Reunion 2008 – My Highlights!

So, as promised here is a post about my experiences at the 2008 GPNW Samish Family Reunion at Samish Island Campgrounds in Bow, WA. For those that do not know, “Reunion” in the Community of Christ faith movement is a church camp where families of one or more from a particular area come together for a week of fellowship, worship, fun, and serves as an opportunity to build community.

For the fourth reunion, out of the past six reunions, I served on the planning committee this year. So, because of that I along with most of the committee arrived on the campgrounds on Saturday, July 5^th (a day before the campers). We spent the extra day setting up and even went out to dinner at Red Robin that Saturday night.

Reunion was officially the week of July 6^th-12^th. Instead of talking about the week as a whole, here are the highlights (from my perspective):

• Guest Ministry. We had a wonderful group of guest ministers. Our main guest minister was Tom Mountenay. Tom directs the Co-Mission Pastor Initiative for my church. He is such a gifted minister. I was usually busy during the adult class (which he taught) but the moments that I was able to make it, he was wonderful. Then there were the two guest ministers from our Mission Center. Mission Centers are jurisdictions in the church. My Mission Center is the Greater Pacific Northwest Mission Center and contains the Community of Christ congregations in Alaska, all but one in Oregon, and most of the congregations in Washington State. So the two ministers assigned to us from the Mission Center staff were Debbie Sullivan and Kathy Sharp. Debbie is a congregational support minister from Southern Oregon. She taught the 5^th and 6^th grade class at reunion. She also presided over two services and was the preacher at another. Her ministry blessed us. Then there was Kathy Sharp. She is the GPNW Mission Center President. I have known Kathy for most of, if not all of, my life. I grew up going to church camps with her son. Kathy is also very gifted and I always enjoy being around her.

• Young Adult-lead Monday Evening Service. I co-presided over this service with Erik Skoor, my Co-Leader of YAPS (Young Adults of the Puget Sound). Tom preached and did a fantastic job. The theme was “Called by your name” and at the end of the service we created a visual sending forth. What we did was type the name of every person so that it displayed while some background music was going on, we then showed a picture of all the congregational signs of those represented at reunion. It ended up serving as a very moving sending forth at the end of the service.

• The Praise Singing. The praise singing before every service was amazing. I just loved it. We were lucky enough to have some great singers and musicians with us at reunion. Not only that but we also had some great songwriters with us and thus some of the praise songs we sang were original pieces. We could have just had praise singing and I would have left feeling closer to God.

• Wednesday Evening Communion Service. Each day at reunion focused on a different continent. On Wednesday that continent was Africa. So, Debbie Sullivan planned an African-themed Communion Service. She e-mailed some church ministers from Africa to find out what they do for their communion services. One is that in their worships the men sit on one side and the women on the other. We did this for the first few minutes of the worship but then let anyone sit where they wanted to. Instead of bread and grape juice they use plantains and hot tea. Debbie couldn’t find the plantains so she used sweet potatoes (apparently they are similar). Also, instead of the servers coming to our seats we came up to them while singing an Africa-themed song. It was a joyous service!

• Thursday Afternoon Baptismal Service. Will post more about this in another post, just wanted to make sure I commented that it was a highlight.

• Young Adult Stuff. In addition to our Monday Night Service we also had a luncheon on Monday noon and a dialogue session on Tuesday afternoon.

• Volleyball Tournament on Wednesday. For the second year in a row, my doubles team got third place. This year I was with Lindsey Ellwanger, who is great at Volleyball. Me, not so much! J

• Friday Night. Until 2 AM on Saturday morning I sat on the porch of a cabin with some other friends. We spent the night sharing stories of having to go to the bathroom while in the car, laughing, etc. It was a great way to spend the last night at reunion!

• Coffee Stand. Oh, how can I forget the coffee stand? This year some youth ran a coffee stand for the week as a fundraiser. They actually brought up a coffee trailer and set up shop outside the dining hall. They sold Mochas, Lattes, Smoothies, Italian Sodas, etc. The smoothies were wonderful. The drinks were actually pretty cheap. I spent 29 dollars at the coffee stand. I bought a drink every morning and every afternoon.

I just loved this year’s reunion. It was my favorite reunion to date. This Sunday we have a post/pre-reunion meeting. Onward to planning for the 2009 Reunion. This will be our 50^th year at Samish Island Campgrounds.

Back at Samish!

I got confirmation on Wednesday that they would need me to help cook at Samish Island Campgrounds for a Zen Meditation Camp. The group arrived this evening and are here until Saturday, July 28th. What is so cool is that I get paid to cook for this camp! You don’t get paid to cook for our church camps but when outside groups use the campgrounds you get paid. This opportunity couldn’t have come at a more perfect time! I needed the money to pay for our church family camp in two weeks and some other miscellaneous bills and now that will all be taken care of. I will be assisting some good friend, Laura & Jim Fish, in the cooking this week.

This is one of my favorite groups to cook for! I like it for two reasons. One, it is all vegetarian food and we do some really different and peculiar meals. It is fun to try the different food. I also like cooking for this group because they meet in silence for the whole week and that starts to rub off on your until you feel like you are meeting in silence as well. I find it to be a very spiritual week!

1 Meal Down, 22 To Go!

Camp Genesis

I was reading a blog post from blogger Mike at Simply a Night Owl about his experience counseling for a church children’s camp this past weekend when I realized I never made a blog post about my recent camp experience. On the weekend of June 6th-8th I directed Camp Genesis, a Community of Christ-sponsored annual camp for 3rd & 4th graders. This was my third consecutive year directing this camp and it was a great experience.

