What has happened to random kindness?

“Be brave because you are a child of God.

Be kind because everyone else is too.”

A few weeks ago, I was selling some of my books at a Half Price Books store. While waiting to see how much my books were worth, I noticed a woman struggling to get something from the top shelf. Since I was tall, I knew my “skills” would come in handy and I assisted her. She was grateful for my actions and it sparked a friendly conversation. About a half hour later though, when I was checking out, she was in line ahead of me and made the comment, “Oh! I thought you worked here!”

It was an honest mistake, but one that made me think: Why did she assume I was an employee instead of a person just helping another person?

I made the realization that she assumed I was an employee because an employee is required to assist their customers. A random person has no requirement but has a choice. And the woman was surprised because I made a choice that does not typically happen anymore. I chose to see the woman and show love in that moment.

To see another human being seems easy. I mean we see people all the time: at work, at school, on the street, on tv; everywhere we go, there are just other people to see.

But are we really noticing the other people we see with our eyes? Our eyes typically notice more things than we ever realize. Often times, its our brain that tends to miss details.

However, this isn’t just what our brains might miss when we see, but what our heart misses as well.

When we are born, we are created with an incredible power…the power to love. With that power, comes the ability to see the Divine and the Human in all persons. To see another person with gifts and flaws.

Despite the fact that we have this power, the choice to use it is rarely seen in our world.

And it’s understandable. It’s hard to love. It’s hard to see another human being when we have so many responsibilities running through our minds, distracting us from what can be right in front of us.

And then there could be fears, fear of loving someone and not being loved back. Showing kindness toward others and not fairly being the recipient of that same love. It’s a real fear that too often happens in our world as well.

There are many reasons why love can be hard, and I am still learning to see the other person and love them for who they are. I am far from perfect. In order to learn, I look upon those who are making a difference in our world through their kindness and love.

 My first semester in divinity school, my friends and I were driving over for a gettogether. On our way, I noticed a woman sitting on the side of the street with all her belongings. My heart felt sad for the woman. Before I knew it, we were pulling into a Walgreens next to where the woman was sitting. My friend, Stephen, felt compassion for the woman and decided to go speak with her. In their conversations, he found out that all she wanted was to sell her drawings. She wasn’t asking for pity, but just for someone to see her and appreciate her gift of art. Stephen bought her drawing and ironically, it was the image of an eye.

I find this picture to be ironic because it represents that he had seen her as a child of God and as a human being.

It takes a lot of work to see and love someone, even if it is a person that we know. It takes time, it takes effort, it takes listening, and most importantly, it takes dropping what we think we know and simply being present.

Too often, we see people based on appearances or assumed identities. To love another means dropping what we think we know and take the time to hear who that person is.

This is a challenge for me and I offer this challenge for you as well: To see a person fully as they are and show random kindness to all persons that we meet. Not out of requirements, but as genuine care for the other person.

Who knows? Maybe if all persons lived into this challenge, the world might not be as scary a place to live in sometimes?

To love in a world that seems to be filled with hate is especially difficult. I like to believe that love and random kindness is like a ripple in the water. It can spread and influence other people’s lives and give them the opportunity to also create their own ripple that helps others and influences others.

This is my hope for the world: to create ripples that reach everyone I meet and help others to create ripples of their own. To show random kindness and love to everyone we meet. May it be so.

May your heart and Ruah be receivers and givers of love,

Peace.

Holy Week Reflections: Dark Night of the Soul

While this is a reflection on Holy Week, I also devote this reflection to Rev. Jamie Brame, who not only is an influential minister in my life, but has acted as my spiritual mentor, Supervisor, and a close personal friend for many years. Jamie has served as Program Director (previously Church Relations Director) of Christmount for over 25 years. He has been a spiritual guide for several generations of campers that have come to Christmount for camp and I honored to say that I was one of those campers. His wisdom has helped me during difficult times and may they do the same for you as well.

In the gospels of the New Testament, there are several scriptures in which describe Jesus, before his arrest and betrayal, went to the Garden of Gethsemane and prayed. Jesus prayed all the time. He prayed with his Disciples, he prayed in the community, and I’m sure he even prayed with his enemies.

But this prayer was different. In this prayer, we find Jesus, disturbed in Spirit and heavy with the burden that is about to happen. In the garden, Jesus flat out tells God, “Remove this cup, this burden from me, yet not my will but your will be done”.

This is such a powerful prayer!

It is a prayer that is intimate. It is a prayer that is honest. It is a prayer that is comforting.

