Wilderness Trail Summer Staff
The Wilderness Trail Summer Staff love God, adventure, and serving others. With that love these college-aged servant leaders run the Wilderness Trail Summer Program. Wilderness Trail Staff embody spiritual creativity and personal commitment as they craft the summer’s worship, programming, meals, and organizational details.
Wilderness Trail is looking for people who:
Have deep love for God and a desire to share that love with others:
- Their deep and abiding love for God and neighbor is consistently evident in their words, their actions, and their presence.
- Their appetite for growing in faith and leadership is robust and has infected their mind, body, and soul with faithful pursuit of God’s offer of the life abundant.
Are people-oriented:
- They pay close attention to group dynamics with an eye and passion for inclusion, who listen intuitively and carefully, and who interact confidently and calmly in group settings.
- They communicate well - compassionately and constructively in personal, small group, and public settings - and demonstrate articulacy for matters mundane and sacred.
Are eager to participate in WT’s practices, improving and innovating them.
- They develop particular knowledge of Wilderness Trail’s routes, trails, equipment, Property, worship, and program ministry and want to offer their giftedness and intellect to see the ministry flourish.
- They love Wilderness Trail’s history, traditions, Property, spiritual disciplines, and work ethic, and desire to innovate and live out this love in communities of ministry family, staff, and hiking groups.
Are responsible to maintain a safe, healthy environment:
- They have common sense for sound decision-making, for boundaries, for safety, for inclusion... and use it!
The Requisites for WT Summer Staff:
- Be 18 years or older
- Have completed at least the first year of college
- Be certified in CPR and First Aid
Roles and Responsibilities:
Various roles exist within the Summer Staff. Here are the available jobs for Summer 2012:
1st year Hiking Staff:
June 1 through August 6, 2012
These college students are the primary contact point of our ministry. They are responsible for leading a group of about 12 youth and adults through the woods for God-filled adventure.
Hiking Staff facilitate retreats, welcoming hikers to our Property and a small group experience amidst event-wide worship, meals, and preparations. Hiking Staff facilitate the backpacking trip, navigating routes, ensuring group unity and safety, teaching camp skills, and preparing meals.
Hiking Staff allow physical journeys to become spiritual journeys, creating space for seeking God, connecting scripture and faith story to experience, and offering worship leadership along the way. They are willing and able to share their faith formally and informally with others. Maintaining a year-round spiritual discipline renders this possible. Hiking Staff are mentors of Junior Staff and value discipleship opportunities at all junctures.
In July, Hiking Staff welcome the July Contract Returning Staff for the DoubleStuff Orientation preparing for back-to-back events in a simultaneous and staggered fashion. The core Staff, flanked by the July Contract Returning Staff, will take to two event formations – either 3 and 5 or 4 and 6 – to assail the DoubleStuff event calendar.
The Hiking Staff maintain the Property, upkeep equipment, conduct the programming ministry, and delight in the beauty of summer on the mountainside.
Returning Hiking Staff:
June 1 through August 6, 2012
Returning Hiking Staff continue in the responsibilities described above with a passion and penchant for discipleship, friendship, and guidance of new Staff. These leaders amongst leaders reach out to 1st year staff before the summer begins and throughout the summer as prayer partners and traveling mates to welcome them into a God-centered community of work and fellowship. Returning Hiking Staff take on particular responsibilities in aspects of the programming ministry such as worship, GBC, or Property areas and collaborate with Directors prior to the summer to set it assail. Returning Staff bring maturity and wisdom to acute concerns as well as the oblong trajectories of summer-long logistical and spiritual leadership, made possible by ten months of scriptural reflection on the prior summer’s experiences.
Returning Hiking Staff: July Contract:
July 3, 2012 through July 25, 2012
July Contract Hiking Staff fulfill the role and responsibilities of 1st year hiking staff furthered by the foci of a Returning Hiking Staff for the duration of the July DoubleStuff Events. In preparation for their journey and the Leading back-to-back hikes – either 3 and 5 or 4 and 6 – these Staff join forces with the core Staff for a three-day DoubleStuff Orientation intuitively aware of the community dynamic into which they are grafted. Logistically and spiritually prepared for the DoubleStuff calendar, July Contract Hiking Staff participate fully in the Junior Staff ministry, retreats, hikes, and layover, offering encouragement and energy to the core Staff and ministry family. The shorter contract period allows these Staff time to fulfill personal, academic, and familial desires and demands whilst continuing their journey of servant leadership with Wilderness Trail. The July Contract begins at noon on Tuesday, July 3 and ends the morning of Wednesday July 25th, the day after Event 6.
Kitchen Staff:
June 1 through August 6, 2012
With a God-filled spirit of hospitality the Kitchen Staff provide 3 meals each day of the summer. These are the event-wide meals during retreats, individual and group food for each journey, meals on support, and all Staff meals. Kitchen Staff are faithful stewards of the ministry’s various resources, conscious of the budget (financial), diligent in kitchen cleanliness (physical), masters of hospitality (guests), and compassionate, clear communicators (Junior Staff, BCPs, helpers!). During the DoubleStuff Events the Kitchen Staff will be joined by a third laborer and rotate thru a three-day cycle of primary, supporting, and Sabbath responsibilities, working two days then resting one during this three-week calendar period.
Kitchen Staff orchestrate Wilderness Trail’s food inventorying, ordering, purchasing, preparing, serving, storing, and cleaning. They are members of the Support Team during the hiking week -- cleaning, meeting groups, and preparing for the closing retreat (although this is quite secondary during DoubleStuff events in July). In May’s preparations and throughout the summer Kitchen Staff communicate with the Summer Director for event numbers, meal times, and food needs for all occasions. This clear and compassionate communication extends to Junior Staff and adults, partnering with them in joyous ministry.
Apply!
The application process begins with the applicant’s review of job descriptions and requesting select contracts accompanied by WT personnel policies. Once reviewed, applicants request the written application. Other components include Wilderness Trail contacting listed references and conducting phone interviews with applicants.
If you are interested in applying, please contact Mary Jeanne Harwood (mj@wtrail.com) to receive an application. She’d love to talk with you!
Application Timeline for Summer 2012:
Applications are due by Monday, November 7th, 2011.
Decisions will be communicated by January 1st, 2012.