For some communities, it may be unusual for a small town to produce three adults who have chosen camping as a career. For Carrie Browning, Russell Casteel and Chap Fenwick, however, it seems a natural progression from growing up in a small, caring community, to creating similar communities through their chosen professions.
Carrie Browning
Carrie Browning has an extensive camping background after being a summer camper at Camp of the Rising Son for five years, and then working there for seven summers in roles including counselor, program director and activities director.
“All my years of working on summer staff, I never dreamed I would one day be the director!” Browning said. She had originally planned to be a teacher so that she could be with her daughters during the summer months, but Browning found herself volunteering at camp regularly and when the director position came open in 2008, she took it.
Browning said the support of family and community helped her become the person she is today.
“The people of Kosciusko are so incredibly encouraging and kind,” she said.
Having the support of her parents, both sets of grandparents and a host of friends has been very important, also having the opportunities for leadership in high school, good experiences upon which to base her leadership today.
“Mom and Dad challenged me to always do my best and taught me work ethic by their own hard work,” she said.
Also influential were the many directors of Camp of the Rising Son that she worked under during her summer employment. She especially names Chief Margie Newman, the founding director of the camp, as being an important mentor to her, and she still seeks advice from her today.
“Camp of the Rising Son’s mission is for campers to learn about and experience the life-changing love of Jesus Christ through creation, relationship and fun,” she said of the camp she now directs.
CRS campers can personalize their weeks by choosing any five of the more that 20 activities offered. Another important aspect of the camp is the overnight campout, which includes cooking over a fire, making s’mores and sleeping in tents. Day camp is also offered to children ages 6-10 as an introduction. Adventurous campers can opt for a week of overnight camp in rustic cabins. Teen campers can participate in an Adventure or Horse Camp.
During the non-summer months, the CRS staff stays busy organizing activities for French Camp boarding students and, of course, planning for the busy summer ahead. Among the summer activities offered are sailing, canoeing, archery, horseback riding, art, leather crafts and many others.
Browning believes that the camping experience is important for children in today’s world.
“Camp gets a child away from screens and hands-on with God’s creation,” she said.
Campers grow in independence and confidence and learn to live with a group of brand-new friends.
“They learn how to work together and even to appreciate the gifts and abilities in others that are different than their own. These are all skills and experiences needed to succeed in the world today,” she said.
The daughter of Edward and Johanne Bryant, Carrie Browning is married to her high school sweetheart, Greg Browning, and is the mother of Katie Grace, Emalee and Olivia. A 1994 graduate of Kosciusko High School, Browning received her bachelor’s degree at Ole Miss and her Master of Education from Vanderbilt.
Russell Casteel
Russell Casteel is the executive director of Cedar Crest Camp in Lyles, Tennessee, and the conference camping director of the Tennessee United Methodist Camp and Retreat Ministry.
While in youth group at First United Methodist Church, Casteel grew up attending Camp Lake Stephens retreats, and accepted the job at Cedar Crest in 2013.
Casteel’s previous experience includes associate pastor at several Atlanta churches while in seminary and he worked as program director at CLS in Oxford for 11 summers and fulltime for seven years.
Casteel said family camping trips when he was a child were an inspiration for his career.
“I wanted to be outside playing, reading and exploring as a young person; as I grew older, church retreats and mission work became important aspects of my life experience,” he said.
Although he originally planned to be a teacher, Casteel answered the call to church ministry before spending his first summer as a camp counselor.
“That one summer taught me the potential of mentoring and relationship that a summer camp could offer, and it remains my passion today,” he said.
Casteel is quick to mention his gratefulness for his education at Kosciusko High School and its excellence in education, arts and athletics.
“(I’ve)…kept music, athletics and community as important pillars in the homes that I have found since I left Attala County,” he said, adding that his family and his church were important in his formative years while learning to celebrate differences and to love all people, regardless of differences.
Casteel names his parents, David and Beverly Casteel, and grandparents, Bill and Carolyn Mitchell, among those who influenced his career path. All taught him the importance of using his gifts in service to the church. Other important mentors were Kevin Bishop, his band director, and his wife Juli, his youth director.
