Testimonies

Christian Copper

Camper, Junior Counselor, Program Director

I viewed Brigade Camp at Stony Glen as the oasis from the culture that surrounded me. The month or so at Stony Glen wasn't just a departure from everyday life, it was a departure from the constant assault that the culture threw at me. For one month, I could be me. Not the version of me that has to face my piers everyday. Not the version of me that has to measure up to the unreal expectations of what a "man" should be. It was me, the real me, and God. That was it.

The staff, senior counselors, and junior counselor's that I met didn't have expectations. They honestly sought to see me be who God wanted me to be. They pushed me to abandon the fake me that I had put on. They showed me how foolish today's standards of manhood are and taught me what a real man looks like.

While I don't have any one particular spiritual experience of note, I could clearly see God there on a daily basis, working in my life, or in the lives of others. As a camper, I felt God work in me to strengthen my relationship with him. As a junior counselor, I had the opportunity to see God move the hearts of countless boys. As Assistant to the Program Director, I saw God pull off miracles on a daily basis, little things that ensure we had a great summer.

This testimony is a minuscule representation of how much Stony Glen means to me. The value of my time at Stony Glen will never be able to be put in words. If I ever have the chance to go back to Stony Glen, I will consider it a blessing. God has created something so special in that place, and I hope it will continue to impact the lives of others for generations to come.

Nathan Boring

Camper, Junior Counselor, Program Director

I began going to Brigade Camp at Stony Glen as a stockade with my dad. For the few years we went as Father-Son, I loved learning to do the camp activities with my dad, and we laughed at all of the humor and fun of campfires together. My parents were very impressed with the courtesy and maturity of the junior counselors at the time, so, as a Stockader, I put it in my head to become one of them some day. Every summer I came to camp, and I had a great time with the friends I made.

As I got older and eventually went to Battalion camp, I learned more and more about God and the story of Christ in the Bible. When I finally did become a junior counselor, my eyes truly opened to the character and love of God. During the training to become a junior counselor, I learned what it means to serve and love others through self-sacrifice because of the investment into my life by the junior counselor trainer. Now as a young man, I cherish the memories I have of camp as a camper, and I am grateful to all of the men who invested into me as I grew in my faith and discovered God’s plan for my life.

Ryan

Camper

What I really enjoyed about Brigade Camp at Stony Glen was woodsmanship because I like nature and I think it’s a really good experience for kids to get out in nature and learn to do stuff on their own. I’m looking forward to going back next year because I really like woodsmanship. Neo [the leader], he was cool and funny. It’s also a good time to catch up with friends you’ve made in the past years.

Jacob Grimm

Camper, Junior Counselor, Father-Daughter

My time at Brigade Camp at Stony Glen through Christian Service Brigade has been one of the most monumental of my life. I truly believe I would not be who I am without my time there. In fact, I can point to no other area of my life that has had more influence than that of CSB. I am not simply talking about a one-time event but a journey that has spanned the better part of my life.

As a boy I first came to camp in stockade and marveled at the wonder and beauty of God’s creation. Many a snowy hike led by godly men opened my eyes to challenge and adventure. The experience of nature and teaching had a profound impact on my taste for adventure. As a teen I found direction in the manliness of real live adventure through trip camps as well as the skill patches worked on as a group. It was also at that time that my spiritual foundation was solidified. The teaching I received molded me to be a godly man and to strive for a Christ like example. These experiences have certainly kept me from an earthly path that I am certain would have led to very dark places.

Today as a man I serve our God with my whole heart. I have a young family and have discovered the greatest task any father can undertake is leading his family and teaching his children to follow in Christ’s path. The teachings and principles I learned as a young man are now being passed to my daughters. As I see them grow and learn I am thankful for those who followed Christ’s teaching and helped to make me who I am today.

Jerry Smith

Senior Counselor

My first experience with Brigade camp at Stony Glen was as a senior counselor at the age of 18. I was paired up with Dean Buncher in the climbing and repelling cabin. The first day when all of the kids arrived everyone sort of kept to themselves with the exception of a couple who knew each other. This quiet segregation didn’t last long. However, after the first day of climbing the kids had opened up and were joking and talking like they had known each other for years. This openness overflowed to our cabin devotion time as well as we saw young men asking and answering questions about their faith. This pairing of fun activities with intentional times of Bible study hooked me on the Brigade camp experience. Each year I return and see new kids start and strengthen their walk with Christ. This is what keeps me and my family coming back each year.