After several months of planning, coordinating, delegating, communicating, and recruiting I left at around 10:30 AM on Friday, June 6th, to head up to Samish Island Campgrounds. After a few stops I arrived at around 12:30 PM. I then spent the next couple of hours moving into my cabin (one of the new cabins with a restroom!), prepping for the camp, and finishing various tasks. Mid-Afternoon some of the counselors started to show up. At a little after 5 PM we carpooled over to meet several of the other staff members for Dinner at the Chuckwagon. I got a buffalo burger. I found out that I don’t really care for buffalo burgers!

After dinner we arrived back at the campgrounds at around 6:45 PM. We then spent the next 45 minutes getting the counselors moved in and doing the finishing touches on camp prepping. Registration started at 7:30 PM and the campers were already arriving. We spent the evening doing a few mixers, singing camp songs, introducing the staff, and set up some rules for the weekend. This year instead of giving rules to the campers I had them come up with the rules. We finished the night by having a campfire and sending the campers off to bed! After working on some things, I went to bed as well.

My alarm clock went off at 5:30 AM on Saturday morning. WAY TOO EARLY! WHAT WAS I THINKING? I got up and realized that I forgot to bring soap and shampoo. What was I to do!? So I went into the dining hall to see if there was anything I could use. Nothing. So, I ended up putting hand soap on a washcloth and used that. Umm, didn’t quite do the trick but it was all I had to use.

As I was prepping in the dining hall for the day some campers walked in at around 6:45 AM. Apparently most of the boys had been up since a little before 6 AM. Those crazy campers!

Throughout the morning we had worship, shared in a meal, participated in a theme class, and had a nature walk. My Camp Pastor, Shannon McAdam, did a great job with the worship and class. Our theme this year was “Grounded in Christ”. The campers really took everything in and fully participated! After lunch the campers were sent to their cabins for a much needed nap. The campers and counselors spent the afternoon in rotating classes. 1/3 of the campers went at a time to a Skit planning class, Games class, or Cooking & Log Book class (they made Dirt Cups for dessert that evening). After the classes the campers had the option to go on a nature walk or play at the playground for recreation.

The dinner on Saturday evening was done family style. Each table had two counselors and 4 to 5 campers and there own food portions of the dinner. They were to pass the food around the table and use words like “Please”, “Thank You, “Your Welcome”, etc. This dinner has been a tradition at Genesis for several years.

Our Saturday evening was spent playing kickball, having a campfire, and then having mandatory showers! Every year I make the campers take a shower on Saturday evening of camp just before they go to bed so I can send them home clean the next day. Apparently, some boys decided it would be cool to take a shower while still wearing there their pants. Oh to be 8 and 9 years old again! After showers they were sent to bed! Luckily, I didn’t have to stay up that late either and was able to get to bed at a decent time.

Sunday morning didn’t come quite so early. I didn’t get up until 7 AM or so. Remember that soap/shampoo issue? Well, this time I used dish soap so I could at least get suds. Still, not perfect but better than the hand soap.

We spent the morning sharing in a meal, cleaning up the campgrounds, and experiencing a closing worship. Before lunch they got their logbooks. Logbooks are like mini-school yearbooks but for camps. They have pictures, camper/staff addresses, and tons of other information. Another fun thing about logbooks are that campers and staff get to write messages and sign each other’s logbooks.

Towards the end of lunch the parents started to arrive. Most were picked up by 12:30 PM. The last parent was picking up four of the campers and wasn’t there until 1:30 PM. That was ok though! Some friends had come in to the dining hall to prepare a the food for a 65th Wedding Anniversary at the Community of Christ congregation there on the island. So, I just ended up helping them for the afternoon. I then attended the wedding anniversary party. The party was for Winston and Nedra Inslee. It was a great celebration with friends and family of the Inslee’s. I got home at about 8 PM that evening.

It was a great weekend. I had a great group of campers and an excellent staff. I experienced God that weekend through the spirit of a child. My church has a scripture passage that says, “Do not neglect the smallest among you, for even the least of these are treasures in God’s sight. Receive the giftedness and energy of children and youth, listening to understand their questions and their wisdom. Respond to their need to be loved and nurtured as they grow.”. Every time a youth camp take place this scripture is fulfilled.

To view pictures of the weekend, click here!

Pictures causing me to reminisce!

4a. Do not neglect the smallest among you, for even the least of these are treasures in God’s sight. Receive the giftedness and energy of children and youth, listening to understand their questions and their wisdom. Respond to their need to be loved and nurtured as they grow. –Doctrine & Covenants 161:4a

Here I am in the wee hours of the morning going through all of my pictures on my computer and sorting them out. Most of these pictures are from this past summer and thus I have been doing some reminiscing. I spent 8 weeks this past summer at both Samish Island Campgrounds and Lewis River Campgrounds. Four of those weeks as well as one additional weekend in early June were spent at youth camps.

As I was looking through the pictures of these youth camps I couldn’t help but get a little teary eyed as I drifted off into the memories that made this past summer so great! One of the most humbling opportunities that I get as a member of the Community of Christ faith movement is to be on staff at youth/children’s camps. Whether I am directing, cooking, counseling or taking on a number of other various roles, I am deeply humbled by my experiences. They shape who I am.

This past Sunday I gave a testimony at the Portland, OR Congregation. YAPS were down there putting on the morning worship for the congregation. During my testimony I shared a testimony about how a few kids had been positively affected by going to Camp Genesis this past summer. This deeply touched me, to know that what I do makes a difference in others. So humbling.

I started out this post with a scripture quote from Doctrine & Covenants. It is one of my favorite scripture passages because of its reference to kids. If you ever have the opportunity to volunteer your time at children’s/youth camp then do so. Every time I go to volunteer my time and give back to an experience that deeply impacted me growing up, I end up leaving being given so much back.