Campfire Talk – Week 2
June 21-26, 2026
By Dillon Kuhn
Image: Dillon is pictured above with a group of campers, farthest on the right.
Hello everybody, my name is Dillon Kuhn, and I am a second year here on God Squad. I am an incoming junior at Iowa State University.
Similar to many of you, I was a long-time camper here at Spirit in the Pines and did all of the same activities that you guys enjoy every single week. While I never got to sack in the quad, I did get to play awesome games like Mighty Mighty Scoop Noodle, do sand castle building competitions, and dive deeper into my faith through worship activities and devotions.
After every single week, I left feeling on fire for my faith. This phenomenon can be described as the divine, and an intense feeling of joy and devotion. In other words, every single area of my life was impacted by God and I felt closer to God than I ever had before. But when I got on the bus to head home each week, the fire in my heart started to slowly burn out, and the amazing feeling I had from a week at camp had gone away.
While I still knew that God loved me and the relationships I formed at camp were still present, the overwhelming fire in my heart for God had slowly faded away.
Now, let’s take this fire in our heart and imagine it as a real fire. The logs are all of the amazing activities we do at camp that give us structure to our days here. The sticks and kindling are the energy that every single person brings to this place that keeps us going when we are tired and need a boost. And the air around us is the laughter and conversations that we share with one another, helping us grow deeper in our faith.
Now, like any one of our campfires, at the end of the night and the end of the week, they must go out. But that doesn’t mean the fire in our hearts has to. As Sarah talked about, the ashes on your forehead are a direct result of the fires we have every night.
Think of these ashes as the memories, conversations, and love that you shared with your friends, cabinmates, counselors, and staff this week. While the fire may go out, the remnants of it remain and will continue to have an impact on this camp, even after you’re gone.
The end of a camp week is inevitable, and it is impossible to recreate the exact feeling that camp brings us. But for a moment, I want you to think about all camp has given you this week and find something small that you can take home with you that you didn’t do before.
Whether it is praying before meals, praying out loud like we do in our popcorn prayer, joining a bible study, or even just sitting with someone new and making a friend. Bringing a small piece of camp home with you can fuel the fire in your heart and keep it strong until you return to camp next year.
