters and socks just yet, but I can feel the change of weather tingling in the air and in the ground.

Autum is my kind of season. As a consummate school nerd, I always welcomed it as the season of new notebooks and freshly-sharpened pencils. Back in my school years, it always felt like a fresh start, a clean slate, an "A" until proven less-than-perfect. This is an attitude toard Fall which, when I think of it now, is getting the issue a little bit backwards. Spring (and not Autumn) is more naturally the clean-slate season, and Fall is a time for drawing the year to a close, for harvest, for hard work in preparation for winter, for reflection, and for thanksgiving. So on this trip around the sun I want to use the rapidly-approaching Autumn season as a time in my life to cherish the memories of the past year and make way for the dormancy of winter. Though it's cliche to say so, now is the time to count our blessings and be grateful for the gifts that have been bestowed upon us.

by guldfisken on Flickr

I certainly count Ferncliff--the people AND the place--as one of my greatest blessings. Do you?

Also Known As...Papi

T

The Gill family just returned from vacation in Ohio, where we enjoyed the use of a lake house for a week. I was just sorting through our vacation pics, when it occurred to me that you might like to know what time off looks like for our fearless leader. Here he is at his most chilled out (or as chilled as anyone can be with the two one-year-olds and two three-year-olds wreaking havoc).

Creek Dippin'

One of the, shall we say, "perks" of living at camp is the scenery. No, wait. That's not quite what I mean. Scenery implies looking, and we do plenty of that, but what I'm talking about now is jumping into that scenery and being in the outdoors. Being in the outdoors. Being IN the outdoors. Margie's favorite version of this is going on creek walks in the stretch of stream between the bridge and the Home in the Woods. It holds special appeal for all of us because 1) we can go anytime (i.e., even when there are campers in the pool) and 2) being spring-fed, it is always MUCH cooler than the pool these days. So we all wade out (this being particularly cute when Margie does it) and splash around to our hearts' content. She loves it, because...well...picking up rocks and dropping them is FUN. We are so spoiled.

 

Drum Circle!

I peeked in on the drum circle festivities at last weekend's military family camp and THIS is what I found. Quite the percussion section we have here, don't you think?!
 

A Joyful Noise

This week and last we have been graced with the presence of the Gloryland Choir. The use of the word "choir" here seems inadequate. Let me see if I can help convey what I mean:

So, yes, they are a gospel-singing, note-belting, hip-swaying, hand-clapping, foot-stompin' force of nature!! Though they have been squeezing practice sessions into the hour just after lunch that is usually allocated for F.O.B (i.e., naptime!), they have been doing A LOT these last weeks besides just singing. I joined them for a couple of their activities, and this is what I saw:

Margie even got to hang out while they went boating. I'm thinking maybe some of their singing talent rubbed off while they were holding her and playing with her :)

So thanks to all who made it possible for the Gloryland Pastor's Choir to come to camp, and doublethanks to the choir members themselves who have brought a lot of positive energy and a truly joyous spirit to our neck of the woods.