Staff Profile: Tess Wilson

We got to sit down with Tess and ask her some questions about her journey with Pine Cove, from her first summer on staff at City to now serving full time as the Women’s Director at the Timbers! From favorite camp memories to the ways the Lord has faithfully worked throughout her journey, Tess shares some compelling and encouraging responses. Read along to get to know Tess and hear more about her story!

What is your job, and how did you get to Pine Cove?

I am the Women’s Director at the Timbers! I had never been a camper growing up, but applied my freshman year of college because everyone at Baylor was talking about it. I worked at Pine Cove City for four years on summer staff! Then I served two years as a Site Director for City, and now I am the Women’s Director at the Timbers!

What is your favorite part of your job?

I love getting to walk alongside our staffers and help them identify and walk in confidence in the gifts the Lord has given them. It is so cool to see the transformation that happens when you encourage, walk alongside, challenge, and point people to the Lord. We get to see staffers walk in their true identity in Christ and have so much fun walking in the gifts that He has naturally given them. I also just love getting to be goofy and fun with our staff and remind them of the joys of working at summer camp!

Do any standout memories come to mind from your time working for camp?

I was a theatre major in college, so something about me is that I LOVE a good dance number moment. During my Site Director summer with Team Iceberg, during Week 10 cabin assignments, we pranked the team we were stacked with (shoutout to Team Jungle) by doing an entire choreographed dance number to “Hair Up” from Trolls. I seriously peaked during that moment.

How did you get your camp name?

My full name is “To Flee or Not to Flee,” but I just go by Flee! The name comes from the famous quote in Hamlet, “To be or not to be, that is the question…” because I was a theatre major in college. My freshman year of high school, a guy tried to ask me to homecoming in front of the whole school, and I got freaked out and ran into the girls’ bathroom. My parents made me call and apologize, haha.

What is your go-to free-time snack at camp?

I’m a gluten-free/dairy-free girly, so there aren’t too many options for me, but a Dr Pepper and Chomps are my favorites!

How has the Lord shown His faithfulness throughout your journey—from serving on summer staff, to now working full-time at the Timbers?

The Lord used Pine Cove in so many ways to transform my life! I didn’t grow up as a camper at Pine Cove, but started working after my freshman year of college, which was 2020. I ended up actually working at Silverado for two weeks on Work Crew as a part of the City Go Team! That summer, the Lord taught me so much about how He doesn’t need me to do effective ministry, but He chooses to use me, which is a blessing to be brought into ministry with Him! Each summer after, as I worked at City, the Lord taught me invaluable lessons in humbling me and allowing me to see the gifts He has given me, putting mentors in my life who walked alongside me in showing me how to use those gifts, and strengthening my faith in the Lord.

I actually had to put the faith that I proclaim to use as I explained the Gospel to campers, interacted with and invested in Host Homes, and grew in sanctification. After college, I did Pine Cove’s discipleship program called the Forge, and there I learned how to defend what I believe with Scripture and grow in my understanding and application of Scripture as a whole. I got to walk alongside a class that loved me, pushed me, and did life with me in sweet community as we got to live out Proverbs 27:17 and sharpen each other as iron sharpens iron! I am not the same woman walking into that program as I was when I walked out.

Now I serve as the Women’s Director at the Timbers, and that is the Lord’s kindness! I learned so much about dependence this past summer as I learned a style of camp I was so unfamiliar with, and an age group that was very different from City. But the Lord was so faithful and so near, and I was just embraced so quickly into the family that is the Timbers! I look back at this summer with so much gratitude!

What do you like to do in your free time?

I love to spend time with my roommates and friends in Tyler! We love to eat out! It is tricky with so many dietary restrictions, but I have learned which places are pretty accommodating! I am also obsessed with Dancing with the Stars! You can find me talking about it pretty constantly right now. Recently, my roommates and I have been really getting into learning how to cross-stitch, and I love a good book on my Kindle. So, life feels pretty slow in this season, which is sweet—I am a naturally fast-paced person! I also love to travel—my family lives in Charleston, South Carolina, so any time I can bring friends home with me, I get really excited to show them around!

What’s something God has used the ministry of Pine Cove to teach you?

Oh goodness! To pick one thing! A passage of Scripture that I continue to cling to throughout all the various seasons of this job is Ephesians 3:20–21. We serve a big God who is capable of so much! He doesn’t need us to do ministry, but He chooses to use us and invites us into ministry with Him! How incredible is that? This passage says, “Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations forever and ever, Amen.”

We serve a God of abundance. I have seen the Lord do remarkable things time and time again—more than I could ever imagine. Whether that be life change in a camper, a staffer who learns how to walk with Jesus, the way the Lord intentionally places a certain staffer on a certain team, the list goes on and on. And this isn’t just true because of this job or because of Pine Cove—that is just the God we serve. A God of abundance! And who are we to put Him in a box or say He can’t do something?!