The Belton Years (5)

Camp Sunset and the Belton Young People

At Belton, my primary responsibility was working with teenagers.  I was close enough in age to them, that I did not find it hard to bond.   They treated me with respect, and I enjoyed the time I spent with them.   I don’t know that any of it was attributable to my influence, but at least two of the young men in that group eventually became elders.   Many of them have remained active in church life throughout adulthood. 

We were had a close relationship with the churches in Temple during this time. In working with the young people at Belton, I got to know many of the young people in Temple.  Every year the Belton church and the Temple churches sponsored an all night event for the graduating seniors.  We took them to Austin and showed them a good time. Ann and I went along as chaperones. During our first year, I got acquainted with a young man from Temple, who was graduating that year.  His name was Royce Money, who later became president of Abilene Christian University.  Years later he said, “When you chaperoned that trip, you and Ann had been married four months.  What were you doing with us?”

Every year I was in Central Texas I worked with Camp Sunset in the summer time.  I spent most of those years as athletic director and Ann was the camp nurse.  The camp rented facilities at Fort Parker State Park between Mexia and Groesbeck. I started working with the camp while I was at Rosebud.   Charles Williams, who was at Mexia at the time, asked me to come and work with him, and I gladly accepted. 

During the years I was at Belton many of the Belton teenagers were exposed to the Camp Sunset experience.  I ended up serving on the board. At first I was extremely naïve about the way boys would behave in my cabin.   Our schedule said that lights were to go out at 10.  I told the boys I was sure their parents wanted them in bed by then.  They thought that was a good joke.   I did get the lights turned out by ten, and in a few minutes it was quiet.  I went to sleep, and the next morning I learned that my co-cabin counselor and the two boys above us were the only boys in the cabins.  The others were roaming all over the place, even down in the girls’ area.  That only happened one night, and I learned a little bit more about working with boys.   The next year I asked for the same cabin, and things went much better.