Mennonite Weekly Review

Hyacinth Banks Stevens admits she didn’t like going to Camp Deerpark as a child. But in junior high, something happened to change her heart.

Hyacinth and Benjamin Stevens

And that changed the course of her life.

Stevens, co-pastor with her husband, Benjamin, at King of Glory Tabernacle in the Bronx, said her attitude changed in the mid-1980s when the camp put a greater emphasis on leadership development.

That training took root in her and in other summer campers, including her husband and many other young people who grew up in New York City.

“As soon as the emphasis changed, the entire camping experience took on a whole different shape,” said Stevens, 37, who with Benjamin is raising four children as they serve the urban congregation where she grew up. It was formerly named Burnside Mennonite Church.

“The summer program’s theme became ‘Empowering Youth to Serve Christ in the City,’ ” she said. “Camp was not about spook hikes or hayrack rides or campfires, but about becoming a disciple of Jesus prepared to follow him back home in our everyday context.”

Benjamin Stevens said, “I had my first exposure to camp when I was 5 and took a day trip there with my preschool. I’ve been there ever since as a camper or doing every job there is to do. It became a second home. Ken Bontrager, camp director, did a good job of showing us the ropes and letting us explore using our gifts and abilities.”

Collectively, they served for about three and a half decades at Deerpark. They did everything from counseling to cooking to fixing toilets to leading discipleship-and leadership-training programs to being part of a drama troupe.

They became the first teenagers to participate in a counselor-in-training program and later advanced to become full-fledged counselors. Benjamin, who pursued a degree at Eastern Mennonite University in Harrisonburg, Va., became maintenance supervisor and helped with programming.

Hyacinth served as summer camp director before she became full-time program director for three years. She then took a break to teach school and to use the elementary education degree she earned at Nyack College. She later returned to camp for another three years of program directing. Most recently, she’s earned a master’s degree in public administration.