Campfire Stories

I'm not some Grizzly Adams or Jeremiah Johnson - but I've lived in the middle of the Rockie Mountains all my life - With so many years of association with scouting and youth camps, I've sat around hundreds of campfires in my days. There's always a couple of concerns or objectives when it comes to the fire - whoms the pyromaniac in the group? Its usally easy for me to watch him - since it's me! That doesn't make it better - I've always been my own worse enemy. (Read story called Fire.) I'm sure these kind of events have been happening since the dawn of time. The caveman talking about the one that got away - the pioneers or trappers entertaining each other and relaxing after a trying journey. This was their stage, their entertainment, an opportunity to share their views, goals and dreams - mixed in with a few tall tails.

This is a time to get to know each other in a different setting, it's also a wonderful time to teach and have a memorable moment. Since most of my experience around a fire are with church groups or family - I have always used stories from the scriptures - the ones where fire is part of the story are always the best. Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego - and the fiery furnace of King Nebuchadnezzar, that's a keeper. Elijah challenging the priests of Bail, it's great when a prophet mock or makes fun of his competition - of course he backs it up when he calls down fire from heaven burning up the sacrifice, this material is priceless, you just need to use some emotion for the presentation. My favorite campfire story from the Old Testament is the story of Elisha and the chariots of fire in the mountain - "they that be with us are more than they that be with them." The lesson is that those that are righteous are given assistance, and that angels of God - are watching out over us." This is when their eyes get about the size of saucers. What little kids wouldn't like to envision chariots of fire surrounding their campsite.

There are great visuals when it comes to the fire it's self - but make sure that the other leaders are on board. I had one lady at a girls camp that wasn't so happy I was playing with the fire. After the fires is blazing and there are a lot of glowing embers - I put another stick or thin log on the fire, but you need to make sure it's longer than the rest and that half of it isn't in the fire at all. Like I said - this isn't normal and can be dangerous - and she wasn't very happy with me. As it begins to burn like the rest of the wood you can talk about how each of us in a group are like this fire. The logs share their heat and flame and keep the fire burning - then you pick up the part of the stick that isn't burning (that's an important part - I'm sure you can understand why) and talk about when one of you step away from the group the fire starts to die - as the stick loses the heat around it - it starts to go out. This also happens to each of us - we need each other and the fellowship and support of our family and friends to stay strong and bright. There are a lot of references of the fire of the spirit and how it burns within us.

Most of these stories are the enders - the ones that you tell just before you go to bed. You always want to end on a good note. The ones before are the funny ones the scary ones the one that are the tall tails. There is just no better setting to shot the breeze and pass on some of your heritage - this was all most of our predicessors had, no TV, cell phones, video games or I-pods - by the time someone reads this who know what else will be around. But we should always take a step back and try to make a moment or two where the simple thing of the past come shinning through.