Tending the Fire is a monthly series sharing a deeper look at the people who make up Camp and Retreat Ministries. Each month we will share a story from our campers, donors, staff and volunteers and what impact Camp and Retreat Ministries has had on them, and them on us. We hope these stories will educate you, uplift you and inspire you to get involved in whatever ways you can.
Camp and Retreat Ministries depends on volunteers to help children, youth, and adults learn about faith through biblical stories, play, and engagement with contemporary stories. One of those volunteers is Dody Hansen.
Dody’s background is filled with music, church and education, from working at Girl Scout camps during college to teaching elementary school music, being the Children’s Education Director at Eugene First UMC and later the Executive Music Director of the Oregon Children's Choir.
Last year Dody accepted the opportunity to be with campers in the role of dean and chaplain for the Elementary Camps at Camp Magruder. She enjoyed finding new ways to pass on the message of Christian faith to young people in a relevant and captivating manner, which she feels is so strongly accepted at camp. She was able to connect the curriculum’s stories to movies the kids knew, such as relating the Moses story to “The Lion King.” This helped campers apply the story to their own lives, which led to powerful discussions about being a leader or being curious about “the spirit inside of them and how it connects them to God”.
Working with the high school and college-aged counselors gave Dody another way to experience God for herself and through others. By offering support to those who needed it and learning from ones who had been there for many seasons, Dody could say, “The young adult volunteers are also on a spiritual journey,” and she felt the discussions she had with the campers were for them, too.
Because of these opportunities, Dody’s relationship with God has also been impacted. She first volunteered when her children were young and she has continued to volunteer because the camp environment fosters faith formation in children and in her own life, especially through the relationships that are developed.
People who have influenced Dody include Jessie Connor, Hope Montgomery and Troy Taylor at Camp Magruder and Jane Petke at Suttle Lake Camp, Dorita Betts Borgerson, and the Pitney family, Amy Wood and Erin Pitney, John and Debbie. All of them in their own way engage with campers to convey the joy and wonder of a faithful life.
Dody continues to volunteer, because, “I see kids having such a good time in a different way than at school, and I see God and Christian faith being presented in a different way.”
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 1505 SW 18th Avenue, Portland, OR 97201 503-802-9214 ~ gocamping.org |
© 2014 Camp and Retreat Ministries:
A partnership between The Oregon-Idaho Conference of The United Methodist Church
and The Episcopal Diocese of Oregon