Camp Raphaos

[spelvin]

“Good afternoon. We’re glad that you can enroll in Camp Raphaos’s first summer season. We’re glad to see all of you.”

Lucretia introduced both herself and the other counselors. “And now, I would like for all the girls to come with Susan. Susan, will you please step forward? And all the boys will stay here with Elizabeth. Elizabeth, will you please step forward? Thank you.”

The girls filed out with Susan. The boys assembled in one corner of the room where Elizabeth was waiting for them. Some of the boys wore T-shirts with frayed jeans, others wore T-shirts with grubby shorts. Most of them wore soiled sneakers.

Elizabeth smiled and said, “Hi. It’s good to be here. I’m looking forward to working with all of you. Before we get started, I’d like to have a quick Bible study. Here is a Bible and I would like for someone to look up James chapter four verse seventeen.”

Susan chose one of the boys who raised his hand. The boy read, "Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin."

Susan said, “Thank you. That verse is talking about what is called a sin of omission. A sin of omission is one which is committed by neglecting to do what is right. If you see someone lying on the street bleeding but you walk on by, that is a sin of omission. You’re not hurting that person, but you’re passing up a chance to help that person. That’s a sin of omission.

How about lying and cheating and stealing and killing? Those are sins, but are they sins of omission? I see some shaking heads. You’re right. Each of those is a sin of commission. A sin of commission is a sin which is committed by doing something wrong.”

Now let’s talk about a few more Bible verses. First Timothy chapter two verse nine tells women to ‘adorn themselves in modest apparel,’ but it doesn’t say anything about men. So girls need to dress modestly but boys don’t.

“Matthew chapter five verse twenty-eight says, ‘Whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.’ It says nothing about women lusting after men. So we will let the girls express any feelings they want about you.

“First Corinthians chapter seven verse one says, ‘It is good for a man not to touch a woman.’ It says nothing about women touching men. So we will let the girls touch you anywhere they want.

“What this all boils down to is this: We know you mean well, but we believe that all of you are committing a sin of omission by wearing clothes. Genesis chapter one verse twenty-seven says that all of you are made in the image of God. There is nothing more beautiful than the image of God. You were made to be seen from head to foot. That is how the girls want to see you. That is how your parents want the girls to see you. That is how the girls’ mothers want the girls to see you.

“So right now, I want you to go back to the cabin, take your clothes off, stuff them in your suitcase, and leave them there. You won’t need those clothes again for the rest of the camp season. That’s all your clothes, your underwear too. Then come back wearing nothing but what God gave you. And show me how magnificent you look.”

She looked at the clock on the wall. “We’ll meet back here in about five minutes.”

The boys left the room, making comments like “I can’t believe this!” “Me either. I’ve never done this before.”

Lucretia was the oldest of three sisters. Susan was next, and Elizabeth was the youngest. With assistance from church funds, and with money out of their own pockets, the Three Sisters had just recently established Camp Raphaos on the family estate. Nobody knew whether or not the first season would go smoothly, but there was only one way to find out.

In five minutes, all of the boys were back from the cabins. Elizabeth came into the room, this time wearing a one-piece swimsuit. She smiled and said, “Good! I’m glad you made it back so quickly.” She looked down at her piece of paper and said, “And I see that you are all ‘fearfully and wonderfully made,’ just like it says in Psalms verse one hundred thirty-nine verse fourteen.”

She continued. “We’ll go over to the waterfront in just a minute, but first, I’d like to go over the schedule with you.” She shuffled her papers. “We’ll have a swimming lesson, and I’ll be one of your teachers, but it is important to wait for about an hour after eating a meal. So we’ll have a get-acquainted time with the girls, with some games and sports activities. The other counselors are with the girls right now, advising them to come up to you and ask nice sociable questions, like what’s your name, where do you live, and what are your hobbies. We hope that you will be perfect gentlemen and make small talk with them too.

“After the swimming lesson, we’ll break up for arts and crafts activities. We’ll make sure each of you knows which way to go. Then you’ll come directly back here for dinner. After dinner, we’ll take you to the chapel for a worship service. By the time the worship service is over, it will be time to go back to your cabins.”

She shuffled her papers again. “Here’s what the schedule for tomorrow looks like. Every morning, there’s breakfast here in the dining room. You’ll break up for Bible classes, and then we will have a swim class. (It’s a free swim in the afternoon, but in the morning, it’s a swim class.) And the afternoon schedule every day will always be like it is today.”

The boys looked inquisitively at each other. Elizabeth looked down and said, “We believe what it says in Proverbs chapter twenty-two verse six, which says ‘Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.’

“And we want you grow up sound in body, mind, and spirit. We want your skin to absorb plenty of Vitamin D from the sun, and we want the pores of your skin to breathe oxygen from the air. How many of you put your clothes in your suitcase, like I told you to?” Most of the hands went up. “Good. Because you won’t need them. For the rest of the camping season, we will all see you exactly as you are right now.”

