Chuck Woodruff

For those of you who know Chuck Woodruff, here is a small sampling of his feats from this past summer at the WILDS.

1. Chuck Woodruff Blobs himself.

2. Chuck Woodruff once rode the land trolley using his hands.

3. Chuck Woodruff started the campfire for s’mores using only a wet leaf and his own saliva.

4. Chuck Woodruff once had a cabin say 30 verses on the way down the hill to get their luggage off the bus.

5. Chuck Woodruff once played an entire game of Big Ball using only his teeth.

6. Chuck Woodruff does three hundred pull-ups on the shower curtain rod while taking his shower in the bathhouse every morning.

7. JBC used the bottom of Chuck Woodruff’s boot to make the sign.

8. A copperhead bit Chuck Woodruff, and the copperhead died.

 9. Chuck Woodruff hiked to 4th Falls and back in 12 minutes while carrying two senior high campers on his back.

10. Chuck Woodruff always gets a 30 in Cabin Cleanup, even on Saturdays.

11. Chuck Woodruff doesn’t have any hair on his chest because hair doesn’t grow on steel.

Summer 2011

What did I get to do at the WILDS you ask? Well, let me tell you.

I had the cutest camper anyone will ever have, and it was only the first week.

I took a bath in the creek.

One of my campers split his head open after duct-taping his hands and feet together and 

have to go to urgent care and receive 6 staples.

I had the coolest cabin name ever: Sir and Lady Geico of Insurance.

A camper told me he thought I would be dating someone ugly.

I had the privilege of seeing 6 out of 8 campers in a cabin surrender their lives to whatever God has for them.

During my roughest week of the summer one camper received Christ as his Savior and decided to become a preacher in order to tell others about how they can be saved.

My sister counselor told me I’m too relaxed.

My sister counselor also told me, “I’m glad its not awkward between us, because some brother-sister counselors are awkward, and that would just be awkward.” …?

Matt Herbster mentioned a joke I told in a Blue Team meeting during staff training week.

I rode the 65’ giant swing.

I overcame my fear of the lake.

I played paintball with a bunch of junior high campers.

I had the coolest shirt ever with the silhouette of the Geico Gecko on it (thanks to my Mom).

I had all four of the NERF swords I brought with me break in one week because campers were wailing on each other.

I got to see the Lord work in a camper’s heart over a period of a week, week after week.

I made friends I never would have without working at camp.

I was a part of the best team ever.

I liked that sound. A lot (Blue Team joke).

I made more decisions than all my campers combined through the first five weeks.

I had a frog, lizard, butterfly, spider, ant and mouse in my cabin at one time during Week 5.

My sister counselor informed me that the campers I get are always “humdingers.”

I had a camper with photographic memory (yeah scripture memory!).

I carried a pair of khaki pants over my head as my mascot for all of Week 6, and my campers loved it.

I wore that same pair of khaki pants to the Summer Prayer Partner banquet at BJU the weekend after Week 6.

During Week 6 my camper told me “We wear the pants in this camp.”

We change our cabin cheer to something about pants (P-A-N-T-S that’s the way that we spell pants!) and went around telling everybody our cabin name was ‘Sir Pair of Pants’.

I held the pants in our cabin picture and in the entire camp picture.

The following week my sister counselor told me the pants were not a good idea.

I got to be in my former roommate’s wedding in Indiana.

I asked a bajillion people if I could have their pop can tabs and gave them to my sister counselor who collects them for cancer.

I spent the summer enjoying the humid mountains of North Carolina (emphasis on humid).

I had a camper with 9 fingers.

I had a camper who rides the mountain unicycle.

I had a camper who preached in his sleep.

I had a camper tell me that God is more important than basketball.

I got to see 6 campers come to know Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior.

I got to be part of the best COR cabin ever.

I learned a huge lesson about how the Holy Spirit works, and I still have more to learn.

I got to see God bless me in a way I never thought possible.

I knew better the meaning of the word “exhausted.”

I saw victory over sin, in my campers and in my life as well.

I saw campers so convicted about their sin that they wept.

I saw those same tears become tears of joy as they experience God’s abundant grace and mercy!

In every item from the list above, I saw God’s hand. I am so grateful for the summer of 2011. I didn’t deserve it, and the Lord gave me more than I could possibly imagine.

Exhausted

When I went through staff training week back at the beginning of June, over and over I was told to "spend and be spent" for the cause of Christ this summer. Every weekend they remind us in staff meeting to "spend and be spent" for our campers in the coming week.

When I give my all, and spend out my human resources and spend all of the strength the Lord provides, I am exhausted.

Sure, I have worked really hard all day before, mowed 13 yards and come home exhausted. That kind of exhausted is rewarding.

I have played so hard during a basketball game that I have exhausted myself and gone home and slept for ten hours straight. That kind of exhausted is fun.

I have studied all semester and killed myself studying for the final exam and done my best and arrived at home for the semester break exhausted. That kind of exhausted is challenging.

Here at camp I jump up and down until my legs are sore, scream until I'm out of breath, clap my hands until I develop callouses, slap my thighs until they are black and blue, run across the ball-field until I'm ready to drop, pray until I fall asleep, sing until my voice is gone, hike until my legs fall off, and love my campers until I have to send them home.

This kind of exhausted is different.

This kind of exhausted leaves me rewarded, and yet, it wasn't me that did the work.

