Camp summer #3

My 3rd summer at camp has finished! I love working at camp-- faith, kids, outdoors-- but it is exhausting (so if you talk to me now that is what you might hear). After 10.5 weeks (2 of staff training & 8.5 of camp) you can bet I'm counting the weeks/days!  Most of our camps are 1 week programs for ages 7-17 (rising 2nd grade through high school), with the older groups having some 2 week options and the last half week for a parent and young child.

My responsibilities included worship each night and driving & participating with groups at off campus activities-- hiking, rock climbing, white water canoeing, service projects and backpacking overnights-- and many other things that come up.  Again, exhausting but so fun!

This years theme is Peace of the Wild Things--taken from Wendell Berry's poem The Peace of Wild Things:

When despair for the world grows in me

and I wake in the night at the least sound

in fear of what my life and my children's lives may be,

I go and lie down where the wood drake

rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.

I come into the peace of wild things

who do not tax their lives with forethought

of grief. I come into the presence of still water.

And I feel above me the day-blind stars

waiting with their light. For a time

I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

I picked 4 Bible stories and weaved the idea of where we can find peace through the lessons:

• Moses and the burning bush-- Finding peace in facing fears and knowing that God is with you
• Naomi and Ruth-- Finding peace in community
• Jonah-- Finding peace in listening to God (while Jonah wasn't happy with the result, I think he found peace outside the fish) and believing that God gives us multiple chances to do what's right
• Jesus in the wilderness-- Finding peace in Scripture and knowing we belong to God

I get to use the stories each week and feel that I get my point and stories out a bit better each time...guess it is good I have 8 weeks... (ok, I have help for when I'm not there and on backpacking trips--thanks Luke! and week 1 Pastor Carlton takes the lessons--thanks!