Leah’s connection to Camp Asbury started long before she ever worked here, but not in the usual way. Her sisters spent their summers at Asbury, first as campers and then on staff. “It was one of their happy places,” Leah remembers. She, on the other hand, only attended camp once as a child for camp’s three-day program. “I was so homesick,” she says with a smile. Most summers, she was too busy with competitive horseback riding to join in. She’d glance at the camp program each year to see what horse sessions were offered but always chose the riding arena over the campfire ring. That changed in 2015. Looking for a summer job that would combine her love for kids, the outdoors, and community, she applied to be a counselor.

Her first summer, Leah threw herself into the experience. “I wanted to do everything! Art, high ropes, even though I was afraid of heights. If I’d been a stronger swimmer, I would have been a lifeguard,” she laughs. “For me, it’s never just been camp. It feels closer to a church. There are sacred spaces here like Communion Hill, outdoor chapels, campfire rings. Also, quiet spots, like by a creek or the pond, where you feel God’s presence. Camp gives you space to slow down, watch fireflies, and just be.”

Leah returned the next summer as a volunteer counselor, then in 2017 and 2018 as Asbury’s Art Specialist, though that wasn’t the plan. After college, she’d lined up a “real job”  and even turned down the art role when first offered. The very next day she was accepted to grad school, meaning the job she’d planned for no longer fit. She immediately called Bill and asked if the job was still available. Becoming the Art Specialist affected Leah’s trajectory. She started taking pottery classes in Athens to keep her creativity alive during grad school. The following summer, she returned to Asbury with new skills, enough to run the pottery program on her own. That led to managing summer art program in Athens after grad school, and to work as a youth director in the United Methodist Church.

Of course, there were mishaps along the way, like the day she accidentally fired, rather than dried, an entire week’s worth of campers’ pottery. Every piece exploded. “I had to figure something out fast.”. With help from day camp counselors and older campers, she launched an impromptu “Adopt-A-Pot” program. Kids whose pieces had shattered got to choose a new one, that needed love and a new home. “It became a lesson in accepting when things break, finding beauty in it and moving on.”

Leah finds two scriptures that resonate in her life that has unexpectedly revolved around pottery. Jeremiah’s image of the potter reworking a spoiled vessel into something new, and Isaiah’s reminder that the clay cannot question the potter. “I never intended to be the Art Specialist,” she says. “It wasn’t what I applied for. But looking back, I can see how each piece of my life was shaped by God’s hands, building one thing into the next.”

In 2020, she got married in Asbury’s Chapel in the Woods, crossing the little metal bridge in a place where she’d lived, worked, and found parts of her calling. She’s since brought her former confirmation classes and youth groups back to serve, worship, and, yes, watch the fireflies. Leah’s journey is full of twists, much like a lump of clay taking shape on a wheel. “Camp didn’t give me my closest friends,” she admits. “But it gave me sacred places, mentors, and the chance to give back. It shaped me.”