From Church Camp

I am currently at the liminal space between heaven and earth called Camp Egan. We have just finished worship on Thursday night and it ended with communion, hugs and tears, and young people moved by the message that they are enough. The reality is many of us as adults have voices in our heads that tell us that we are not enough. Those voices are different for each of us but we all have those voices.

This was one of the biggest camps that I have been to in a long time. We had over 200 hundred youth and about 45 adults. I was often at the end of the line for the cafeteria and ended up eating most of my meals with a spoon. Faith was a large part of this week. Our youth director, Mark, served as one of the Deans for the week. Jonathon helped him in the sound booth running worship support. I organized volunteers to lead the Morning Praise worship for three days. We were all excited to be with Steven Doughty and he and Jonathon were responsible for junior high boys. Sarah Gerlach was also with our Junior High kids and served as a small group leader for the week. Suzanne Stevenson and I served with Sr High girls. They can be scary sometimes. Amanda Ayers also spent the week as a cabin mom, filling in everywhere and helping one of our campers be successful. We couldn’t have made it without any of these volunteers,

37 of the students were from Faith. We haven’t had these kind of numbers for camp for many, many years. It was a wonderful thing and they represented us well. All three of the Beck kids volunteered to help lead worship for the entire camp by reading scripture. Molly organized her cabin shower schedule for 18 youth. Olivia S. befriended a girl that was alone at camp and sat with her at meals and encouraged this young woman to stay when she wanted to go home. Priya and Ashley both participated in the Talent Show. There are just so many stories.

This Sunday I will share stories and scriptures from our theme for the week “Called.” We are launching our Vacation Bible School which is conveniently a camping theme so everything is working together.. I look forward to seeing you all and sleeping in my very own bed Friday.

Remember, you are worthy. You are loved.