This kind of exhausted helps me to remember how much fun I had, and yet, it wasn't entirely about the fun.

This kind of exhausted challenges me to give more, and yet, I never end up focused on the challenge.

This kind of exhausted leaves me with a sense of joy and happiness, a feeling I'll never truly be able to explain until eternity. When I look back at a week knowing I gave everything I had and then whatever the Lord allowed me to beyond that, I am filled with joy.

Here is the main point of this post.

Why aren't we ever asked to be exhausted for Christ every day of our lives? Why is it only at camp or on the mission field that we are asked to give our all? What are we saving our energy for? If the only place we are required to give 100% of our talents and abilities for the cause of Christ is at camp, then why isn't everyone required to work at camp?

I love being joyfully exhausted. I'm sad that I had to come to camp to learn what it was like. But I firmly believe that being joyfully exhausted is not a feeling reserved for those who work at camp.

I'm challenging myself, and I'm challenging you too. Be exhausted for the cause of Christ. Wherever you are whatever you are doing, do it wholeheartedly as to the Lord. Claim Philippians 4:13 and do all the things you have been given through Christ who gives us strength.

2 Corinthians 12:15 "And I will very gladly spend and be spent for you; though the more abundantly I love you, the less I be loved."

Alright Christian, get out there and be exhausted. 

It's About Time!

Hey!

I know there are some people out there wondering, why hasn't David updated his blog since April? Well I am here to provide the answer!

Imagine getting to live in a cabin for 11 weeks, listening to 100+ sermons, spending countless hours enjoying God's creation, and making 7-9 brand new friends every week. If you have this in your mind, you have a really good idea of what I'm up to this summer. I have been given the great  and amazing opportunity to work as a counselor at a little place known as the WILDS of North Carolina. And let me tell you, the past 5 weeks have been so refreshing and encouraging that I almost never want to leave!

I have had the awesome privilege to see souls come to Christ, sins repented of and forsaken, lives dedicated to His cause, and the joy of serving Jesus restored to those who had lost sight of it. When the Holy Spirit works in a person's life and they respond with a humble and willing attitude, the results will make you weep for joy.

What should your response be after reading this post? PRAY. Pray that kids come with open hearts, that their souls will be touched for the cause of Christ, that their lives will be changed to honor Him, and they will be unashamed of the Gospel of Christ. Pray that God will do the work, inspite of the humans and their mortal mistakes. Pray that Christ will be glorified in everything we do.

1 Corinthians 10:31 "Whether therefore ye eat or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God."

Today I may have become the first person to ever use the words ''eloquent'' and ''tweeter'' in the same sentence...

Mercy

Nathan Crockett challenged us to write down events in our lives and finish each sentence with the phrase “God’s mercy endures forever.” Psalm 136 has 26 verses, and each of them ends with that phrase. Here is a short version of my list:

On September 13, 1990 Laurie Baral gave birth to her first child, a boy. She and her husband, Dan Baral, named me David Louis Baral. God’s mercy endures forever.

On February 10, 1996 I ducked my head underneath a desk in Room 3 at Eagle Heights Baptist Church and ask Jesus Christ to be my personal Lord and Savior. God’s mercy endures forever.

In the fall of 1996 my family decided to homeschool me. God’s mercy endures forever.

I have two beautiful sisters and a healthy brother. God’s mercy endures forever.

In July of 2005 the doctor walked into the hospital room and told my parents and I that I have Ulcerative Colitis, and that there is no cause, and no cure. God’s mercy endures forever.

12,000+ Words

The Old Alma Mater

 GW and Nick took me to North Carolina one Saturday morning to get these apples...

Déjà vu

I walked into the gas station to grab a drink for the road trip to Virginia. It was late, almost midnight, and I have always had better luck staying awake with something liquid to keep me alert. I scanned the glass refrigerator doors looking for something high in energy and low in caffeine. But, alas, no such luck. So I settled for a cherry coke. After all, life is always better when there’s fruit involved.

I glanced at the other customers in the store as I turned for the front. An older gentleman with a ball cap was getting coffee. A mom and her daughter were up by the candy rack. The girl couldn’t have been more than eleven years old. These were the only people I observed on my way to the counter to pay for the drink in my hand. I hadn’t gone more than ten feet when it happened. Two hooded men with ski masks came bursting through the front doors, waving handguns and shouting for everyone to get down.


Have you ever heard about deja vu? It is the “feeling of having already experienced the present situation.” I was experiencing it.

A Fond Relic

When I was in the elementary grades my time outdoors was spent marching around with a toy rifle, shooting imaginary Confederates (the Civil War), Nazis and Japanese (WWII), Indians, Mexicans, and ruffians (Davy Crockett).

Those were the days. Running barefoot through the woods, my friends and siblings and I would while the days away marching from camp to camp. Pretend campfires, makeshift forts, actual foxholes, creek beds, open fields, dense woods, even a suburban backyard garden, all became distant far off places. All we needed was a good imagination, a friend or two, and our trusty guns.

The First Post

I would like to start by thanking you for clicking on the link that brought you here. This blog is merely an outlet for my creative streak. I will post observations, comments, stories, events, realizations, and maybe, if we’re lucky, art. That being said, I will do my best to be responsible with your time. Being a college student I understand your time is precious and that wasting precious time is considered a felony on most university campuses.