Article April 30, 2012 ISSUE

'Spiritual armor' at summer camp

Brittany Duke

Last summer I went to a summer camp for Christian Scientists near where I live. I was attending Ski Camp, which is a two-week program that takes place off campgrounds. We stayed in cabins by the lake and went waterskiing and wakeboarding almost every day. I was excited to try wakeboarding for the second time. (In case you don’t know, wakeboarding involves strapping your feet into a board similar to a snowboard. You stand up in the water and try to go from side to side across the wake left by the boat.)

I went out behind the boat and stood up on the wakeboard. I tried to go from side to side across the wake, as I’d been taught, but I didn’t realize I would fall if the edge of the wakeboard got caught in the wake. One of my edges soon caught, and I face-planted. As soon as my face hit the water, my mouth started to hurt, and as I came to the surface, two of my counselors noticed the blood on my face.