Whitney “Supa” Vandercar is married to Dave “DAV” Vandercar, Executive Director at Lakeview Ministries. Whitney served on summer staff at Lakeview from 2002-2006 and currently serves as the Principal at White Creek Lutheran School in Columbus, IN.
I fell in love with camp at a very young age. I think I was 9 years old when I first stayed at Lakeview, and I cried when it was time to go home. Over the next 8 years of my life, I was always dreaming of summertime when I could go back and enjoy the place that offered so much focus on faith and fun.
So when I got to be a “chore person” one summer after high school and met Dave, he was kind of the embodiment of camp to me. The rugged and outdoorsy maintenance guy who proudly wore a “praying knees” t-shirt and smelled like campfire (because he was the one building them) just personified Lakeview in my mind.
Dave loved the Lord, loved being outside, loved helping people, loved playing games, loved singing (off-key) to the radio in the truck and around the campfire. We had a blast working together on the maintenance crew for two weeks, and I’m sure I cried when it was time to go home.
Dave and I became pen pals in the off-season, and that dreaming of camp through the fall, winter, and spring months turned into dreaming of Dave. When we were reunited the next summer, it was pure Lakeview love.
Dave proposed to me a couple summers later by the creek at the challenge course. We got married at the camp amphitheater that he helped build. We bought our home just a mile down the road and raised our family in camp’s backyard. It’s beautiful to see how God worked through Camp Lakeview to bring me and Dave together and how He continues to bless us in our life of faith through Camp.
Side Note:
In some Bible study group I was in as a teenager, there was an exercise we did where we listed the most important qualities we hoped our future mates would possess. Of course, the point of the activity was to direct our minds and hearts away from superficial and worldly things like good looks, money and popularity and instead help us focus on those things that really matter like faith and good character.
Walking into camp summer staff training and meeting your coworkers is like having a gourmet meal served to you on a silver platter – you know that every one of those guys and girls are high-quality best friend material.
The camp directors, through the hiring process, have already selected young men and women with those “most important qualities” boxes checked, so then you are free to focus on a person’s special talents (dodgeball), interpersonal skills (opted to spend a summer working with kids), sense of humor (ridiculous skits), style (t-shirt and jeans), taste in music (guitar around a campfire), etc., and find deep connections over those things as well. Camp is a great place to fall in love!
When they’re not working at camp or at school, Whitney and Dave have 4 kids who keep them busy at home, which is still just a mile down the road from camp. Thanks for sharing your camp love story Whitney!