The scene in the garden reminds me that even the Son of God experienced a Dark Night of the soul.

Now don’t let the name fool you. A dark night is not always something that occurs within a few hours or a day. A dark night of the soul can last for weeks, months, and even years. We experience a dark night of the soul when our spirits, the very core of our beings feels lost, disconnected, confused, or even separated from the God that loves us.

To experience a dark night of the soul is not a pleasant process. Many people often suffer from these dark nights and struggle to recover.

Even Jesus had his dark night of the soul. And we see that in his moment of despair, in his night of eventual betrayal and death, Jesus decides the appropriate response is to pray.

Jesus was no stranger to prayers. Jesus knew the ancient psalms of his ancestors. He knew how to meditate and speak to God like a parent, like his Abba. Jesus was a spiritual master. So this prayer in the garden was not something he did all of a sudden. Jesus already had a long history of praying and being open and honest with God. This history is important because it helps us to know that our dark night of the soul cannot be solved just by a single prayer, but by praying unceasingly throughout our life.

One of my spiritual homes on this earth is Christmount Christian Assembly at Black Mountain, NC. Not only do I feel at home within the mountains, but Christmount has always had a long history of embracing and teaching spirituality. The main reason is because of the Rev. Jamie Brame.

Jamie Brame not only serves as Program Director at Christmount, but for over 20 years, he has directed and keynoted the CYF Conference for high school campers. While each camp is different to be sure, we were always taught how important our spiritual lives matter.

One of the many lessons Jamie taught me while at Christmount was how spirituality is like physical exercise. When you exercise, you start out small and short. You begin with a 10 minute walk, or 5lbs weights. Then you move up to a 30 minute walk or 10lbs weights. You gradually increase your exercise practice, which takes both time and energy.  

The same is true for spiritual disciplines and prayer. Jamie always tells a story about taking his youth group back when he was in college to a monk monastery. Jamie visited the monastery and had been very good friends with many of the monks there. One of the monks was speaking to his youth and one had asked, “How long do I need to pray every day?” The monk answered, “three minutes”. The wisdom from this answer is not only that you devote yourself to a task of daily praying, but when you start your prayers small, you can later increase your prayers much like you would if you were exercising.

As you begin your prayers as simple and small, you allow them to gradually grow. You can begin with the simple Jesus prayer in which you say, “Have mercy on me, a sinner, yet one whom you love”. Or pray for someone else by simply saying a person’s name and having faith that God is already at work within that person’s life and doesn’t need to know all the details of their situation.

How you pray is between you and God. The way we pray is remembering that love is at the core of our relationship with the Creator.

When we are in our dark night of the soul, love seems distant or even gone. We may not even be aware that God is still present during these dark nights. That’s where spiritual discipline and prayer comes in. If we start praying now and pray every day, even if its three minutes a day, then when the dark night of the soul enters our lives, we are able to endure the night.

The dark nights don’t get easier. Jesus still suffered and died. But Jesus was able to realize that he was not alone in his suffering. God was still there, accompanying him to his last breath. When Jesus says, “not my will, but your will”, Jesus is not resigning himself to suffer, because Jesus knows God is not a divine being that enjoys our suffering. Instead, Jesus is putting all of his trust in God to not leave him during his darkest moments.

Prayer takes trust. Trust in the God that loves and cares for us. It may make prayer more difficult.

However, as a person who has experienced my own share of the dark night of the soul, I have both experienced moments where I had no spiritual disciplines and a few spiritual disciplines. The nights I had the comfort of prayer after days of feeling lost and confused were more comforting than when I had no prayer at all.

So as we enter this Holy Week, may we look upon Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane, praying to his Abba openly and honestly. May we learn what it means to pray everyday so that when we are in our own dark night of the soul, we may have the comfort of a God who is present during our darkest moments. And may we have the courage to put our trust in God: “Not my will, but your will be done”.

Peace,

God is Love

This is the first of my series on what I have learned from ministers in my life and how these ministers have influenced and shaped my ministerial identity. I met Rev. Jay Deskins in 2010 when I was a camper at Christmount. I later worked under Jay for two summers at Christmount as part of the camp staff. Jay is a wonderful minister with a great passion for youth and I consider him not only a ministerial role model but a great friend. I thank him for the influence he’s had on my life.

It was the summer of 2010. A wonderful summer for many reasons. One of the biggest reasons was the week I spent at Christmount’s CYF Conference. I never did camp at Christmount before this year, so my soul was curious and anxious.

