The Sacred Work of Camp Chaplaincy

It is wild to say I am grateful for a week of 90-degree temperatures, little sleep, and a body coated in bug spray, sunscreen, and dirt of every hue you can imagine, but I am.

A week of chaplaining at Camp Stevens is one of the highlights of my Summer. I look forward to it all year, and I plan for it, even as I know that all of my plans will pivot, and that God will do more than any engaging craft or thoughtful chaplain talk I will plan. But I still plan, and God still does more than I can dream.

This year, my co-chaplains were Leighton Jones, our EDSD children and youth missioner, and the Reverend KC Robertson from EDLA. Together we created a program that focused on abundance, drawing from the miracle of loaves and fishes in the Gospel of John. And while this miracle is documented in all four gospels, it is in John’s gospel where a child brings the offering that feeds everyone.

“There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish. But what are they among so many people?”

At Community Gathering, we talked about the abundance of God’s love and care for the world, and we wrestled with the messages of scarcity we hear in everyday life. It is so human to worry that there isn’t enough for everyone, and yet God shows us over and over again that when we share what we have, God multiplies that goodness. And so we talked and prayed over what goodness we could multiply at Camp. 

Joy – Curiosity – Delight – Wonder – Friendship – Love – Experiences – Laughter – Courage – Trust

Words that are part of the air and the culture at Camp Stevens. 

Our community art project was a giant loom. During Spiritual Sunrise each morning, and during free time in the afternoon, we took reclaimed yarn and fabric and wove it through the loom. There was no planned design or outcome. Each person chose a color and a path, and the design emerged. As we prepared for our Eucharist on Thursday evening, the campers chose to weave our words of abundance in too.

The loom was placed behind the altar as a stained glass window – capturing the abundant goodness we shared during the week. And as we gathered to worship, to pray, to give thanks, and to come to the table, it felt like every piece of yarn and torn piece of fabric was filled with more gratitude than one single heart could hold. Here are a few I still carry in my heart. I hope they bless you, just as this week at Camp Stevens blessed me. 

I am grateful for the exceptional staff that inspires and connects children with their own belovedness and helps them to notice it in one another. For a kitchen crew that feeds almost 150 people at each meal, and meets countless dietary needs with creativity and enthusiasm.

I am grateful to gather in an amphitheater filled with humans to sing songs and notice a sky filled with stars, and an occasional bat or two.

I am grateful for the sound of a game of habitat being played on the lawn, and a group screaming at sunset from Upper Meadow. For hands dripping in deep burgundy juice from the overripe mulberries picked from the tree behind the dining hall, and the opportunity to delight in the sticky-sweet goodness.

I am grateful for time spent nurturing the faith of children from across the dioceses of San Diego, Los Angeles, and far beyond. For the opportunity to glimpse the abundance of God’s economy in practice at our beloved diocesan camp, and to realize the impact that experience will have on the world as each camper, each staff member, each nurse, and each chaplain heads back into their everyday lives forever changed. I am grateful to plan and pivot, remembering God always multiplies the goodness.

If you would like to share the goodness of a week at Camp Stevens with young people who might need financial assistance, you can do so through the Camp Stevens annual campership drive.

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