heading home from camp

Today I am heading home from Camp Aldersgate, where I've spent a good week partly counseling, partly being a non-equipped office worker.

I've been coming to this camp since I was old enough to register - before that I went every year when my parents dropped my big brother off, and waited impatiently for the day when I would be old enough to come along too. Over the years I have been a camper, a staff member, a volunteer - I have had good and bad experiences here, 'life changing' experiences, and mostly, I have loved this place. I'm sure many of you have a similar place in your experiences.

This week I've been thinking a lot about the theology that is shared at camps. When I was young, I didn't think a lot about the words I was singing - I just sang and enjoyed it. As an adult, I worry more about the messages that are being sent. Today, the songs are a bit more complicated musically than the ones I learned - there is a full 'praise band' and overheads and projections and power point. But one song that is new to me this week I really like:

Your Love is Amazing
by Brenton Brown, Brian Doerksen
Your love is amazing, steady and unchanging
Your love is a mountain, firm beneath my feet
Your love is a mystery, how you gently lift me
When I am surrounded, your love carries me

Hallelujah, hallelujah Hallelujah, your love makes me sing
Hallelujah, hallelujah Hallelujah, your love makes me sing

Your love is surprising, I can feel it rising
All the joy that's growing deep inside of me
Every time I see you, all your goodness shines through
And I can feel this God song, rising up in me

(repeat chorus)

This week I've tried to remember that what is most important about camp is the foundations that are laid here. I certainly can't imagine having become a pastor without my camping experience. For a long time, I thought I would be in camping ministires - eventually I discerned my call more clearly - but I don't think I would have been as open to pastoral minsitry had it not been for camp. So, I enjoy hearing these young expressions of faith, and wondering where these campers and staff members will find themselves ten years from now.