But I wasn’t anxious because I was going to camp. At this point, I was getting used to camp life and had also done a week at Camp Caroline the week before.

My anxiety came from a faith crisis I was struggling with at the time.

In 2008, I took an elective course in High school called “Religions of the World: The Bible in History”. The course taught me both biblical history as well as the five major religions of the world: Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. It was the first time I had direct learning about the world’s other religions and after that class was over, I grew a greater appreciation for learning about how other faith’s traditions view and interact with the world. This course even encouraged me to pursue a Religious Studies degree in college.

However, between that class and the CYF Conference at Christmount, I learned, either directly or indirectly, that some Christian theologies and interpretations of biblical scriptures reject other religions and even state that if someone does not believe in Christ, then they will go to hell.

This disturbed me greatly. While I proclaimed myself as a follower of Christ, I was not comfortable with the fact of God banishing people to hell simply for having a different belief.

For a long time, I was not sure what to believe about the faith I choose to follow. Should I just accept this “fact” and go on for my life? Should I renounce my membership in the Christian church? I had no idea what to do nor did I have the language to understand my inner frustrations around this eschatological question.

So I went to Christmount in June with these questions and anxiety and left with my understanding of God restored. How you may ask? To be honest, there were so many wonderful things that happened that week of camp, but one of them came from one man: Jay Deskins.

I never knew Jay before that week, but he was both my small group leader and cabin counselor. I could tell Jay had a wild and fun side about him, but there was much wisdom and spirituality as well. For example, while we had fun and played games in our small group, we always began with prayer and always ended with prayer.

And it was Jay who helped me with my faith dilemma that week.

Every night, the entire camp would create a circle of chairs in Aldridge hall. Throughout the week, campers were encouraged if they had any God, faith, or life question to anonymously write it and put it in the “Question box”. Then right before worship, a counselor or director would read the question and the entire camp would discuss it. No matter what the question or the camper’s beliefs about that question, the discussions were always civil and respectful. We called these moments as “God Talks”.

Well, I was brave enough to write my question. I don’t remember what most of the people said, but I will always remember what Jay said.

“I cannot believe in an all loving God that will send any of his children to hell”.

His statement hit me like a pound of bricks. And I knew instantly that Jay was right. I do believe in an all loving God. And I do believe that God, being the divine source of love in our universe, is not a God who seeks punishment against non-believers of Christianity. At least that is the God I choose to believe in.

Since that God talk, I have shaped my ministry around God’s eternal love for all of God’s children and I know the rest of my ministry will always believe that God is love. No matter who you are or what you believe. You are loved, because God loves you.

May this story help you remember that God is love and give you a similar hope that I received when I heard this message from the amazing Jay Deskins many years ago.

Peace, 

"Good Old Days"

It was about month ago that I was driving home from work one day. It’s about a thirty-minute drive and I decided to have the radio on. Typically, I listen to the country music station, but this day, I decided to listen to an alternative rock station. The song that came on was “Good Old Days” by Macklemore and featuring Kesha. Full disclaimer, I’m not a hip hop or rap fan. It’s two of my least favorite musical genres. But for some reason, I decided to listen to the song all the way through and it became one of my favorite songs.

The morals of the song are that don’t let the good days pass you by and that no matter where we are in life, we are always going to miss a part of our past. There is one line in the chorus that particularly struck me, as it affects where I am in my life right now: “Someday soon your whole life is going to change, you’ll miss the magic of these good old days”.

2017 was a good year. I would even put it under the “Good old days” category later in life, along with my time at Barton College, working with the RCYW, ancient family holiday traditions, and growing up at Wake Forest Christian Church. And I know that come next year, my life will change.

2018 will be full of changes. I’ll graduate with my Masters. I’ll be ordained as a minister. I will be working full time and no longer be a student. And these are only the changes I am aware of.

As I wonder how much my life will change just around the corner, it makes me reflect on the “good old days” of just this past year.

I took ten different classes at Brite Divinity this year including: Pastoral care within the congregation, pastoral care as a response to aging, interpreting the Hebrew bible, history of Christian ethics, Christian worship, narrative pastoral counseling, Christian Church Disciples of Christ, Supervised ministry I, exegesis on the book of Job, and Christian theology of religions.

In the Spring and the Fall, I continued my work as the ministry intern at Ridglea Christian Church. At Ridglea, I lead several Sunday schools, youth groups, and even a few adult classes. I assisted with three funerals. I preached four times, including a Stewardship and Advent type sermon. I visited people in the hospital and nursing homes. I assisted people who were struggling with homelessness. And I even had the opportunity to lead an entire worship service as the acting ministerial figure in April.

