The encounter with Jesus Christ happens in a variety of settings at camp. On the lakeshore by the campfire, to be sure. But also in the dining hall where the Doxology is sung to so many different off-beat tunes that there is no database program large enough to contain them all. OK, this afternoon before we eat, let's sing the Doxology to the tune of the theme from Gilligan's Island. The times after eating are times of unmitigated silliness when adults can freely make fools of themselves on purpose.
Children get a whole new picture of how adults act when they get seriously religious.
They might even get the impression that this religion thing is actually more fun than anyone could imagine on a Sunday morning at St. John's by the gas station. It's just part of the camping oral tradition, a sort of secret society with its own language and its own enduring magic. The encounter with Jesus Christ happens in cabins when kids learn to live with people they barely know. It happens when they have to negotiate social conventions that transcend school and family. It happens when they experiment with the limits of who God might be and where God in Jesus Christ might be leading them.