Cory Baugher

Camper, Junior Counselor, Waterfront Director, Junior Counselor Trainer

The first camp that I ever went to when I was in elementary school was not a good experience. My cousin and I spent most of our time wandering the camp bored because our male college leaders were spending more time with other female college leaders than they were with the campers and the activities that camp had to offer.

As I was coming from a single-parent home, my mother recognized that I needed male mentors in my life, and so she got me involved in Brigade at my church. It took a lot of convincing from my Brigade leader and mentor, Gary Campbell, to give Brigade Camp at Stony Glen a chance. Finally, as a sixth-grader, I went and absolutely loved it. Two things that stand out were, first, the incredible amount of activities and adventures that there were at Stony Glen. And the second was that my senior counselor, Greg Schuster, took me and a friend of mine (who also had previous bad experiences at a camp) hiking through the woods and climbing the waterfalls. I was so impressed that these senior counselors gave so much of themselves to make sure we had fun and grew in our relationship with God.

I kept returning to Stony Glen and eventually became a junior counselor in high school and waterfront director in college. During those years, I learned a lot about what it meant to be a godly leader and serve kids, especially in many difficult moments. It was during that time that so many godly men through Brigade and Stony Glen helped me transition from a shy high school boy to a confident leader of others. They helped me claim my faith in Jesus Christ as my own. I know that I am the godly man I am today primarily because of the amazing godly men of Brigade and Stony Glen who sacrificed so much to invest in my life over the many years of growing up.

Getting my master's degree in Texas made it difficult to come back for a few years, but I eventually returned to be the junior counselor trainer in 2005 (which I never imagined I would have been). There are so many stories that I could tell of many boys who have grown up going to Stony Glen and become men of God, who then turn around and invest in the world that we live in. This is the great privilege that I have of being a junior counselor trainer. I admit that every year it is hard to leave my family and go to camp for a week, and many times I think about not going that year. However, every time I return and am there, it is so obvious that God is at work, and the sacrifices are well worth it to be a part of what God is doing. Now I am so excited to return with my three daughters for the father-daughter program.

Dave Walker

Camper, Junior Counselor, Waterfront Director

Evan K

Camper, Junior Counselor, Program Director

I started attending Brigade Camp at Stony Glen in 1999 as a tree climber. I started going because it was a church promoted activity, and my dad thought it would be a good father-son experience. Immediately, I began to love all the outdoor activities provided and the fun times with my dad and my friends. I continued going each year because I loved being outside and hiking and shooting arrows and all the activities that camp provided. For me, it was exactly what a boy like me needed. A place to be wild and experience the kind of activities that would build me into the man I am today.

As I grew, I found that Stony Glen was one of the places where I could most grow in Christ. All the times I had attended church didn't really compare to the lessons that I learned while at Stony Glen. I also grew fond of the junior counselors and looked up to them a lot. I can remember being at a friends house for a sleepover when I was in 3rd or 4th grade and already saying how I wanted to be a junior counselor some day. Ultimately that became true.

As I got older, I continued to absorb all that I was learning and experiencing at Stony Glen, both the physical activities and the spiritual lessons. In middle school, I spent a couple years on service crew and in high school I became a junior counselor. During this time I probably grew the most in my walk with Christ. I learned how to give back to the camp that gave so much to me. I learned what it meant to be a godly leader and a godly servant. I was able to encourage boys like I was encouraged. I was able to pray with the campers over issues that counselors had prayed with me over. I was able to learn what it meant to care for the spiritual well-being of others. Through this time I gained some strong friendships with my fellow counselors. People to this day that I look back at and remember what a blessing it was to be a counselor with them.

After being a junior counselor, I was asked be the program director and spent a year as the assistant and then continued on to that title. For me this is one of the largest responsibilities I have had. I say this because Christian Service Brigade works in this way. CSB trains boys up and into godly responsibility. I have served with some of the men that I most respect in this world. Men who are my role models, who have helped to guide me into the man that I am today. Men who have discipled me and have helped me to disciple other younger people that have taught me tremendous lessons as well. Now having been gone from camp for a year, I constantly look back and am reminded of the people that I served with and all they taught me. I am reminded of the spiritual lessons I learned while serving at camp. I constantly am applying skills in my everyday life that I can look back to and attribute to Stony Glen. When there is a lot of craziness in the world, I can looked back and be encouraged by the men and the experiences at Stony Glen.