I counseled my first JYF retreat in January, the first annual autism retreat in October, and the Chi-Rho fall retreat in November all at Disciples Crossing camp.

I took on a part time job at a private organization called Valet Waste, in which my position required that I collect trash from people’s apartments to local trash dumpsters.

I moved from my apartment in Fort Worth and into a new apartment in Arlington with my good friend Stephen.

I watched my best friend, Mary, walk across the Barton College stage and achieve her Bachelors in Religious Studies (with the Greek language) and Math.

I had one of the most interesting summer experience as I worked for the first time at UNC Rex Hospital in Raleigh, NC as an Intern Chaplain. My time as a Chaplain required to me to think critically about not only my theory but my practice of providing care for patients, family, and staff who are entering some of the hardest moments in their life. Not only that, but my time as a Chaplain required that I learn more about who I am and my identity as a future minister.

I entered into a relationship with my boyfriend, Charlie, and the times we have shared together have been some of the best moments of my life thus far.

I had my third meeting with the Commission on Ministry in North Carolina, in which I am now one more meeting away from being approved for Ordination.

I enjoyed many memorable moments with my friends in seminary, including but not limited to: Halloween party, Friendsgiving, Squadmas, and game nights.

And I ended the year by watching my good friend Josh marry his husband Andrew.

The approaching new year tends to make us think about all that’s happened this past year. And sometimes, we often regret that those memories are now gone. That’s why we call them “good old days”.

While the moments we experienced this year are now past, that doesn’t mean our “good old days” are now gone. I affirm that many good old days are ahead of us. And it’s when we spend too much time thinking about our past, that we can easily miss what we have right in front of us.

I will admit, though there were plenty of moments this year that I loved, there are just as many moments I missed. I don’t want to enter the 2018 year missing more moments and spending time regretting that I missed them later.

So as we enter the 2018 year, may you embrace all the new good old day moments that appear in front of you. Take the time to be with friends, enjoy the flowers so to speak, and make each day a new memorable moment in your life.

May your being be filled with Peace, Love, and your entire Ruah. 

I'm a Survivor

I was driving down the road one day and had the radio on. I typically listen to a local country station, one that played both new hits and older hits as well. I was surprised to hear a song that I had not heard in a very long time, but a song that I love dearly.

Reba McEntire’s, “I’m a Survivor”.

For those who have not heard this song, I highly recommend that you take a moment to listen to it.

The song describes a woman’s struggle throughout her life and despite the struggles she had since childbirth and raising children, she describes herself as a survivor.

Whenever I think of this song, I think of my mother. The woman in the song and my mother led two different narratives, two different lives, but I can say without a doubt, that my mother is a survivor.

My mother was the youngest of five children, one of whom did not survive childbirth. She was a rebellious teenager, but had compassion for the world. She struggled with her own form of depression, which almost claimed her life through suicide. But through Divine intervention, she survived her suicide and depression. She married an abusive man and helped raise his children before having her first child (my sister). A few years after their divorce, my mother discovered that her daughter was being sexually abused by her ex-husband, which haunted her for many years. My mother lost her second child through miscarriage and was forced to give up her third child because of her father’s racist attitudes. She then bore her fourth and last child (me) who was diagnosed on the Autism spectrum and needed additional support and attention throughout childhood.

During all this, she worked several hard-working jobs, many at the same time. She finished college with high honors, and would eventually become the first person in her family to earn her Masters in Special Education. She worked years working with the mentally differently-abled and those with cerebral palsy. She counseled distraught families and teenagers and cared for the elderly in a care home. She then taught children on the Autism Spectrum and was perceived as a saint at Forest Pines Elementary in Raleigh, North Carolina.

She was stubborn, but had a heart full of love. She cared for the opposed, especially the young, who needed a voice in this world. She wanted nothing but the best for all her children and the children who were not her own. When she re-joined the church, she became a leader in our local congregation of Wake Forest Christian, especially in her efforts of outreach and children’s ministry.

Along with her emotional baggage’s, she also damaged her back that lasted the rest of her life and suffered from lupus for many years. Near the end of her life, she suffered from Gastro-cancer, which would take her life.

The world truly lost a Saint on November 3^rd, 2011.  

Despite my mother’s death….My mother is still a survivor.

Often, the word survivor implies a person who has overcome death or an event that threatens life.

I don’t agree with this implicit definition.

For me, a survivor is someone who has overcome one, if not more, obstacles in life, and has not relinquished their humanity.

