When the Spirit Goes You Up
Heide (center) and a group of Vagabonds prepare a cooking fire
“Let me tell you why you are here. You’re here to be salt – seasoning that brings out the God-flavors of this earth…”
– Matthew 5:13, The Message
There comes a point in everyone’s life when they realize that suddenly they are the adult in the room. For Heide Gallagher, that moment came in a canoe, when a L.I.T. (Leader in Training) called her as such. That wasn’t the only moment when God stretched and strengthened Heide while on staff at Fortune Lake. The Spirit continually worked through her during the summer of 2021, bringing out the best in her, and in turn, blessing others through her.
Heide’s first step onto the grounds of Fortune Lake was in her godmother’s arms, when she was just an infant. Though she only knows of the memory through pictures, almost two decades later she would come full circle when that same godmother (Pr. Kelly Ylitalo) encouraged her to apply to summer staff between semesters at NMU.
Heide recalls being nervous, even terrified going into her summer at camp. She wasn’t sure she could do it, thinking, “I’m the adult, now?!” Her faith provided strength beyond what Heide expected; she describes how something ‘would just come over her’ when working with campers. She wasn’t scared of the dark. She could open any container. She could help a group of 1st and 2nd graders not only transition from one activity to the next across a huge distance for their small legs but also dance and sing while doing it. And she did it all, she says, with the support of God and the support of her fellow staff members.The Spirit works through lives at Fortune Lake, helping individuals see themselves in new and expansive ways.
There is an image from the summer that Heide takes with her into her life outside of camp. It is during a break in the action during a camp week. On the slope of a hill outside of the dining hall, at a certain time of day, the sun hits the grass at the perfect angle. Heide and some of the other staff lay back in the grass. They are entirely comfortable talking/laughing together there on the hillside, or sitting in silence. Camp is a place where the Spirit calls them beyond themselves to wildly bless the lives of campers, and then that same Spirit bathes them in the grace of radical acceptance, the capacity to show up just as they are.
Heide has since returned for multiple summers on staff at Fortune Lake, and in her words, she remains so excited – excited for the kids, the community, and excited for that familiar feeling of belonging. In the meantime, she tries to take some of that grace from camp into her university life, in day by day interactions. We are grateful for Heide’s leadership at camp and have enjoyed watching God work through her grown up, yet ever youthful, Spirit-given gifts.
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