As a high school volleyball and track athlete, Maddie Ditter immersed herself in the sports world. She also immersed herself in FCA Camp, an environment that became familiar to her from an early age. Her parents are both involved—her dad as a football coach and her mom helping with the spouses’ Huddle—and her older brothers both went through the ranks at camp. Ditter was in Junior Huddle, daytime activities for staff and volunteers’ kids at camp, for two years, a camper for six years, and now as a college student, she serves as a Huddle Leader.
“I just had so much fun, and it was so awesome being at camp and seeing all the big kids and watching them raise their hands in worship and thinking, ‘Oh, why are they doing that? That's so cool. I want to do that,’ learning we can raise our hands to praise,” she said.
Her home environment in Yakima, Washington, allowed her a great base for faith, but Ditter began to dive deeper into faith in relation to sport when she joined her FCA Huddle in high school.
“It solidified me as a student-athlete, but what FCA really brought me is the truth that yes, I'm a student-athlete, but I am a student and an athlete and a child of God all at once,” she said. “I have this beautiful opportunity to move every day and I have this opportunity to compete and to glorify the One who gave me the ability to do these things.”
Out of all her years as a camper at FCA Camp, Ditter had one summer of special significance that has stuck with her today.
“Our coach had us doing self-talk stations and her daughter Mahala was talking about her self-talk on the volleyball court when she's struggling and what she says to herself,” Ditter said. “This was the first time I had ever heard the phrase ‘Audience of One’ and the idea that when I'm competing, it doesn't matter who's watching, who might be judging me, who I think might be judging me. God’s always there, and I can forget about everybody else in the room.”
When she heard that truth, a weight lifted from Ditter. “I've always been somebody that's really hard on myself,” she admitted. “Hearing that was a reminder of grace.”
Now as a Huddle Leader serving at FCA Camp, she has the chance to invest in younger female athletes and introduce the ‘Audience of One’ concept she learned at their age. “It's really, really important to me to give the girls I'm leading a safe space and to teach them, lead them, comfort them and guide them wherever they find themselves,” she said. “I want to be that beacon for them and share the Audience of One in the mental game. I want to help them understand, ‘Oh, it’s just me and the Lord.’”
For those perpetually troubled by performance, Ditter offers one small yet significant word: Grace.
“I think we are given such an incredible gift to go out and compete, and to live a life that glorifies the Lord,” she said. “We're here to love God and to love our neighbors, and we're here for a purpose and with a purpose. Grace is such an incredible gift we have been given time and time again, by Somebody whose heart we break every day.”
She reminds herself of this and shares her journey with the girls in her Huddles. And grace is ushered in the minute they step onto the campus grounds.
“You come into camp, and everybody has weights and chains and scars,” Ditter shared. “No matter how rough you think your life is right now, there’s always something God is doing and He’s going to bring it to the light and not let the darkness hold.”
Ditter knows the seeds planted during camp bear fruit, both in the immediate and down the road.
“It’s amazing to watch breakthroughs happen with campers, but it’s also amazing to know sometimes you don’t see that breakthrough [right away], but you’re sparking something and they come back and say ‘You were my Huddle Leader last year and it really hit me what we talked about and you’ve made a huge impact in my life,’” said Ditter. “That’s just the biggest blessing, watching these kids grow.”
Ditter loves returning to camp each year because of the environment and family feel. “My family has always been involved with FCA as long as I can remember. They brought me to FCA, and I made a whole new family through FCA.”
Going into her senior year at Whitworth University in Spokane, Washington, Ditter’s been instrumental in getting a Huddle on campus; she reached out to a pastor on campus and shared her heart for FCA and contacted a club coordinator to determine the steps needed to form on campus. The first one will begin this fall.
It’s been an integral part of her life so why stop now?
“I've grown so much through FCA and learned so much about my own faith, really learned how to make it my own,” she said, “and I’ve never felt the Holy Spirit move through me more than I have every summer the week I’m at camp. “Coming to FCA Camp every year has been the biggest blessing in my life.”
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To get involved with FCA Camp or become a Huddle Leader, head to FCACamps.org!
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