The song describes a woman’s struggle to work two jobs, raise kids, and deal with a recent divorce. The author of the song knows about the obstacles of life. But despite these obstacles, the author says the woman has “gentle hands and the heart of a fighter”.

Too often, it seems like a better choice to go through life’s obstacles with bitterness, instead of gentleness. Now, I can’t judge anyone’s bitterness. I have not lived their life and I have not faced their struggles.

But I would like to ask: Is it hard to carry that burden of bitterness? It almost seems like bitterness becomes just another obstacle to overcome in life while trying to overcome all the other obstacles we face.

However, being bitter is very different from having anger during your struggles.

Anger is a necessary emotion. It is the emotion in the body that informs us that something is wrong and needs some form of correction. This includes the need for resolution, expression of hurt or grief, and even justice seeking.

While anger is necessary, it is not without caution. Anger can lead us to causing harm toward other people and even ourselves. But it is not the emotion of anger that causes harm, but the choices we make in the midst of our anger.

My mother was not without anger. She had every right to be angry. Her first husband abused her daughter. She lost both her second and third child through death and separation. She lost her oldest sister and father to death. She suffered from lupus. These are only a few out of many reasons for my mother’s anger.

And I don’t blame my mother for being angry.

But I don’t believe that my mother was a bitter woman. My mother, while stubborn and stern at times, was also gentle and kind as well. She knew how to fight, but was not embittered from her struggles. Even during the last months of my mother’s life, as she laid in the hospital bed with a lot of pain, she made sure everyone else was being taken care of, even the nurses who were there to take care of her.

My mother is a survivor.

And because of my mother, I am a survivor as well.

My mother’s life, my mother’s struggles and how she overcame her struggles not only gave me the support to overcome my own struggles, but taught me how to overcome future struggles as well.

That is what survivors do. They teach us how to survive, with love and compassion and not with bitterness.

So I invite you to take a moment to recognize the survivors who are in your life. And how they are teaching you to be a survivor as well.

And once you recognize your survivors, take a moment to thank them. Not only for their survival, but for teaching you how to survive as well.

And perhaps, once we recognize and express gratitude, we can begin to teach those who are struggling in their own obstacles.

This is my hope for you and for me as well.

May you walk with your truth, your story, and your Ruah always.

Peace, 

Is Jesus Really Coming?

One day, after a long morning and afternoon session at the hospital, I am driving down the highway when I notice a large white truck…with a large cross in the truck bed. And on the cross, the message, “Jesus is Coming” was written in large bold print. As I got closer, the rest of the truck also had the same message all over it. As I passed the cross and the truck, I left feeling…uneasy.

Sure, it sounds like a nice message. “Jesus is coming”. But what does that mean? And more importantly, who is this message for?

“Jesus is coming”…why is Jesus coming? Well, several New Testament scriptures state that Jesus said himself that he would return one day to restore everything again. But I still want to know what does it mean for Jesus to come back again?

Does that mean no more suffering for the marginalized? Does that mean no more pain for the sick? Does that mean no more oppression or violence or injustice?

If the answer is yes to all of these questions, then I can get behind the message that “Jesus is coming”.

So then, why do I still feel uneasy?

I feel uneasy because when I hear that message, I often see the implicit messages included with the statement, “Jesus is Coming” which can include: “Don’t Worry about Your Troubles Now, for one Day Jesus will Take Care of All of it”.

Again, a nice message; however, it’s easy for the person who is not in the midst of oppression, injustice, and marginalization to say that they can wait for Jesus to take care of everything.

And the irony is that when Jesus was on Earth, all he did was sit with the oppressed, stand up for the marginalize, and teach about Love and Justice to all he spoke to.

And now Jesus’s message of his return is being used implicitly to say, “Don’t worry, someone [Jesus] will take care of your problems on day”.

I am uneasy with this message, because it puts all the responsibility on Jesus and takes all of the responsibility off us.

I want to say that one day Jesus will return again, but I don’t interpret it that Jesus will take care of all our problems for our problems are here and very much real.

Instead, I think we should be more like Jesus: Putting all our actions into loving our neighbors and standing up for injustice when we see it.

Perhaps that is how Jesus is coming back to give us hope. Perhaps Jesus needs to act through us in order to bring back love and peace into the world.

Can you imagine how much the world might change if we all acted like Jesus by loving and caring for all the people we come into contact with every day? That is a future that I can “wait” for, not a future where we wait ideally by for a Savior to take care of everything that we can be working for right now.

