An Amazing Month!

Hey everyone! The last few weeks have been crazy busy, so I apologize in not being able to update more often. Let me give you a quick summary on what has taken place.

The first three camp weeks were WyldLife weeks here at Timber Wolf Lake. Each camp week is five days long and is packed full of outdoor games, free time opportunities at the blob, zip-line, rope swing, basketball, game room, etc. Also, each cabin gets the opportunity to climb the rockwall, go tubing on the lake, and venture through the ropes course. On top of this is the theme of program (Bear Claw Training Camp) which interacts with the campers throughout the week at clubs, meal times, and a variety of all-camp activities. Through all these events our hope is that kids will be able to have fun, gain trust in their WyldLife leaders and fellow students, and be prepared to listen and talk about the gospel message of Christ.

Somewhere in the mix of these crazy five day weeks, food service comes into the picture. It seems like a minor detail, but being able to serve kids through food is really important in giving each student and leader the energy they need to thrive at camp each day. Plus, we try to make the dining experience enjoyable for these kids with tasty meals. Also, we set up each area with round tables for eight or nine people each, which allows an opportunity for more bonding between campers and leaders through discussion (as opposed to the ever popular method of eating in front of a tv screen at home).

My job in the kitchen has focused on the successful preparation and service of breakfast and lunch to campers. I help lead the charge with our summer staff cooks in making meals such as french toast, ham and cheese omeletes, and pancakes. I have been blessed with an amazing crew of 4 summer staffers (plus 2 more who helped for the first three weeks) and it has been great getting to know each of them and their stories.

The third week of WyldLife I was really excited because the students from my area back home (Eastern Ottawa) were coming up. I really enjoyed being able to see familiar faces and hang out with our group of guys after I finished my work in the kitchen. For sure, I had to be careful not to do too much because a day of work in the kitchen can be exhausting enough even without plans to hang out with kids for six hours afterwards. But, I was able to get some good quality time watching them rock climb, tube, play two-hand touch football, go to a couple clubs, and eat a few dinner time meals with them. I think they all really enjoyed their week and I'm hoping they were able to explore further what it means to live a life walking with Christ.

Following my area's departure on Father's Day, we had our first high school Young Life group arrive for a six-day camp week last Monday. It has been extremely busy this last week with the largest number of campers ever at Timber Wolf Lake being on the property. With more people and bigger stomachs (high school students eat a ton more than middle schoool kids) we have ended up preparing a ton of food for each meal. Also, high school meals are a little more complex in preparation. We cannot just throw chicken fingers in the oven for lunch anymore. With a new menu to cook and more campers to cook for, we have had quite a few long days this past week. I give my summer staff crew a ton of credit for persevering through exhaustion and being able to continue to try their best to serve with their best of ability and have fun.

So, all of this leads to today the last day of this first Young Life camp week. Tomorrow we will get our second high school group in and then one week from now our first session will come to an end. This means that our summer staff, work crew, and assigned team staff will be leaving for home and we will be getting ready for a brand new crew to come in for session two in July. It's crazy that we only have one more week with our current summer staff. It has been such a blessing being able to work with them and get to know them. Pray that we will be able to really make the most of their last week here and serve to the best of our ability.

Week One has arrived!

The campers have arrived! Sunday, after months of anticipation, the first WyldLife summer camp week began here at Timber Wolf Lake. It was fun seeing all of the kids run off their respective charter busses and be welcomed by enthusiastic work crew and program members. As the week has gone on, I have enjoyed being able to watch these middle schoolers enjoy many of the activities, clubs, free time, and of course food that Timber Wolf has to offer.

It's going to take some adjustment for sure now serving over 500 people each week in the kitchen. Long days can be tiring, but I know that it will get easier as I find more of a rythym and get more familiar with our meals' recipees. It has helped a ton having great summer staff serving with me in the AM too. For the most part I have four college aged staff I supervised (Annie, Brett, Nicole, and Mitch). They have been great and have picked up on the ways of the kitchen really fast (sometimes even faster than me, haha ;). I'm looking forward to continue working and getting to know them during the next three weeks.

I'm looking forward to tomorrow evening, because the interns will meet again for the second time this summer for our small group time. The guys are reading Donald Miller's latest book, A Million Miles in a Thousand Years. Just started reading the first four chapters, but it's looking like it should be a pretty good read. Also, on my own time I have been really enjoying Tony Dungee's first book, Quiet Strength. As a football fan, I love reading about Tony's journey through the football world, trying to continue to be a man of integrity and doing things the right way in both his work and family life.

Well, that's all for now folks (cue the looney tunes theme music). Enjoy the above pictures of where I work, the kitchen. And continue to keep in touch!

Brandon Tschirhart

Timber Wolf Lake

4909 North Morey Road

Lake City, MI 49651

Ready, set, ....

