Sun, fun and fervor.

Byline: Mark Baker The Register-Guard

CAMP HARLOW - Somewhere between sin and salvation lies a summer camp for kids in north Eugene.

This is where young boys and girls come for a week at a time, to find dirty feet, rows of cookies, and the Lord - all in one place.

This is where you'll find camp counselors with names such as "Chunk" and "Tennis," "Aanimal" and "Rio," "Cola" and "Buttercup," giving each other egg shampoos, much to the delight of campers.

This is where the 10 boys of Cabin 14 spent six days last week - at a 55-year-old Christian camp named for the pioneer family who gave 236 acres of land west of Coburg Road, near the McKenzie River, to Eugene's First Baptist Church in 1948.

During 11 weeks this summer, about 3,500 campers between the ages of 5 and 18 will pass through for games and songs of worship, outdoor adventure and Bible study.

This is the story of a day in the life of Camp Harlow, as seen through the eyes of boys who will, all too soon, be sitting behind the desks in fifth, sixth- and seventh-grade classrooms.

Tween camp

Dancing campers are happy campers, but they're not supposed to be. Dancing, that is.

This is "FOB" - Flat on Bunk - time Thursday afternoon, a 45-minute slot after lunch and before hours of swimming and canoeing and go-kart racing, when campers are supposed to be resting or reading in their cabin. Or maybe quietly listening to their counselors strum guitars.

However, in Cabin 14, Willie Burton, 11, of Springfield and Brandon Cunningham, 10, of Gresham are having none of this lying-down stuff. And their counselor, 19-year-old David Meek of Lebanon, who the campers know only by his "camp" name of "Tennis," isn't helping much because he's playing their favorite song, the "Banana" song.

"One, two, three ... I like bananas ... I like papayas ... I like the mangoes ..."

As the other eight boys lie on their bunks, Willie and Brandon dance to the upbeat tune and shoot their arms into the air as if they are superheroes.

"All right, guys, let's start calming back down," says Meek, a tall and thin young man with orange-brown eyes and a ready grin.

Willie, who will be entering the sixth grade at Agnes Stewart Middle School this fall, hangs down from his top bunk and says: "I had a latte yesterday."

Where?

"At the Poolside Cafe."

Did it give you a lot of energy?

"No, but I felt like a real man."

This is the sixth weeklong session of the summer. It's called Tween Camp because it's for boys and girls - about 325 of them - who are "between" the early years of grade school and the later years of high school. The campers are divided into groups of 10 to 12 who stay in the same cabin with their counselors, whose real names they do not know.

It's tradition.

"This is a really fun place," Willie says. "And it's not just fun, we're here to worship. This is my second year. Last year I accepted the Lord into my heart."

Heaven and hell

Dave "The Wave" Mertz, a 1982 graduate of South Eugene High School, is Camp Harlow's summer program director. A friendly man with a gentle, round face, Mertz throws himself into each camp, playing his guitar, acting in skits and being on the receiving end of camper shouts of "Dave the Wave!"

Thursday evening at 7:30 p.m., he stands on stage with his guitar, readying himself to play songs of worship, at the Camphitheater. It is an outdoor theater in the middle of camp with a fire pit and rows of tiered, wooden seating.

It's "Club at the Pit" time, a nightly event of songs and Bible stories. Tonight the children have just finished listening to Drew Wheeler, a counselor with the camp name of "Cola," talk about the story of David and Goliath and about David's relationship with Christ.

"I don't get too excited about religion," Mertz says. "And you know, neither did Jesus. He said it's about relationship."

A relationship with Christ.

If it's not something they already have, it's something campers who come here are encouraged to thoughtfully consider.

It's 8 p.m., cabin time.

An hour from now is the week's closing ceremony - back to the Camphitheater for a campfire with songs and skits and the distribution of medals that say WWJD - What Would Jesus Do?

But before that, the boys of Cabin 14 are having a discussion about heaven and hell.

"How many of you guys believe that there's a heaven?" Meek asks. Eight of the 10 boys shoot their hands into the air.

"So, if there's a heaven, there's got to be a way to heaven, right?" says Meek, who then asks the boys their idea of how to get there.

Twelve-year Kory Phillips of Springfield, a chubby boy with freckles, raises his hand.

"Have a relationship with God?"

Meek nods.

"Do a lot of good things and don't do anything sinful," says Johnathon Brady, 10, of Oregon City.

"Or stupid," says 11-year-old Jacob Becker of Pleasant Hill.

Brent Laird, a 16-year-old student at Pleasant Hill High School and an assistant counselor in the cabin, explains it this way to the boys: "The way to make it, guys, is to invite Jesus into your life. Because when he died, he took away all of your sins."

"You don't have to do anything to go to heaven," Meek says. "I'm 19 and I've done enough bad things in my life that I'd spend forever making them up."

No, the way in, Meek explains, is to ask God to let you into his heart, to ask him to "please make me one of those people you died for."

Drew McConnell, 12, of Eagle, Idaho, wants to know more about hell and who goes there.

Meek says it is a place people go when they choose not to follow God.

The Garden of Commitment

Willie and Brandon take a stroll not far from the Camphitheater and Willie shows where his stick is - just a few feet away from the towering Douglas fir tree.

"I put it in here last year," Willie says, "to accept Jesus into my heart."

"Jesus was already in my heart," Brandon says.

This is the Garden of Commitment, where campers place wooden sticks into the ground with their names and the date of their "commitment."

Willie's stick says 6/21/02.

The garden is enclosed by a short picket fence, and its fir trees are accompanied by curving oaks. Hundreds of sticks sprout up from the ground.

At the closing ceremony, alternating songs and skits thrill campers warmed by the fire.

Meek and Laird and the boys of Cabin 14 sit somewhere in the middle, jumping excitedly when three counselors - Aanimal, Arsenio and Seven - break into the camp's favorite song, "You pick me up."

You pick me up ...

"Up!" the more than 300 campers scream as the leap into the air.

You make me strong ...

"Strong!" they shout as they flex their biceps.

You give me joy ...

"Joy!" they yell, flashing their hands by their smiling faces.

You keep me going all day long ...

Na-na-na-na ... na-na-na-na ...hey, hey ... praise God.

Later, they close with Mertz leading them in prayer. Campers and counselors share hugs and tears. Children's voices fill the night air.

"To God be the glory, now and forever, amen.

To God be the glory, now and forever, amen."

They hold hands. Some sway.

"Everybody say 'Amen,' " Mertz says.

"Amen."

CAPTION(S):

Campers work together to solve a puzzle (left), and one camper's feet show the dirty consequences of good, clean fun at Camp Harlow. After a week of swimming, singing and playing with new friends at camp, Brandon Cunningham of Gresham takes part in a final prayer.