Have you ever been camping?

Episode Description: Have you ever considered the number of “girl campers” in the Bible? Scripture features several heroines of the faith who lived in tents! Plus, camping trip experiences often parallel aspects of our Christian walk. Check out Married to the Ministry to discover what camping can teach us about following God and serving others.

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When I was growing up, our family camped a lot. In the mornings we’d wake up to the smell of Daddy cooking bacon and eggs outside on the Coleman stove. We drank orange Tang and brushed our teeth using a green water hose. For us kids, those were magical vacations, where we played with total strangers’ kids and rode our bikes all over the great outdoors. But my mom recently told me she despised those camping vacations because she still had to do all the cooking and cleaning work like at home, but harder, without appliances or air conditioning.

Greg and I didn’t raise our kids in a camping environment, even though he also grew up camping with his family. When our kids were young, Greg traveled a lot as an attorney. Then when we went into singles ministry, weekends were busy. Later, baseball and softball filled our summers. It wasn’t until Greg and I became empty nesters that we got back into camping. Since he was preaching at a different church each week as part of his convention job, we bought a small camper (I needed AC and a bathroom) and started staying in state parks close to wherever he was preaching.

As we figured out how to enjoy camping, Greg began to encourage me to learn how to tow and set up the camper. He urged me to join a women’s camping group and pushed me to become a Girl Camper. Did you know that’s a thing? (Check it out here! girlcamper.com) I’ve attended several rallies and events just for ladies who camp, and I’ve pulled a camper coast-to-coast without Greg and invited friends to go with me.

Earlier this summer I took an extended solo trip where I visited friends in new and favorite places. That experience reminded me how much the Bible mentions camping! Of course, nobody’s taking vacations in Bible stories, except for maybe Jonah when he ran away from his job and took a cruise! But lots of people in Scripture are living nomadic lifestyles in tents. Abraham & Sarah—Sarah was the original girl camper! Paul made tents as a side hustle! And God Himself chose a “tent of meeting”—the Tabernacle—to be His symbolic dwelling place. It was the portable, traveling version of what would become the Temple.

So here are a few things camping teaches us about ministry…

It’s going to be inconvenient:

Camping is fun, but it’s inconvenient.

Storing, moving, loading, unloading camper
cost—new vehicle, gear, insurance, property taxes, storage
Everything takes longer than at home (cooking, cleaning, showering)
Not always privacy or hot water or towel hooks in the bathhouse
Never know what the campsite will be like, other people’s music, kids and pets, tall grass with bugs, no shade, unexpected rain or heat or cold
Learn a new way to drive, back-up, and park
In and out of gas stations can be difficult
In Numbers 9:15-23, we see the Israelites following the cloud and pillar of fire. They’re watching the Lord’s direction every day, prepared to move if He moved and stay if He stayed. That’s a wonderfully clear picture of how we’re supposed to live as Christians, isn’t it? With our eyes always on Jesus, following where He leads us?

Ministry is inconvenient.

On rainy Sundays, the pastor worries about low attendance and the impact on the tithes and church budget that week
Meetings run long and dad misses tucking the kids into bed
Counseling appointments happen after work hours, which eats into family time
Sometimes we have to fill a hole at church last-minute when a nursery worker or Sunday school teacher doesn’t show up
Deacons die during your family vacation and you have to come home early

We’re going to get dirty

Camping is messy…

There’s grease on the hitch, which will get on your hands and your pants
Sweat, bug spray and sunscreen makes dirt stick to you

And so is ministry!

People have opinions and expectations that can cause messy drama at church
People have burdens and messy baggage and complicated struggles that are often beyond our ability to solve
Sanctification and transformation take time, and we don’t always get it right. Jesus treated the disciples with love even as they misunderstood and forgot and fell asleep. People are messy, but Jesus loves messy people and so do we.

We’ve got to be prepared

Need a working knowledge of how the camper works
Not surprised when things need maintenance or repair
Carry tools with us, follow the forums on FB
Talk to others while camping and learn from them

Jael’s Camping Adventure—

Judges 4:1-3 and 15-22:
- 17 Now Sisera fled on foot to the tent of Jael the wife of Heber the Kenite.
- 18 And Jael went out to meet Sisera, and said to him, “Turn aside, my master, turn aside to me! Do not be afraid.” So he turned aside to her into the tent, and she covered him with a rug. 19 And he said to her, “Please give me a little water to drink, for I am thirsty.” So she opened a leather bottle of milk and gave him a drink; then she covered him.
- 21 But Jael took a tent peg and a hammer in her hand, and went secretly to him and drove the peg into his temple, and it went through into the ground; for he was sound asleep and exhausted. So he died.
- 22 And behold, while Barak was pursuing Sisera, Jael came out to meet him and said to him, “Come, and I will show you the man whom you are seeking.” So he entered with her, and behold, Sisera was lying dead with the tent peg in his temple.

Jael knew that her country was at war, she recognized the enemy at her campsite, she used hospitality and courage to defeat him. She didn’t hide in the corner, she didn’t wait for her husband to get home, she didn’t call the prayer group at church—she understood the situation and she was prepared to handle it herself.

Be alert and prepared to act!

We ministry wives have the same Holy Spirit that our husbands do, we have the same Word of God, and we have our own spiritual gifts that God can use to do mighty things for His kingdom.

But in order to defeat the enemy that’s sneaking up on our children, on our church, on our community, we’ve got to be prayed up, filled with the Spirit, wearing the armor of God, and sensitive to the Lord’s leading in the moment.

You’ve got to enjoy the journey

Sometimes we make campground reservations in advance, and sometimes we just discover interesting places to visit and stay along the way (national monuments)

Abraham’s Camping Adventures:

Heb 11:8-9—By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to the place which he would receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. By faith he dwelt in the land of promise as in a foreign country, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise
When we obey God’s call into ministry, we don’t always know what awaits us, but we can cling to the Word of God and His promises, and we can enjoy fellowship with others who love God

This world is not our home, we’re just passing through:

Heb 13:15—For here we do not have a lasting city, but we are seeking the city which is to come.
Philippians 3:20 But our citizenship is in heaven
1 Peter 2:11-12 Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles
John 17:14-15 the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world
Colossians 3:2 Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.
2 Corinthians 5:8 we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord.

Does the drama make us quit?

While camping we’ve cut corners too close and scraped the side of the trailer. One camper came off the hitch in an intersection because I forgot to put the jack all the way up. Another time the frame came unwelded and the camper collapsed. Our door came open while driving down the highway. Our fridge broke. The heater wouldn’t come on when we were camping in the snow. And once water blew inside the camper during a rainstorm.

But we still go camping!

We love the adventure of travel, the mess, the people we meet, the outdoors … in spite of the things that occasionally go wrong.

And that’s how we can approach ministry!

Celebrate the things that are going right, enjoy teaching the people who are growing, appreciate the church members who are praying for your family, focus on the work God is doing in your place and in your people, in spite of the things that occasionally go wrong.
Remember that He who began a good work in us will be faithful to complete it. That’s God’s part.
What’s our part? Let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart. (Galatians 6:9)

Thanks for listening and supporting this ministry! Until next time, let’s keep loving Jesus, loving our husbands, and loving our people!

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What Camping Teaches Us About Ministry