Deanna Risser is CFO and VP for Administration at AMBS (Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary), and the current Camp Friedenswald Board Chair. She shares this reflection as part of a collection of stories in honor of Camp’s 75th anniversary. 

In the mid 1990s, I began serving on year-round staff at Camp Friedenswald as a volunteer after graduating from Bluffton College (University).  I began working in the office with Vicky Hill and Marge Graber (during summers) doing accounting and registering people for program camps, as well as a variety of other tasks.  Camp was my first real work experience after college, and I had inherited a challenging accounting situation that needed focus and a solution.  As a task-oriented person, I am often motivated to get things done, solve problems, and cross things off my to-do list.  This challenge needed extra focus and attention.

In the midst of this, I had an awareness that one of the gifts of Camp is people coming to you – they literally showed up at your door to volunteer or participate in camp activities, and part of the work of all camp staff was to offer hospitality.  Camp is a place of connection.  A key place where this connection happens is eating meals together in the dining hall.  I began to see eating with campers as more than a practical matter – I needed to eat – and instead as an extension of my work in the camp office.

I remember one particular Family Camp where I intentionally took the time to linger over meal conversations, getting to know the family campers, hear their life experiences, what brought them to camp, and also for them to get to know me better.  They especially wanted to know what it was like to live at camp year round.  (It sounds idyllic and is very rewarding, but also a lot of hard work.)

Now working in non-profit leadership, I try to continue this simple practice of noticing what is around me and connecting with people as part of my task-oriented work.  When I have looked at number and emails too long, I step away from my desk and walk the halls and sidewalks of AMBS, often encountering someone who says just what I need to hear or broadens my perspective.  I am grateful to Camp Friedenswald for fostering this way of being that continues to shape who I am and how I approach my work and leadership.