Stony Glen trains boys into godly men of spiritual integrity who are prepared for the real world. I am forever thankful for the years that I have spent at Stony Glen. I am forever thankful for the lives that I saw changed and the relationships that I saw strengthened between fathers and sons/daughters. I am forever thankful for the relationships that were built. I am forever thankful that God placed me in such a place that has drawn me closer to Christ. Who I am today is widely reflective of how Stony Glen affected my life. Brigade Camp at Stony Glen is worth it.

Andrew Smith

Camper, Junior Counselor, Waterfront Director, Senior Counselor

I attended Brigade Camp at Stony Glen for the first time in 2004. At the time I was 17 years old and I took Life Guard Training and then spent the rest of the summer as a junior counselor. junior counselor Ttraining at Stony Glen helped me mature as a leader. It was an awesome experience working with the senior staff at camp as well my fellow junior counselors.

There is a real Christ-like comradery at Stony Glen among the leaders and that helps make camp effective in reaching young men for Christ. After 2004 I worked at camp as the waterfront director for three years and then went on to lead Outdoor Challenge with Joe Sukosd. I look forward to attending Stony Glen for many years to come and help lead many young men to Christ in the process.

Jeff Lashley

Father-Son, Senior Counselor

My first time at Brigade Camp at Stony Glenwas as a young senior counselor feeling very overwhelmed and anxious about being out of my element as well as leaving a very pregnant wife back home. But the anxiety was replaced with seeds being planted for a new love. I returned six years later with my son who was now a Tree Climber. He went on to participate and lead at camp for what I believe was the next 13 years. Though he is not as close to the Lord as I would like, I am confident that the Brigade and Stony Glen years as a camper, service crew member, junior counselor, and college leader helped build a foundation that I trust will bring him to a closer walk with the Lord.

From a personal perspective, Stony Glen is like a family reunion with family that you see once a year or maybe every couple years... though not flesh and blood, but brother (and sisters) in God’s family. I have had the pleasure to serve at Stony Glen many times over the past 3 decades and my love for the physical beauty, and what it represents in Christ’s Kingdom keeps me coming back. I have also had the privilege in seeing so many boys grow in their love for Christ because of Brigade and Stony Glen. These boys then start giving back through service crew, junior counselor leadership, as directors, college help and now dad’s, and senior counselors. This has been a great blessing to see the fruit of God’s work blossom in such a way. I saw the junior counselor I had in my first cabin in 1984 follow in this development path, then eventually had his son as a junior counselor too! I have seen it in several boys from our home church/Brigade program develop in this same path, who became leaders at Stony Glen and our now leaders for Christ in their communities and beyond... including one who eventually taught the adult Sunday School class I attended for several years!

Many of his children may only see men (and women) acknowledging the love of Christ for a few days or a week in their lifetime, or maybe a couple seasons at Stony Glen, then go back to the reality of darkness in the real world. But we can find comfort in knowing that this place plants seeds that blossom into fruit... some we may not see, or it may be many years later. In other cases, we have witnessed the fruit bearing in so many young men and I thank God for this place and of course the many, many brothers and sisters in Christ who pour so much into it. I believe Stony Glen is a testimony….to God’s creation…the power of His word …. and the depth His love.

Chris Sharkey

Camper, Junior Counselor

I started going to Brigade Camp at Stony Glen after finishing 5th grade. I had a blast that first summer, and went back every summer after that until I left for college. For the first few years, my motivation for going to camp was my friends and the different activities. I got to do everything from riflery to paintball to aviation. It was amazing!

When I turned 15, I got the opportunity to be a junior counselor. The four summers that I worked as a Junior Counselor were summers that God transformed my life. My first summer, I learned about what it looks like to be a servant leader, and the principles I learned that summer as a 15-year-old I still use today. During my third summer as a junior counselor, I learned a valuable lesson about depending on God and praying without ceasing. On top of that, I had a breakthrough moment in my faith when I finally realized that Christianity is about an active, day-by-day relationship with God. I still look back on those summers with thankfulness for how God changed my heart each summer. Stony Glen has not only given me fun memories to look back on, but it has left a spiritual legacy in my life.

Rick Thompson

Senior Counselor

Tom Scott

Senior Counselor

Nick Robison

Senior Counselor

Justin Hobbs

Camper, Junior Counselor, Program Director