Alpha & Omega

Happy Birthday, Beth Vestal McGalliard!  Love you and miss you!!!


Even though I attended and volunteered at Quaker Lake Camp for a number of years before 1978, that was my first summer of working on the full-time summer staff and thus in my mind the official beginning of my QLC career.  And even though my last summer of being full-time staff was 1983, I always felt a huge part of the camp right up until my final week of volunteering in 2006.  Today, as I wrap up Quaker Lake week, I want to remember 2 very special weeks- one at the beginning, and one at the end.

When I think back on the summer of '78, there is one week that stands out.  It was my first junior high camp, and I was blessed with a great cabin of boys with whom I quickly bonded.  We spent the week playing pranks on the girls, including stealing all of their luggage and putting it out in the cow pasture.  They also spent the week falling in "camp (expires at the end of the week) love" and doing the brilliant Little Theater production of The Ozard of Wuz, featuring Jay Osborne's (as the Tin Man) famous line, "I'm melting...uh, rusting!"  You can read more details of that week by checking out my vintage post, The Empty Cabin.  A cross-section of the gang is in this picture- over 30 years old and taken with my Polaroid.  I remember all of the guys- Paul Farlow, Leslie ?, David Farlow, Jay Osborne and Joey Gardner.  The girls I am less clear about.  That's Jennifer poking her head through, and Robin Davis standing on the right end.  I can never forget 2 out of 3 in front- Cynthia Davis (left end) and Leigh Ann Everhart (right).  I thought Cynthia looked just like a girl I had a crush on in high school, so I gave her lots of attention (and most of my snacks!) that week, and we became close friends.  Leigh Ann became a dear friend who eventually would marry my good friend Terry Venable, and I was in their wedding.  This was the first group of campers that I ever fell in love with and couldn't wait to see again.  Unfortunately, most of us would see each other very soon- for a very lousy reason.  A few weeks after this week of camp, Robin Davis was killed in an auto accident.  Many of her friends came to camp to be with the staff and grieve her loss.  I was one of the representatives from the staff who went to the funeral with them.  We would never forget how we leaned on each other, hugged and cried with one another, and carried each other through that tragedy.  It was unlike anything else I would ever experience at QLC.  It was the Alpha Week...

A very young Heather & fellow HOF
member and legendary QLC staffer Todd Farlow

Fast-forward to 2006.  Heather Beggs Varner, who had been a Hall of Fame part of the youth group at Springfield Friends Meeting in the late 80s and early 90s, as well a part of the famous Buggars (my team competition team at a junior camp in 1987) at QLC, was now the camp director.  She called me in Georgia and asked me to return to my role as camp pastor for senior high camp, and I could not say no to Heather.  It had been 13 years since I last served at QLC for summer camp, and I was a little little nervous.  I didn't need to be.  It really was like riding a bicycle.  I loved every minute of that week.  But there was one thing I hadn't counted on.  I knew I was teaching Discovery (bible study) and leading Vespers (evening worship), but Heather had a surprise waiting for me.  She asked me if I would be willing to take the lead with all of the music.  It turns out that my music leading skills had become somewhat legen- (wait for it!) dary over the years, and her guitar players were a little in awe of me.  I found this to be hilarious, but I was glad to help out.  I asked them to play with me, and we had a killer week leading music together.  I was amazed to find that much of the staff that summer were the children of people I had gone to camp or worked with, and getting to know them made the week awesome.  But mostly, I had an amazing week with Heather.  We found time to talk about the old days, about her work at camp, about her family and about how hard it is to balance ministry and life.  At the closing campfire circle she said some very nice things about how I had impacted her life and ministry, and one last time I found myself shedding tears at the final campfire.


I left camp and headed back to Waycross rejuvenated and inspired.  I had no idea it would be my final time there; Heather had already invited me back for the following summer.  A few weeks later I received a picture in the mail of the 2006 summer staff, signed by each of them, and thanking me for being there for the week.  Much to my chagrin, in the turmoil that surrounded my leaving Trinity UMC a few months later I lost that picture.  It was a loving reminder of the Omega- my final week at Quaker Lake Camp.  Thank you, Heather, for sending me off with such an incredible memory.


Because of Jesus,