Pentecost/Camp Sunday

MAY 23, 2010

“Camp Testimony”

Reverend Michael D. Powell

 John 14:11-12  

                                                                                                                         

 

            It is entirely appropriate that we celebrate Camp Sunday on Pentecost.  On Pentecost the Holy Spirit moved in a mighty way to establish the living faith community of the Christian church and the promise of the Holy Spirit is that we will never be left without a guiding, comforting, vital awareness of God’s presence.  In my life, and in the life of so many others, God has been revealed most vividly in a United Methodist camp setting.

 

            Many of you know that Anni and I met the summer between our 8th grade and freshman year, at Loon Lake United Methodist Camp. I threw her in the lake, and the rest is history.  We lived on opposite sides of town, but because we were both Methodists we kept in touch.  We saw each other at Magruder and at Suttle Lake.  During our senior year of high school we were both at Workshop, a United Methodist camp for leadership training.  The Holy Spirit had a way of working in each of our lives.

 

            We were married in 1969 and went to the coast for our honeymoon, but Anni had to come back a day early because she’d committed to being a counselor at camp.  When we took our first church in Idaho we were immediately recruited to lead week long United Methodist junior high backpacks in the Sawtooth Mountains. In the video we’re going to show in a minute you’ll see pictures of a horse camp in the Eagle Cap Wilderness Area above camp Wallowa.  Anni and I led the first backpacks using lamas as pack animals. Living together for a week at camp is a transformative experience. You’ll see pictures of kids being baptized at camp.  You’ll see games and singing, hiking and campfires.  Every one of these pictures is a snapshot of experiences that I, and many of you have had at camp.  Anni and I saw lives being changed even as our lives had been changed so many years before.  The Holy Spirit works in powerful ways.  In 1977 Bob Harvey was Director of Camping and Outdoor Ministries.  We became friends for life.

 

            When our daughter, Chalice, was in high school, she went all four summers to Workshop, the same camp that had been so formative for Anni and me.  I’ve been a counselor and resource person at Workshop since 1988.  I met Chris at Workshop, as well as Betsy Stuller, and Robert. Pretty much everyone I knew at Morningside when I first came here, I knew because of camp.

 

            And camp is definitely not just for kids. For years I led Journal Retreats and Cross Country camps.  Kate and Jon and I started the Prayer Retreat 25 years ago, one of the longest running camps in our Annual Conference.  Karen and I were both at the first Strength for the Journey Retreat, and we’ve been doing it ever since.  She’s now dean of the Safe Spaces Retreat, which a number of our folks participate in.  Many in our congregation have counseled at Creation Vacation.  Jan and Renee co-deaned that camp for six years.  Glenda and Arlen take their grandkids to Grand camp every summer, and Brenna goes to hand bell camp.

 

            I want to thank Drie and Hugh for sharing their personal testimonies of how camping has changed their lives, and now we’re going to watch the Time to Grow video.  You’ll see some familiar faces and some familiar places in these pictures.   You’ll see how the Holy Spirit is alive and well and at work in the world, changing lives and warming hearts.  Thanks be to God.  Amen.