Another week of my time here has concluded. This week was fairly relaxed and mostly consisted of doing various tasks to prepare for the spring camps that will be occurring in October. We were originally supposed to be leading a retreat this weekend for a church, but the retreat was cancelled, so the week was a lot less chaotic than it would have been. Unfortunately, the weather ended up being quite poor, so our alternative plans of playing in the mountains fell through as well.
However, it was still a growthful week with good conversation and good learning occurring.
This week and the other non-camp weeks have made me reflect a lot on my experience during my January course in Hawaii. After we concluded our backpacking, we spent two days volunteering with the Kokee Resource Conservation Program, removing invasive plants from the forests of Kauai. The organization keeps track of how many invasive plants they remove, which currently totals over 12 million since its start in 1998. Yet this is the tiniest fraction of non-native plants in Kauai's forests. Katy, the woman who runs the program, has dedicated her life to trying to preserve Kauai's biodiversity, one non-native plant removal at a time. It was disheartening to see the maps of Kauai's forests, depicting how much work there is still to be done.
After we volunteered, we processed the experience as a group. We spent time discussing why we even bother to help out with this effort that seems impossible. In the scope of what would need to be done to restore Kauai's forests, our work was so minuscule that we questioned if it was even worth it. My professor concluded our discussion by commenting, "I hope you can look to this example of Katy as you consider how to push back on sin and bondage in the tiny corner of the world where God places you." That comment, and my experience of working alongside Katy for those two days, has stuck with me.
It can be easy to lose sight of any sort of meaning or purpose amid the everyday tasks of camp ministry. Why am I cleaning these tents again? What's the point of reformatting this gear list in the literature that campers receive? Why did I spend the whole afternoon cutting out shapes for some activity?
Because I believe that God can work powerfully through camp to change lives. Because I believe that experiences can be transformative, and that maybe, that camping experience in the tent that I am cleaning might be formative in someone's life, that maybe, the shapes activity might help a group learn something new, and that maybe, a camper may be better prepared to experience God's Creation with the right gear. If this is the way that I can push back on sin and bondage in the tiny corner of the world where God has placed me this summer, so that in the face of all the tragedy occurring each and every day in our world, light may be able to shine through, then may I never grow weary of cleaning tents and typing documents.
However, it was still a growthful week with good conversation and good learning occurring.
This week and the other non-camp weeks have made me reflect a lot on my experience during my January course in Hawaii. After we concluded our backpacking, we spent two days volunteering with the Kokee Resource Conservation Program, removing invasive plants from the forests of Kauai. The organization keeps track of how many invasive plants they remove, which currently totals over 12 million since its start in 1998. Yet this is the tiniest fraction of non-native plants in Kauai's forests. Katy, the woman who runs the program, has dedicated her life to trying to preserve Kauai's biodiversity, one non-native plant removal at a time. It was disheartening to see the maps of Kauai's forests, depicting how much work there is still to be done.
After we volunteered, we processed the experience as a group. We spent time discussing why we even bother to help out with this effort that seems impossible. In the scope of what would need to be done to restore Kauai's forests, our work was so minuscule that we questioned if it was even worth it. My professor concluded our discussion by commenting, "I hope you can look to this example of Katy as you consider how to push back on sin and bondage in the tiny corner of the world where God places you." That comment, and my experience of working alongside Katy for those two days, has stuck with me.
It can be easy to lose sight of any sort of meaning or purpose amid the everyday tasks of camp ministry. Why am I cleaning these tents again? What's the point of reformatting this gear list in the literature that campers receive? Why did I spend the whole afternoon cutting out shapes for some activity?
Because I believe that God can work powerfully through camp to change lives. Because I believe that experiences can be transformative, and that maybe, that camping experience in the tent that I am cleaning might be formative in someone's life, that maybe, the shapes activity might help a group learn something new, and that maybe, a camper may be better prepared to experience God's Creation with the right gear. If this is the way that I can push back on sin and bondage in the tiny corner of the world where God has placed me this summer, so that in the face of all the tragedy occurring each and every day in our world, light may be able to shine through, then may I never grow weary of cleaning tents and typing documents.
When your Nalgene becomes Ruby's favorite toy to play with
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