Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Contemplate with Deacon Nate: A Grand Time in Grand Rapids

From Sunday July 11th through Friday July 16th, a group of young people from our parish attended a week long service experience in Grand Rapids; I was a chaperone. Our camp was called “Week of Hope”; here is a description from the website (groupworkcamps.com): “Week of Hope is the affordable one-week camp where your youth will build meaningful relationships with those they serve, those they serve with, and most importantly, a deeper relationship with Jesus... A Week of Hope is a personal, friendly setting of about 100 youth…ideal for getting to know everyone.”

Our camp had youth from various churches, including Family of Faith Ministries in Charlevoix, a Presbyterian Church in Deerfield, IL, a Wesleyan Church in Indiana, and to save the best for last, St. Mike’s! We stayed at Kuyper College, a small Christian college not far from WMU. The dorms had AC, thank the Good Lord!

After we arrived on Sunday our group killed time by playing various games including a hilarious one that left our “smile muscles” sore. Then we had supper and an evening program. I had hesitated to bring my guitar on the trip, and that evening I discovered why the Spirit nudged me to bring it: they needed someone to help lead praise music throughout the week. I had a blast doing this! This was my first “God Sighting” of the week. You see, the camp encouraged us to look for “God Sightings” everyday and share them with our work crews. I saw and heard about too many God Sightings to list here. (If you keep your eyes open, you’ll begin to see them all the time! Sometimes when I see one of these signs of God’s love, I say, “Thank you Lord, I love you too!”)

So, you’d like to know the daily routine? An annoying song would blare from a boombox to wake us up (didn’t always work); breakfast; morning program; head to worksite with crew (4-5 youth from a variety of churches + a chaperone); get instructions from supervisor; work our tails off; lunch and crew devotions (prayer and discussion of the day’s theme, which included “my friends”, “my family”, “my faith”, and “my future”); work some more; return to camp; supper; evening program; free time. One of the days we had a “free day” so instead of supper and devotions at camp, we went to dinner and a movie.

At the morning and evening programs we began with a few praise songs; watched a daily episode of “Meet the Prodigals”, the Prodigal Son story filmed in the style of “The Office”; had prayer; had competitions, etc. These were led by Emily from North Carolina. She and Jenny are college students who have dedicated most of their summer to leading these camps. The only other adult staff person was Barb from our parish; all three gave an inspiring example of dedicated service.

On the first day, two crews, including mine, found their way to the neighborhood where we would spend all week. It’s a peaceful neighborhood of many elderly residents who are known to communicate loudly with one another from their front porches. We met Ms. Sara, our supervisor, who told us interesting stories of the various steps she and others have taken to transform the neighborhood which previously had been much more dangerous and drug-infested. Her faith in the Lord shone through her eyes and her words. Each day we ran into her husband Jerome with his cheerful attitude and contagious laughter.

Ms. Sara assigned us to do various outdoor tasks for elderly neighbors including Ms. Mabel, a sweet 75 year old woman who insisted on helping us, much to the disapproval of Ms. Sara. Part of my crew helped scrape and paint one neighbor’s house. Our crews did yardwork for Ms. Alda, and cemented in her swing set and laid fresh mulch. Weeding, trimming, raking, etc... Ms. Sara kept us busy and God held off the rain! One day a couple kittens showed up and many of us, captivated by cuteness, dropped our tools for a few minutes. Speaking of cuteness, a few kids from the neighborhood helped us with weeding.

While Emily, Jordyn, and I were there, the others from St. Mike’s were at different worksites. Sean helped at Worldwide Thrift Store, Hailey at a Goodwill, Hilary took nursing home residents fishing one day, etc. 

Ms. Sara let us return to camp early on our last workday, which gave me an opportunity to visit Jesus in the Eucharist at the perpetual adoration chapel (meaning it is open 24x7x365) a few miles from Kuyper College. (I kept falling asleep, but I know I’m in good company: St. Therese often struggled to stay awake during her prayer times. Besides, Psalm 127 says, “The Lord pours gifts on his beloved while they slumber.” I know he’s thrilled by the mere fact that we take time to be with him!)

Thursday evening was memorable because of a mischievous plot from the mind of Krystal. On Thursday evening, Barb and I helped Krystal fill up lots of water balloons, and after the evening program, the battle broke out. As the number of casualties climbed, Sean remained dry, with 4 balloons bouncing off him. At the end, he was finally taken down by a sneaky enemy! A great idea for a warm summer evening.

I believe we all had a Grand Time in Grand Rapids serving the Lord by serving others. I asked Sean about how the camp was, and he said, “It was really great meeting new friends and being able to help people out.” Kristen said, “My relationship with God grew a lot that week.” For Emily, and I think for all of us, hanging out as a parish group in the evenings was a highlight of each day. I’m thankful to God, to Fr. TJ and to all of you at St. Mike’s for the opportunity to go!
 

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