“They taught me that laughter, love and inclusivity are perhaps the most important human characteristics,” he said.
He is also grateful to the many camping mentors and friends he has met along the way who helped teach him that camping is especially important in an age of technological advancement.
As for what Cedar Crest has to offer, Casteel mentions swimming, kayaking, fishing, high and low ropes and archery, among other activities as popular during summer camp.
During non-summer months, the camp has an Environmental Education program that serves several hundred students each year in hands-on science programs, led by Kosciusko High School graduate Philip Salter. Cedar Crest, as well as the other camps under Casteel’s direction, has programs for children, youth, families, adults and older adults, pastors and also hosts ecumenical events.
Casteel believes camping is important to today’s youths because it is important to get away from technology, clear the mind and learn about oneself and each other.
“It’s not about bugs and dirt. It’s about getting out of our comfort zones and finding out who we really are. Today’s generations need to know that we have much more in common than we have differences, and God’s love encompasses all,” he said.
Russell is married to Callie, and they are the parents of Brown. A 2000 graduate of Kosciusko High School, Casteel received an A.A. degree from Holmes Community College, a bachelor’s degree from Mississippi State, a Master of Divinity from Candler School of Theology at Emory University and a Doctor of Ministry degree from Drew University, specializing in camp and retreat ministry.
Chap Fenwick
Chap Fenwick is the brand-new executive director at Camp Wesley Pines in Gallman.
After teaching and coaching for one semester, Fenwick became the Program Director at before moving to Camp Wesley Pines in August.
Fenwick said that his first summer to work at Camp Lake Stephens as a counselor changed his life.
“I began to realize that camping ministry is more than just a ‘summer job,’” he said.
He knew many people who chose camping ministry as their full-time vocations and he vividly remembers a conversation with then-Program Director Russell Casteel during which Casteel asked Fenwick if he would ever want to be a camp director.
“I realized that yes, that was, in fact, exactly what I wanted, and felt called, to do,” he said recently. “That little seed planted on that day through a conversation I had with my mentor really was the true beginning of it all, and from that moment on, I made it my ultimate goal to be a camp director.”
Fenwick is quick to mention his home church, First United Methodist, as an influence in this growing up years in Kosciusko.
“Kosciusko FUMC has remained committed to loving me as a member of its family, and I have been profoundly influenced by so many of the saints that have been a part of the church,” he said.
Like Browning, Fenwick also has great memories of attending Camp of the Rising Son as child. Singing the camp songs, getting mail from his parents, walking the trails and riding the trailer, called Babe, to the pool are a few of his fondest memories of CRS.
Fenwick said Russell Casteel and Hugh Griffith, Wesley Foundation director at Mississippi State have been his greatest mentors.
“There is just no way I’d be where I am today without Russell’s gift of having intentional conversations and for affirming my gifts and passions before I was even aware of them,” he said of Casteel’s influence.
Fenwick said Griffith gave him a piece of advice that not only has he never forgotten, but that he also has passed on to others:
“’You are called to the place where your deep gladness meets the world’s deep need,’” Fenwick said is the advice that made him truly realize he was being called to camp ministry.
Asked about what Wesley Pines offers, Fenwick mentioned canoeing, archery, art and crafts, high ropes and low ropes, among other activities. In addition to cabins, the camp also contains the Durr-Wise Retreat Center, a larger facility with hotel-style lodging for retreats and conferences. In the non-summer months, Camp Wesley Pines hosts retreats and experiences nearly every weekend, including Emmaus Walks, Cursillo, Kairos Outside and Confirmation Retreats.
Like the other two camp directors, Fenwick believes camping is important for youths in this day and age.
“All throughout scripture, we see that people most often experienced the wonder, mystery and beauty of God while in the midst of His creation—walking through a field, fishing on a lake or hiking up a mountainside—all experiences in which normal people encountered the living God and were transformed by that experience,” he said.
Fenwick believes that those immersed in the natural world will experience the fullness of God and their lives will be better for it.
The son of Eddie and Jean Fenwick, Chap is married to Kelly, and they are the parents of Jack and a new baby, due in November. A graduate of Kosciusko High School, Fenwick received bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Mississippi State.
