October 14, 2020 - Randy Kuss, Youth & Young Adult Consulting Services, Disciples Home Missions

 

Love letter to camp... 
Week Four: Longing to Celebrate

This year many of our summer camping programs faced creative, spiritual and financial challenges. For many young people, camp is a significant part of their faith journey and relationships. Ministries Across Generations wanted to share importance of camp and support (financially and spiritually) the places where many people feel God's presence most.

To donate to today's camp: Bethany Hills, Tennessee

CAMP IN MY BLOOD

Camp is pretty much in my blood. After a ruminating count I can say I have been part of over 100 camps and uncountable number of retreats here and there. Rustic sites, not-so-rustic sites. Tents, hogans, cabins, conference centers. Ponds and lakes, rivers and streams, mountain and prairie and desert surroundings. While there are always things to complain about at any given site – housing, food, weather, the lake/pond/river/pool, these days whether the wi-fi works or not, and more – I cannot think of anytime I regretted going to camp. On the other hand, I do have some clear favorites.

Embedded perhaps deepest in my heart is Bethany Hills, our Disciples camp at Kingston Springs, Tennessee, about 30 miles west of Nashville, near White Bluff and around the corner from Craggie Hope, just down the road from Carl’s Perfect Pig BBQ. My grandfather, a Disciples minister, was a “dean” – like what we now call a “director” – at early camps after the Disciples acquired the camp in 1944. My mom attended the 1st CYF Conference on those grounds. I grew up going there beginning about 10 years old at Family Camp, umm, a long time ago. In our children’s younger years, we took them there for Family Camp and gathered more recently for Thanksgiving at Bethany Hills with extended family and friends and more fine food than can be imagined. I have been a camper, counselor, and director there, served on the grounds crew setting up and cleaning up and washing dishes.

I remember fireflies in the night, blackberries on the hillside beyond the lake, and crinoids in the stream. “Flashlight-less” hikes and ghost stories. The old dorm where the rumored “Stomper” lived in the attic and renovations of cabins and grounds over the years. Fishing and swimming and canoeing the mighty Harpeth River. Skits and pranks, boomerangs and volleyball. Mud slides in the rain that evolved into mud fights and laughter. Campfires and serenades. Mentors and mentoring. Morning watch and keynotes. Small groups with questions raised and wrangled. Vespers, the night of silence, and so many closing circles. Practicing together opening ourselves to the Holy, walking in the Way of Jesus, being and building the Beloved Community among so many beloved friends.

 I heard sacred stories and formed sacred friendships, both of which continue with and sustain me today. And, too, I remember the first inklings of what might be a call to ministry came there at Bethany Hills where, ever-present, down every path of those sacred grounds, in each person and prayer and whisper of possibility, was the touch of the Holy.

Randy Kuss
Youth & Young Adult Consulting Services
Disciples Home Missions

Scripture Week Four: (From InsideOut, This is Our Prayer)

Philippians 1:3–11

Every time I think of you, I thank my God. And whenever I mention you in my prayers, it makes me happy.  This is because you have taken part with me in spreading the good news from the first day you heard about it.  God is the one who began this good work in you, and I am certain that he won’t stop before it is complete on the day that Christ Jesus returns.

You have a special place in my heart. So it is only natural for me to feel the way I do. All of you have helped in the work that God has given me, as I defend the good news and tell about it here in jail. God himself knows how much I want to see you. He knows that I care for you in the same way that Christ Jesus does.

I pray that your love will keep on growing and that you will fully know and understand how to make the right choices. Then you will still be pure and innocent when Christ returns. And until that day, Jesus Christ will keep you busy doing good deeds that bring glory and praise to God.

SOMETHING FUN

Weekly Scriptures
Read the weekly scripture each day. Find a phrase or word that speaks to you. Share your reflections with others over dinner, social media, and in prayer. Share the scripture with a child you know in the car, through a text, or in a children's Bible.