Campfire Talk by Drew

Thursday – August 14, 2025

Hey everybody, for those of you who don’t know me, my name is Drew, and I’m a first year on fun squad, and this fall I’ll be studying entrepreneurship at Florida Gulf Coast University – Fort Myers campus.

Now tonight is a little more special for all of us as tonight is not only the last campfire of the week, it’s our last campfire of the summer for us on staff

Tonight I’m going to talk about lasts and with that I’m going talk about someone who is a huge role model in my life and someone who I aspire to be like, and that person is my uncle. Now me and my dad are very close, but I see my uncle as almost a second father figure to me.  My uncle has been taking care of me and my brother ever since I can remember. I have countless baby photos where it’s just me, Al, and my uncle Brian. As young kids, we were very close, and as busy as our families were with playing every sport imaginable, school, and everything that came with being an elementary school kid, we always found time to spend with our uncle Brian, and that was always some of my favorite time. As me and my brother grew older and had more responsibilities, we started to see him less and less, but every time we got to see him, there was always that joy from when I saw him as a little kid. 

Now it was my sophomore year of high school, and as tradition we have a huge Jensen family Christmas party, and everyone gets together and we all skate and get together. And among all of the crazy and people at this party, this year, there someone was missing. And asked my mom, where’s Brian at, to which she responded, he was feeling a little iffy so he stayed home today, which was a bummer because I loved spending time with him, but I quickly moved on and had a great Christmas party with the rest of my family.

Around New Year’s Day I remember my mom briefly saying something about how Brian had a mild case of pneumonia and went into the hospital, and again, I didn’t think anything of it. I’ve had pneumonia, what’s the worst thing that can happen. So I didn’t call, I didn’t text, I didn’t even check in with their family to see if they needed anything. I just thought a little doctors visit, nothing crazy. After that a night turned into 2, and then 2 turned into a week, and then a week turned into Brian getting moved to the intensive care unit, but for some reason, I was still under the impression that my uncle was going to be ok, after all he was under 50 and in pretty good health. But then, A mild case of pneumonia took a turn for the worst out of absolutely nowhere, and all of a sudden, in the blink of an eye, he had a major brain bleed, kidney failure and was in a coma. All in the span of about 2 weeks, and now me, Alex, addie, and my parents were on our way to the hospital to say my final goodbyes to not only an uncle to me, he was my role model. When I got to the hospital, he was unresponsive, hooked up to a breathing machine, with about every type of medicine you could think of pumping through IV’s in his arm. Seeing him like this was just such a gut punch, but not for me. Now thoughts started rushing through my head, why didn’t I visit him, how was I not more involved in this, and the big question, what are my 12 and 14 year old cousins going to to without their dad.

As I think about my uncle today, I think to when I last hung out with him. And at the time, I had no clue that that would be the last time I talk to my uncle

You see, the thing about lasts is you don’t always see them coming in life. Sometimes, you don’t realize it’s the last time playing a sport, or your last playing on a team with someone, or your last time at camp. there’s many times that you have no idea when these lasts are going to happen.

But here’s the gift we all share right now, we do know that this is the last campfire that we get to share together. That means we actually get to appreciate it while it’s happening. We all get to sit here one more time and be grateful for everything that’s happened this week. All the fun games, all the good food, and we can be grateful for this place. When I was writing this talk I was thinking about what makes spirit in the pines so special. At first what came to my mind was the games are really fun, or that campfires are really cool, or Devos at night are impactful. And while those things are awesome, that’s not what makes this place special. what makes this place so special is the people. It’s you guys, that make this place special. If it weren’t for you guys, this place would be just some summer camp in the middle of nowhere. But it’s the people, it’s the people that truly make this place feel like home for all of us.

A verse that struck home for me as I reflected about this summer was 1 John 3:1 and it says, “See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God, and so we are.”

The love the father has given to us. I’ve felt God’s love more than ever this summer because of these people over here. I’ve felt God’s love seeing nolan play guitar, I see God’s love when I hit Dillon’s car in a golf cart, I see God’s love when Jackson is singing in the kitchen telling fun squad we have a meeting, I felt God’s love setting up countless games with sierra,  I see God’s love in Ryan’s positive attitude.

I see God’s love from Ava and addy care for you guys every single day in the nurses cabin. I see God’s love watching Bella play light the fire on guitar, I see God’s love when I have intelligent conversations with Âkos , I felt God’s love in the kitchen last week with Peter. I see God’s love in Nora, and how kind and genuine she is. I see God’s love in nick benson, and his ability to put a smile on anyones face, no matter the situation. I see God’s love in Tuna, with how much passion he has for camp. I see God’s love in Berit’s energy, and the way that she has affected these kids. I feel God’s love every time I see Rylee, and how she never forgets to say hi to me and say something nice. And I feel God’s love with blessing me with my twin brother, my best friend Alex. I know God loves each and every one of us, but I’ve felt a little extra love from God this summer for blessing me with you guys. I love you guys. And I see God’s love in all of you.

Drew Jensen giving the final campfire talk for Summer 2025