{"id":6766,"date":"2019-07-11T09:54:24","date_gmt":"2019-07-11T14:54:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.brethren.org\/?p=6766"},"modified":"2019-07-11T09:54:24","modified_gmt":"2019-07-11T14:54:24","slug":"youth-peace-advocate-camp-ithiel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/blogtest\/2019\/07\/11\/youth-peace-advocate-camp-ithiel\/","title":{"rendered":"Youth Peace Advocate: Camp Ithiel"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\t\t\t\t\n

Camp\nIthiel is by far the most diverse camp, ethnically and religiously, I have\nvisited so far this summer. According to the program director, most of the kids\nwho attend camp at Ithiel are not Brethren. (Not to say none of the campers\nwere Brethren. (However, we did have a whole group from the Miami Haitian Church\nof the Brethren.) I really appreciated having the chance to work with campers\nand staff from a variety of different backgrounds and traditions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The\ncamp is located in the middle of a well-to-do neighborhood in Gotha, Florida (near\nOrlando). It felt kind of weird to see large mansions just across the lake from\nthe camp!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This\nweek I led stations, part of a daily rotation for family groups. There were\nfour groups and only three stations, so one of the sessions I led each day was\nextra-large and made of two family groups. This week was their Jr. High camp, and\njunior higher are a tough crowd to read. Yet on the last day, several campers\nthanked me for what I\u2019d taught and asked if I was coming back next year. Something\nmust have resonated!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This\nweek I incorporated part of what Camp Brethren Woods developed for Shalom time,\nand I expect to continue doing so for the rest of the summer. It has been an adventure\nlearning the \u201cins and outs\u201d of each camp and what makes them each unique. I\nhope I am able to share other good ideas and traditions between them as I move\ntowards the second half of my summer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We\nonly had one campfire, but had Vespers in the camp\u2019s chapel  – which is also where the New Covenant Church\nof the Brethren worships on Sundays. We didn\u2019t sing any of the silly\/secular\ncamp songs I usually enjoy leading, but had an excellent team of worship\nleaders. Two of the staff were charged with leading Vespers, and a couple of\nthe councilors helped as well. I learned on the last day that they are part of\na band named \u201cCivilization of Worship\u201d and are working on their first album. Here\nis a cover they released last Christmas (https:\/\/youtu.be\/WF02_8LaFl8<\/a>).\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\ndean for the week led Morning Watch overlooking the lake every morning. I\nappreciated getting the word and theme for the day into the campers\u2019 minds at\nthe start of each day. In some of the previous camps, I have not had the chance\nto see how the campers are engaging with the scriptures outside my sessions. As\nI had the mornings free this week, I appreciated having that chance to here. The\nworship leaders were very in-tune with the feeling<\/em> of worship (orthopathy\nor \u201cright feeling\u201d if you\u2019re like me and like big, theological words) and often\nprovided underscoring for the reflections and prayers at Vespers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At\nthe same time we were there, Camp Ithiel rented out one of its buildings to a\nlocal Jewish day camp. A couple of campers struggled with sharing our space,\nbut I apricated their presence. Although we did not have any sort of cross-over\nbetween the camps, it was good to see and hear them around. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nfourth day of camp is \u201cAgape\u201d and the scripture is John 13:1-17, that gospel\u2019s\naccount of the Last Supper and Jesus washing his disciples\u2019 feet. The intended\ntheme is \u201cGod\u2019s Reconciling Love.\u201d This week, Camp Ithiel, I choose to use the \u201cLittle\nRed Riding Hood\/Maligned Wolf and M&M game\u201d portions of Brethren Wood\u2019s Shalom\nsession. I felt the mediation lesson was important to share.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Loving\nGod,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In\nyour son Jesus you modeled for us what it means to serve one another and work\nfor peace and reconciliation in this broken world. Grant that we may follow his\nexample to love our neighbors as ourselves and be peacemakers in our own\ncommunities. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

            In your son\u2019s name we pray,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                        Amen.<\/p>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Camp Ithiel is by far the most diverse camp, ethnically and religiously, I have visited so far this summer. According to the program director, most of the kids who attend camp at Ithiel are not Brethren. (Not to say none of the campers were Brethren. (However, we did have a whole group from the Miami<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[185,882,886,888,1246,1247],"class_list":["post-6766","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-youth-peace-travel-team","tag-camp-ithiel","tag-peace","tag-peacebuilding","tag-peacemaker","tag-youth-peace-advocate","tag-youth-peace-travel-team"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/blogtest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6766","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/blogtest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/blogtest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/blogtest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/blogtest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6766"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/blogtest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6766\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/blogtest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6766"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/blogtest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6766"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/blogtest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6766"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}