The preparations are in high gear right now as we are only four days away before our first wyldlife camp week here at Timber Wolf Lake. This past weekend we hosted over 200 volunteers from Illinois, Ohio, Michigan, and beyond who came to help us clean, repair, and do maintainance all around camp. It was definitely a long weekend with an 11 hour day on Saturday and a 9 hour day on Sunday working in the kitchen. Some of the cleaning adventures I led included thorough cleaning in the cooler, the freezer, deep scrubbing grease off the hoods, power cleaning the floors, and cleaning the front line. Fun stuff! But as tiring as it was, we were able to get a lot accomplished because of the great attitudes and work ethic of the volunteers in the kitchen.

After the cleaning marathon was over Sunday I was able to head home for 24 hours to see the family. It was definitely great to hang out, have a home cooked meal, and play some board games together. Also, I was able to go to GR and catch up with some good friends, dominate some bean bag toss and have some delicious ice cream sandwich pie. All in all it was a good trip.

Then back to camp I went, ready to start our new week. It feels a bit wierd here because we are so close to the campers arriving. While we are busy with final preparations, everyone still knows things will change drastically once the assigned team, work crew, summer staff, and over 500 campers arrive shortly. It is easy to get anxious about what things will look like then. However, I have found quite a bit of encouragement from my devotions in Romans this past week. Here's one verse that stood out this morning. I hope you will enjoy it as much as I have today.

"May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you a spirit of unity among yourselves as you follow Christ Jesus, so that with one heart and mouth you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ." (Romans 15:5-6).

Praise God from whom all blessings flow...

Hey everyone! It's hard to believe it's already been a week since I started this summer journey at Timber Wolf Lake. Each day I am reminded of how blessed I am to have this opportunity to serve in such a wonderful place.

Last week, our camp was hosting an inner varsity fellowship of Christ group from the University of Illinois. It was actually fun being able to jump in to things right away in the kitchen. I have the morining shift each day working from 6am to about 3pm. A quick summary of what my job looks like is putting away the truck load that comes twice a week, getting the summer staff started on cooking breakfast, start preparing meals for the next couple days, get lunch cooking, clean up, etc. I definitely enjoy having plenty to do and love being able to learn a whole new world in food service as well as having a leadership role too!

Along with learning the ropes in the kitchen, the past week has been great being able to build community with my fellow interns. After the inner varsity group left, we were able to have the weekend off from work. Some of the interns decided to take off for home, while the rest of us hung out together in beautiful Northern Michigan. Saturday our group went to Traverse City. We walked down the downtown area, and went to a few stores including a Backwoods outdoor store and Cherry Republic. At the outdoor store, I decided to buy a pair of Chaco sandals. While they are more expensive than flip flops, these shoes are perfect for me as I live the camp intern life for the next fifteen months. They're comfortable yet durable in the everyday camp world. At the Cherry Republic store our group was able to sample tons of cherry items including: cherry salsa, cherry jelly, cherry cookies, chocolate covered cherries, and cherry soda. It was all so good! I definitely recommend the cherry cream soda and the cherry boomchunka cookies!

Also, during the weekend we did not have meals prepared from the kitchen since there were no guest groups here. However, each day the property staff took turns having the interns over for dinner. Saturday we had pizza night courtesy of the Sharps (Guest Services Coordinator), Sunday we had hobo pie night at the Bartlett's (Landscaping/Maintenance), and Monday we hadan amazing pork loin meal with baked potatoes, salad, and strawberry pie courtesy of the Polls (Property Manager). All so good! Right after dinner Monday, we then broke up into teams of four and competed in mini games from the show Minute to Win it! Our team got second place out of four teams overall. Not too shabby.

So, as I said earlier I am continually reminded of God's glory each day at this camp. First of all, the beauty here is remarkable. I've attached a few pictures for you to see that compliment the scripture found in Psalm 19:1. Along with God's creation, I have also seen his glory through the people here at camp. It is such an amazing community of great people who genuinely care for others, have servants' hearts, and want to do their part to allow kids to be meet Jesus Christ. Finally, I have seen God's glory through prayer. One amazing story I would love to share is about my friend Zach, the video intern who is from Eastern Tennesee. Two nights ago he was very discouraged because he just found out a couple of his high school Young Life kids from home who were planning on going to camp in a couple weeks, were eight hundred dollars short of the amount needed. That's a lot of money to overcome in a two week time table to be sure. The only thing we really knew to do was pray. So at our morining devotional meeting, Zach asked for prayer regarding the situation. The next time I saw Zach was around 4pm and I decided I wanted to give ten dollars to help his kids. As I offered the cash, he smiled and said "Thanks man, but it's already taken care of!" It turns out that within 30 minutes of our prayer in the morning Zach had people here at camp giving him the exact amount needed including a 400 dollar check from one couple. Praise God for this tremendous blessing and for the opportunity Zach will now have to take these kids to camp to the exact same place he was led to Christ four or five years ago!

