This month is a little strange; well a lot strange. I’m traveling back and forth between Camp Calumet and home doing a couple of stints as chaplain at the resident camp, and then at the family campground. I discovered that Calumet has a new blogsite, which you can find here
Here are a few close encounters of the finest kind:
The first day Keeping the Earth we heard the Creation story as a call and response:
“Who created the Earth? “God did.”
“And what did he call it? “Good.”
“And what did he do?” “He blessed it.”
“And what did he say?” “He said it was holy.”
The second day we talked about the Keeping the Covenant. The rainbow was a central image of the day. With the help of some of the campers, we made a rainbow of painted hands. The best part was watching the irresistable delight of children and young people messing around with paint. It’s impossible not to want to smear paint on passers-by, if you have a bucket of it lying around.
The third day, our theme was Keeping the Abundance: and here the invitation was to notice how much of everything there is. How many leaves on tree? How many kinds of species of plants and animals, how many grains of sand–how much there is of everything. The question behind the theme: how will we steward such abundance? It’s a big question for young folks, but they had a pretty good idea that less is more, and sustainability is something to be desired.
The fourth day, we were invited to Keep the Song Alive. Creation is alive and singing the praise of God. In my research for the morning worship, I discovered that the musical tone of the background resonant hum of the universe is B-flat. Which I think would make all saxophone players very happy. One of the senior counselors said it made him happy to think that there is a sound at the center of the universe: “it means we didn’t invent music, we discovered it.”
And the fifth and final day, we wrapped it up with Keeping Creation, having come full circle back to a contemplation of the gifts of this beautiful world, and God’s glory shining through this wondrous universe. In the closing worship, we ended up by the lakeside, in flickering candleight, singing quietly as the water rippled in the night breeze.
As is usual at Camp Calumet, it was an amazing time, the best week ever.