So… I am back!
Our flight back from Spain was quite uneventful, except for the fact that I couldn’t bring my beloved walking stick home with me. They wanted me to pay just under $100 USD to have it sent along with my baggage, and quite frankly, I did not have the funds to do that. So I ended up leaving it at the airport, where hopefully someone is using it. We got back to the United States late, and I did not get home until midnight. After sleeping for a few hours, I had a formal dinner to attend, so, being jet-lagged and drowsy, I attended to my duties. The rest of my time was spent decompressing and running errands in preparation for my summer job.
This summer, I have the pleasure of being a lay chaplain at a Scout camp. There, I have a few duties: to provide non-sectarian religious services, counsel Scouts and staff, keep staff morale up, and perform any duty assigned by the camp director. I ended up coming to camp a little late because I needed time to get everything for camp. When I got there, it was the middle of staff training and set-up week. I was welcomed immediately upon arriving with a request for a few “I questions,” which was very funny and fun to do. After getting settled, I went to work helping out where needed and getting my desk set up. I never had my own desk at any job I worked at before, so this was cool! Needless to say, I set up my speaker, got my coffee situation handled, and found a place for my energy drinks. Some would say that is the holy trinity of a good camp office. At the end of my first day, I went to set up my hammock behind my cabin, and after getting everything done and stringing my tarp, I moved to the front porch of my cabin. This area has a porch which serves as the Catholic chapel, and I placed a candle in front of the St. Joseph Statue there to show that the chapel was open at all times for people to come and pray. On a side note, during my first night, I went to get into my hammock, and it was so old that as soon as I sat in it, the bottom ripped open and I tumbled to the ground. It was pitch black, and I couldn’t see anything. I then slowly made my way into my cabin, made my bed, and slept.
My first week of the camp being open has been so fulfilling. I started off greeting the kids, parents, and scoutmasters, and then took some of them on a tour of the camp. That afternoon, I spent time in the office working on my worship service, and then that night led the service. Throughout the week, I had the opportunity to fill in where needed, like washing dishes, manning the front office, and checking on camp sites. I offered to clean the staff latrines just because they were busy and they didn’t get cleaned during the opening staff week, which was not hard to do, and I enjoyed blasting NF and getting into the groove. This whole week has been exhausting, but I had a professor say there were two types of stress, that being distress, and eustress, and I really felt the eustress, and it felt good to be under this pressure for some real good for these kids. I spent a lot of the morning playing Ultimate Frisbee with a small group of kids. Then I would visit Scout Troop from one of my churches during their midday break, and play Uno with them. But it was more like getting smacked in Uno by them, except for the one game I won. At night, I would go to as many of the camp sites as I could and visit them at their campfires. Through all this time, I was praying for the Scouts, their families, and the staff. I feel that many of these prayers were answered, everything worked out, there were no major complaints, and the kids really had a great time. About a day into camp, I couldn’t go anywhere without one of the kids shouting, “HI GRAHAM!”
I was also blessed in a particular way to be able to minister to a few scouts and staff more closely. There was a staff member who was much like me when I was his age, and getting injured a good deal. I was able to chill with him and just be present with him the two times he was in the Health Office. There was also a Scout who was severely homesick. I was able to minister to him at the Health Office, and he invited me to his table for lunch, and we got to talk about all his interests. Then over the last few days of camp, I would go visit him at some of his badges, and check up with his Scout Master on my nightly walks around the camp to see how he was doing. By the end of the week, he told me he really wanted to come back to camp next year, which was just so uplifting to hear.
Another opportunity I had was to teach a merit badge. I was able to teach Astronomy, and I found that that was a good anchor point for my day, and I knew that I always had that on my ever-changing schedule. Unfortunately, I had to send my three students home with partial completions. It was nothing they did; the badge requires two nights of star gazing, and the weather was not cooperating. The good news is, the last part is easy, and they can finish the badge quickly at home. This coming week, I will be teaching that class again, and I am also going to be teaching Communications, which is really just public speaking. I’m planning on holding it at this cool secondary chapel on the lake, where it is quiet and we won’t have to compete with the rest of the camp. I have a total of fifteen scouts for that class, so we will have a good time!
Obviously, I cannot post any photos of the camp while there are minors present, so I do apologize for that. However, I will include some photos I took of the camp while it was closed. I think I got my chapel set up pretty good for what it is.
Also, please note that posts will be weekly for the current time due to internet access issues.
You are a beacon of light wherever you go! Let that light shine always.