On that note I want to thank all of you for your support as well for my journey here at Timber Wolf Lake and my upcoming journey at Sharp Top Cove in Georgia. I'm getting closer and closer to the amount I need for Georgia and continually feel your prayers here currently at camp. Please be in prayer for me and the other staff as we prepare for our Young Life summer trips coming up in a couple of weeks. There will be a lot of work ahead, so pray for our persistence and patience with each other as we get excited for campers to arrive on June 6! I look forward to sharing more with you next week. Until then, be blessed by the joy of Jesus!

Welcome to Timber Wolf Lake!

Hey everyone! Yesterday I arrived safely to Timber Wolf Lake and it is definitely great to be back here. The weather the last couple of days has been very nice. Besides the sunshine, yesterday was a good move in day. Not too much scheduled except for dinner. Just a nice time to unpack, go for a short run, meet new people, and get some sleep before the next day arrived.

Today was that next day and it started early with my arrival in the kitchen at 6am. This will become a regular routine for me each day as I am the AM Intern Cook. Usually I can function pretty well in the morning, but it will probably take a few days of adjusting until my body is use to the schedule here.

The early mornings though really aren't that bad. I'm so excited about my job here. What makes it great is the people I will be working with. Our three kitchen staff bosses are amazing. Nate is the food service manager here at camp and his wife just had their second child two days ago! I'm looking forward to Nate's arrival back at camp in the next few days. Along with Nate on staff in the kitchen are Jessica and John. They both have such incredible attitudes (Nate is in the same category here too, as I met him last year). As Victoria (PM Intern, Paul (Floater Intern), Ellie (Baking Intern), and myself (AM intern) met with Jess and John they encouraged us so much for this upcoming summer. Over and over again they reassured us that they don't want this summer to be about work. Instead we should have the mindset of serving. Similarly, our focus as a staff is not all about food (seems odd for a kitchen, right?) Instead, food is just an avenue used to allow kids to meet Jesus Christ! The rest is just details.

Also, I think one of my fears, which I learned is shared by the other interns, is that I'm going to mess something up in the kitchen. This kind of goes along with the attitude posted above. I need to make sure that my focus is not on making everything is perfect as I prepare food. Mistakes are going to happen and believe it or not it won't be the end of the world. Instead, I must keep my mind and heart on Christ and the relationships around me. Also, allowing myself to have fun in this internship is a priority. Afterall, it's not work, it's an opportunity to serve and show Christ through my actions!

So, things seem to be getting off to a great start. I'm excited to continue getting to know the other interns around me and learning more about the ways of the kitchen. Above you will find some pictures to enjoy of my first day here. The first one is of my new home here at TWL (The Swamp!) followed by one of camp, one of the guys lounge area of the Swamp, and then the last one is a peak into our room full of bunk beds (I'm on the top bunk straight ahead).

Thanks for your support! Feel free to keep in touch with me by e-mail, facebook, blog, phone, or snail mail (definitely the best option for an intern at camp all summer ! =) My address here at camp is:

Intern Brandon Tschirhart

Young Life Timber Wolf Lake

4909 North Morey Road

Lake City, MI 49651

Continuous Love...

In seven days I will be heading up US-131 North, making the two hour journey towards Timber Wolf Lake where I will be a kitchen intern for the next four months. The most common question I have been asked lately is "are you nervous?"

As I begin a journey that will keep me away from home for the next sixteen months, I think it is only natural to be a little nervous. There is a bit of uncertainty that comes with every new endeavor. Yet, this transition is honestly bringing me more excitement than nervousness. I'm excited to head to Timber Wolf Lake, a place that over the past eight years has been like my second home. I can't wait to become part of a community of interns, property staff, summer staff, and work crew who will all be serving Christ, by serving kids!

Having a servant's heart is something that I believe God desires out of all of us. I am reminded of the scripture in the last chapter of John's Gospel when Jesus confronts Peter (John 21:15-19). Through all that transpires, I envision an amazing progression of God's love. It was just after Jesus' arrest that Peter had denied Christ three times (John 18:15-27)! Yet, despite his rejection, Jesus still showed the ultimate display of love for his friend (John 15:13), sacrificing his own life on the cross (John 19:30). Then the mercy of the cross continues three days after his crucifixion, as Jesus pursues Peter. He asks him three times "Do you love me?" And with each answer of "yes," I envision the sorrow and grief of Peter, caused by his denials, wiped clean through forgiveness. But, Jesus does not leave him there. He tells him to take care of his sheep (21:16). In essence, Jesus is telling Peter that if he really wants to show Jesus his love, he must display it to others. As we read in the book of Acts, Peter does just that through serving others and proclaiming the gospel message of Christ.

This encourages my heart greatly and is really the exclamation point on the excitement within me. I am tremendously grateful to have the opportunity to continue the display of Christ's love by my words and actions at Timber Wolf Lake. Whether it be in the community of interns, the morning gatherings in the kitchen, or an interaction with a camper, I am confident that God will provide many moments for this love to be shown. My prayer is that each day He will strengthen me and give me the courage to continuously be His hands and feet and take advantage of every opportunity given.

Yes, the excitement definitely outweighs the nervousness.