One of the boys raised his hand. “Don’t the girls have to breathe—whatchacallit, oxygen from the air too?” Some of the other boys snickered.

Elizabeth said, “I hear what you’re saying, and that’s a good question. But here, we believe in following the
Bible.

“And now I would like to ask a question: If you’re scared, raise your hand. That’s a lot of you. How many of you have had girls make fun of you when they saw you with no clothes on? That’s a lot of you. But we don’t want that to happen right now. Susan is talking to the girls right now, making sure that they treat you with respect.

“We are telling the girls, and we are telling you, the reason that we are showing you to the girls. And that is because we are proud of you. We think you are the most beautiful of God’s creations and we want them to enjoy looking at you. We want you to enjoy showing to them, and we believe that you will.

“On the other hand, we don’t want you dancing around and giggling and wiggling your masculine organs with one hand. Some of you may have travelled to other countries, where boys jump around and put on a big show for the girls, but we don’t want you doing that here. Like I just said, we should praise God, because you are fearfully and wonderfully made.”

After a pause, Elizabeth spoke in a half-whisper. “And now I think we’re ready to go to the waterfront. You will all walk with your hands by your sides. There will be no reason to feel anything or touch anything.”
Susan and the girls were already assembled at the waterfront, decently attired in one-piece swimsuits. Susan said, “I see that the boys are coming right now. I hope all of you will act like you’re happy to see them.”

One of the girls said, “Act? Who needs to act!”

* * * * *

The children had just finished their first meal at Camp Raphaos. The boys stayed in the lunch room with Elizabeth and the girls went to their cabins, changed into swimsuits, and proceeded to the waterfront with Susan.

Susan said, “Let’s all join hands and make a big circle. Now let’s drop hands and sit down in a big circle. There. That’s perfect.

“First, I need to ask you: how many of you like to look at boys with no clothes on?”

Every girl raised her hand. Some girls even raised both hands.

“We have good news for you. Elizabeth is talking to the boys right now. She is asking the boys to go back to their cabins and leave all their clothes there, because that is how we are going to see the boys for the rest of the camp season.”

There was an outburst of squealing and cheering and applause.
Susan held one hand up. “I know you’re excited and I hate to cut you off, we have a lot to talk about, so we need to go real quick.

“First, we need to tell you why we are doing this. We are doing what the Bible says. First Timothy chapter two verse nine tells women to ‘adorn themselves in modest apparel,’ but it doesn’t say anything about women. So we will have you wear clothes but not boys.

“Matthew chapter five verse twenty-eight says, ‘Whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.’ It says nothing about women lusting after women. So we will let you express any feelings they want about the boys.

“First Corinthians chapter seven verse one says, ‘It is good for a man not to touch a woman.’ It says nothing about women touching men. So we will let you touch the boys anywhere you want.”

“But you girls also have some responsibilities which we need to talk about. We know that you’re going to be all excited when you see the boys with no clothes on. Before we talk about what you should do, let’s talk about some of the things you’re gonna want to do?”

One girl said, “Walk past a boy and accidentally on purpose brush against his penis.”

Another girl said, “Say, ‘Ewwww, your tallywhacker’s sticking straight up! I can see every vein!”’

Another girl said, “Shake his penis and say, ‘Howdy there, ol’ pal, how ya doin’!’” All of these suggestions met with a chorus of laughter.

Susan held her hand up again. “I know these are things you want to do. When we see the boys, I’ll probably want to tease them too. But there are some things we need to think about. Teasing a boy about his body can do a lot of damage. Some boys have been teased so much that they had nightmares about it for the rest of their lives. Is that what you want to happen to these boys?”

The girls sadly shook their heads.

“Some men are afraid to undress in front of their own wives because of what happened. Is that what you want?”

The girls shook their heads again.

“And some men have even had to see a psychiatrist.”

The girls were very quiet.

Susan clapped her hands. “All right, then. What can we do! As good Christians, we want them to feel welcome, don’t we?”

They seemed to agree.

“And who do we want to feel welcome? Just the tallest, or the cutest, or the strongest? If you see a boy shrinking off in a corner, are you going to talk to him too?”

There were a few nods.

One of the girls said, “Yeah, but we can’t just walk up to a boy and say hi, cutey, what’s your name.”
The other girls laughed in agreement.

“We thought about that. We realized that you girls will feel somewhat awkward too. So we planned a few get-acquainted games to break the ice. But while we get those games set up, you might feel more comfortable if you pair off. Can you do that now?”

There was a gentle murmur of the girls pointing and touching each other.

A rustle from the bushes was heard. Susan said, “I see that the boys are coming right now. I hope all of you will act like you’re happy to see them.”

One of the girls said, “Act? Who needs to act!”