Using Summer to Serve
Lives Transformed is not just limited to guests and campers who come to these sacred grounds. Staff, particularly summer staff, experience ten weeks of their lives being transformed from biblical teaching, serving long and selfless hours and being in a community unlike any other. We’ve heard countless stories that serving at Mount Hermon for a summer helps set faith journeys in stone and sets a life-long trajectory of relentlessly pursuing Jesus.
Is it a sacrifice to give ten weeks of a coveted college summer? You bet. Worth it? Victoria Whitcomb, a counselor at Ponderosa Lodge this summer thought so.
Victoria was a familiar face to the staff at Ponderosa Lodge. As a long time camper and Super Senior, she was in love with camp and had a deep desire to one day work at Mount Hermon.
As a student at Southern Methodist University in Texas, she knew that taking a summer to serve at Mount Hermon would require a financial sacrifice. However, that did not deter her from making a childhood dream come true.
“Last summer God was calling me to serve at the place that had been so influential for my faith. Responding to that call required some planning, but I am so glad God provided a way for me to counsel at Ponderosa.”
In the summer of 2016, Victoria took a corporate job for one purpose: make enough money to cover her financial responsibilities so that she could serve in the summer of 2017 at Mount Hermon.
“This summer I walked away with a more tangible experience of what it’s like to serve. As a counselor, you are constantly serving. Reliance on God is essential, and when you realize that He is the one doing all the work, it is so freeing. Using my summer to serve and lead campers one step closer to Jesus made this past summer the best summer of my life!”
This summer had been a long-time coming for her; that she had been preparing and anticipating serving in this place one day, and took steps far in advance to be available for it.
So Victoria, was it all worth it? “Absolutely. It was an unforgettable experience that I will truly cherish forever.”
