summercamp 5

RevGals summer camp 5 outlined by Mother Laura

1. Did you go to sleep away camp, or day camp, as a child? Wish you could? Or sometimes wish you hadn't?
I didn't, and no one could have bribed me to do so. That's one thing I'm still grateful for!

2. How about camping out? Dream vacation, nightmare, or somewhere in between?
I've done some camping out in a sheltered tent-trailer with now-former (due to life happening rather violently) former friends. Once I got past about a dozen hours of high anxiety from not being in the city, I absolutely loved it.

3. Have you ever worked as a camp counselor, or been to a camp for your denomination for either work or pleasure?
Never a camp counselor, and I haven't been to any denominational camps per se, and I know this is a summercamp 5, but my first intro to heavy-duty theology was as an undergrad at a winter weekend at the ABC-USA's Grotonwood, where we got to converse in small groups with Leander Keck. During the summer I've been to Holden Village, a milder form of roughin' it and in the winter to La Forêt—the UCC still uses the facility a lot but no longer owns it.

4. Most dramatic memory of camp, or camping out?
I'll do a topic semi-switcheroo and reference the wonderful though not usually very dramatic 6 weeks of urban (inner-city, actually) day camp I was site director for at the church in City of History; it was in session Monday through Friday mornings. We used VBS curriculum (oh, I know, it's written for a week's worth but we stretched it). The second year I did it senior pastor gave me one of the best lessons in evangelism ever by saying, "Leah, I know this is your program, but bible study is not optional! This is a church program, and what does it say about us if our actions imply Jesus is so unimportant we don't care whether or not people hear about him?!" The first year I'd let a couple of kids from non-Western religious traditions (Muslim, I think it was) sit out bible study, but SP was soooo right, and the perspective-changing lesson I got was dramatic, after all.

5. What is your favorite camp song or songs? Bonus points if you link to a recording or video.
"We Sail a Ship with a Man named Jonah!" I especially love, "Lord, send a fish and a resurrection — Done! and the sea has ceased its raging..."