Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Camp Bubble

This week I'm at the camp where I volunteer as a chaplain for a week every summer.  I do love this camp.  Unlike some other church camps, our goal is not to manipulate children into "making a decision for Jesus."  We don't do altar calls or scare our kids into sexual abstinence or threaten them with eternal torment, as I've seen happen elsewhere.  We tend a bit toward the "God smiles when you compost" camp philosophy.  We teach kids about community, simplicity, care for creation, and other good stuff.  We emphasize love, grace, acceptance, and justice.  We talk about Jesus, although we don't assume everyone believes the same things about him or wants to.  We have morning yoga sessions, which is apparently controversial.  Whatever.

Anyway, I'm having a pretty great time so far, up here beside a lake in the Adirondacks, hiking, kayaking, and talking to teenagers about God.  It's not a bad gig.  One thing I will say is that the schedule is killing me.  Mornings come early around here.  I am not a morning person.  I'm also not someone who shuts down the minute the campers go to bed.  I need some time to decompress, and then suddenly it's 1:30am and I've cut my sleep time down to five hours.  Aging is not helping with this problem; unfortunately, I can't skimp on sleep the way I used to and still be functional.  I'm hoping to get my worship planning done in time to take a nap today, so offline I go.

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