FIVE YEARS OF 'STRENGTH' Holston camp ministers to HIV victims
By Annette Bender
In some ways, they're like all Holston Conference campers. They laugh themselves silly around the campfire. They tease the counselors and keep them up all night. They love singing hokey camp songs and making crafts.
You can almost forget the campers are victims of HIV/AIDS. But in reality, the participants in this "Strength for the Journey" camp swallow 20 to 30 pills a day. They tire easily, cry easily, and hug a lot. Most of the campers are men who seem to have lived hard lives; their facial expressions and bodies reveal some of the scars.
Since 1997, Holston has ministered to these people at Camp Buffalo Mountain in Jonesborough, Tenn. Two one-week camps are held each year – one in spring, another in fall. Up to 28 campers attend each camp, all on scholarships. About half are newcomers, the other half are returning guests.
Dot Avers has directed Strength for the Journey since she started it, shortly after retiring as a Holston minister. She is fiercely protective of the campers. Confidentiality agreements must be signed before leaders or visitors are allowed on the premises, and even then, Avers is selective in choosing counselors.
"Our leaders must have an openness to our clientele," Avers says. Some people believe they are comfortable around people with HIV/AIDS when they're not, she explains. Or they want to lecture campers about their lifestyles or evangelize them, which is not allowed.
Of 12 full-time leaders at each camp, about eight are Holston clergy and laity. The others are from other United Methodist conferences or are non-Methodist. Some leaders are HIV-positive. Two nurses are also on staff. All are volunteers who pay their own expenses.
Strength for the Journey's mission statement is to "provide a safe, caring and healing community for men and women living with HIV/AIDS." To Avers, that means providing campers with "the nonstop message that they are loved, from the time they walk in the door on Monday until they leave on Friday."
"Many of these people have been abused by the church," she says. "They've been overtly told to leave and not come back."
Modeled on the California Conference's camp for HIV/AIDS victims, Holston's camp was the only one of its kind east of the Mississippi until this month. Avers and other Holston leaders helped train counselors for a North Carolina camp that debuted Oct. 6.
Following the Californians' lead, Holston leaders initially "played down the religious part" at their first HIV/AIDS camps, until they realized that campers in the Bible belt are not like those in the West.
"They kept asking for more and more spiritual programs," Avers says.
Today, Strength for the Journey participants get a healthy dose of worship, hymns and prayer during their week at Buffalo Mountain. Some campers have felt led to give professions of faith. At last month's camp, one first-time participant asked to be baptized in the waterfall when he returns to Buffalo Mountain next year.
When Strength for the Journey debuted in Holston, the focus was on teaching campers how to confront death. The good news is that HIV/AIDS patients are now living longer through drug therapy advancements, says Avers.
The bad news is that many people have already died. Of 240 total campers and 108 people who have served in leadership positions, "we know of 14 campers and two leaders who have died," says Avers.
"We have heard about nine persons who died before attending. Most of the ones from the first camp in 1997 have died. There are a lot that we never hear about."
Do the deaths make her sad?
"Sure they do," she says. "But we also are grateful to know that we have given them a good experience." One man, who died a few weeks after attending Strength for the Journey, told Avers that camp was the best week of his life.
"His family said it was the happiest he had ever been."
Coming in a future issue: Part 2 of 'Five Years of Strength.' To invite Dot Avers to speak to your church group, call (865) 521-6456.
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