So as you reflect on my words, may you look at the life of Jesus and learn how to love and stand up for the oppressed now like Jesus would when he was on earth. And may you Love all your Neighbors as much as you would Love your Entire Ruah!

Peace, 

Camp Communities Change Lives

Summer 2009. Seems like an eternity ago since that summer and yet it was the summer that would make a huge difference in my life. That summer was the first time I experienced church camp.

I just finished my Sophomore year in High School and my mom and a good friend of ours from church were wanting me and two youth from church to go to a church camp called Camp Caroline. I resisted going, but the decision was made for me.

It was such a long drive. While the two other youth rode with the Hillyer van, another disciples church in downtown Raleigh, I rode with my parents. That comforted me, but the entire time I kept wondering how I was going to make it an entire week alone. I assumed I would be alone because I assumed that no one would hang out with me or be my friend. It was the nature at school so I assumed the same for all social situations I encountered.

We eventually arrived and got registered. My parents left and the adults led us in some weird dance activity. I hide in the background, hoping no one would notice I wasn’t dancing. Then the directors of the camp spoke to us and said we would be split into small groups. They announced who was in which small group, but I didn’t hear my name, so I just joined the last group to be formed, who thankfully I knew the leader (she was my minister’s wife). I stuck with their group for about 20 minutes, until someone came by and asked, “Is there a Kevin over here?”

My first thought was, “Did I do something wrong?” The director explained that they had been looking for me because I was in the wrong small group. So, I guess I did do something wrong, or that was my assumption anyway. I felt so embarrassed, but no one was upset. He walked with me through the dark camp ground to my right small group, who were really happy that I wasn’t lost and got there to meet everyone. It was the first of many moments that week that made me feel loved.

The week continued and throughout each day, I discovered the nature of what camp is all about. Camp is about community. Through the camp community, we created a sanctuary from the stresses and pain of the outside world. Through the camp community, we reminded ourselves of the power of God through the love we provided for our neighbors and ourselves. Through the camp community, we welcome new people to experience how camp communities change lives.

I used to believe that the camp grounds were magical and that whenever people came to camp, community was already established.

However, while my experience can lead to this assumption, the reality is that camp is not magical simply because of the location or program or God being present there (those these certainly do help!)

The real magic of community comes from the actions that we teach and lead while at camp.

When you see a person sitting alone or not feeling included, speak to them, invite them, listen to the stories that they bring into the community!

We all want to feel welcomed, to have a sense of belonging, and to know we are loved for being who God made us to be. When we welcome all people into the community, then we implicitly say to the person you are welcomed, you belong, and you are loved for being You!

To anyone who needs these reminders in life and needs a community that gives them a place to belong, camp can lead to a major change in a person’s life!

However, when this welcoming atmosphere is not present, camp can lead to not so good changes in our lives.

I’ve heard plenty of horror stories of people, either as adults or children, who attend camp and were ignored, discriminated against, or rejected by the community for one reason or another. These reasons can include, but are not limited to: one’s identity, one’s actions in which the community deemed were “sinful”, or simply for being different.

If this has been your experience, I am truly sorry. This is not what camp communities should be about.

Camp communities should invite differences of all people. Camp communities should not be concerned with “sinful actions” but recognize that people’s actions do not define the whole person. Camp communities should be a place where people experience the love of God through the love of others.

It is my hope, for all people who will be at camp this summer, that you create a loving space that will help change people’s lives in meaningful ways!

I have been blessed that my experience my first summer was a life changing experience. And after my first camp in 2009, I continued to have life changing experience at various weekend retreats and summer camps for the next few years. Even after I graduated High School, I volunteered as a counselor and worked as a camp staffer for several summers. Last summer, I was even honored to serve as a Camp Staff Director at Christmount. It now seems strange that this will be my first summer in eight years that I will not be participating in any camp program. Instead I will be participating in a different kind of ministry through the Hospital system. I am truly going to miss the camping season this summer.

For all the campers who are planning to attend camp this summer, I wish you many wonderful memories and lifelong friends that you will create and experience!

For all the counselors and camp staffers, I wish you a chance to share your gifts and joy with all the campers you come to enjoy your week (or weeks) with!

For all the Directors and Keynoters, I wish you peace in the midst of camp chaos and the chance to share your guidance with all the campers and counselors/camp staffers you get to lead!

For all camp communities, I invite you the chance to create a life changing experience, for ALL people, so that they realize they belong now into your community for life.

May your camp experience change your life and may your Ruah always be with you,

Peace,