The Transition from the Woods

For the last ten weeks of the summer I've been busy at the absolute best job I've ever had as a counselor at Nature Camp outside the village of Vesuvius, VA.  There I spent the summer with some of the best people I've ever met teaching children all kinds of things such as conservation, making biofuel, and botanical things like how flowers become fruits, that squash and tomatoes are fruits, how strawberries aren't berries and which plants can heal wounds and treat disease.  But I also got to teach the kids some important life skills like how to address an envelope and put the stamp on properly, how to sweep the floor, wipe a table, how to get along and make friends and even how to zip up a sleeping bag.  More importantly, teaching kids the lifelong themes of showing respect and participating in the community are a big parts of camp outside of class, and that stands out to me because those things are very important in how I understand the Community of Christ in which I am a part and becoming a more active part through this next year.  I want to present a few  reflections on this summer at camp in relation to my upcoming year before my mind gets completely filled with the experience in Boston.

There are a lot of traditions at Nature Camp, one is that every night before bed we hold hands in a circle and sing the Lord's prayer, and on the last night the kids are there, during this tradition, we leave a gap in the circle to remember the campers and staff who are no longer with us.  We save them a place in the circle. There is a special image with this gap in the circle, and we also sing a Nature Camp original song called "A Place in the Circle" that recognizes that when we leave, we always know there is that place open for us to come back at any time.  It's important to know that when you leave camp you never really leave because there always is that place for you in the circle.  Once you are part of that community, you are welcomed for life.  This is an important image at camp and the inspiration for several counselors to get a tattoo of a circle with a place left open.  That sense of always being welcomed is key. This camp is not affiliated with any religion, but it is a loving welcoming community as any based in faith.

A very similar image that is a key for our work in the Boston Food Justice YAV program is that there is always a place at the table.  A documentary about the US Food system just came out with that title and addresses some of the issues we hope to tackle in Boston. Seeing that open place in the circle from camp and that community of acceptance and welcoming is exactly what we will be experiencing and sharing with the community in Boston.  And I'm so excited to take that with me from camp.  No matter how rough a life we've been through, or the people we will meet have been through Jesus invites us all to the table with him. 

At the beginning of the summer, a more experienced staff member Adam explained to me that a large tradition in the community of male staff and the boys bunkhouse is acceptance.  No matter how ugly, dumb, annoying, or different you are from other people you are welcome here on the male staff and in that bunkhouse at camp.  And the same goes for the boy campers (I assume this is true for the girls cabins as well).  We get some wacky kids that come to camp.  The kids and the staff are a rainbow of personalities and crazies.  They accepted me on staff.  Adam referred to some terrible male counselors of the past, but they were all a part of male staff and that bond holds them together and there is always a place for them at this camp where they are welcomed and accepted into community.  All summer I thought how this is a perfect living example of the Kingdom of Heaven (or at least how it should be) where all are welcomed at the Table with Christ. Jesus says come onto me all you who are weary and heavy laden.  Jesus reaches out to the downtrodden, the prostitutes, the leapors, the blind, as well as the tax collectors, the church goers and the scholars--The wonderful and the awful counselors, campers, jews, gentiles, you name it... The overarching theme of welcoming and acceptance into the boy's bunkhouse is just what Jesus wants for his Kingdom (as strange as that sounds), and that is another great thing I get to experience in Boston that's like camp.  We will be breaking bread with people from all walks of life that we've never known, but it will be just like summer camp in that all will be welcomed, and anyone and everyone will have a place in our circle and our table at the BFJYAV program. I also pray for and anticipate the same welcome as I move into and immerse myself into that new culture and community.

As I reflect on my place in the circles I leave behind at home they are not forgotten but brought along with me in the ways that they have shaped my life and character. I leave to start working and teaching within a group that continues to welcome people into an even larger circle and to the table that we all share as God's children.