Hello again DPF party people! Week one of camp is in the books and oh my goodness let me tell you all it was an unbelievably incredible first week. I truly don’t think I could have asked for a more welcoming, fun, and spirit-filled camp for my first week than the CYF crew at the Retreat at Silver Springs in the Florida region.
From the moment I stepped on the camp grounds, I knew I was entering sacred space. Walking around the camp, trying to get myself oriented and moved in, I could immediately sense God’s presence. It had been 5 years since I had been at a weeklong camp, and even after all that time away, the power of God's presence caught right back up with me. Every night, I wrote down one way I experienced God’s presence during that day: my daily God moment. It became a way to anchor my bursting connection with God throughout the week, and to remind me of all the ways God not only works in and through me, but those around me as well. I could feel the Holy Spirit wash over me as I was pounded by rain in my canoe, hear God’s voice through the laughter of the youth playing 500 in the pool, hear Jesus’s voice through the youth wanting to continue conversations about Christian queer inclusion, and realize that God really does know me by name while singing during worship. Getting to help the youth in my small group craft thoughtful prayers for our worship, or create skits to help make the daily scripture more accessible and relatable showed me the power I have to be a faith mentor. Hearing the undeniable wisdom these youth have about their faith, about the open nature of the table, about the ways they connect with God showed me how they can be my faith mentors too. God was moving, breathing, and living through that holy ground!
Not being at camp for so long, I think I forgot about what makes camp such an important, life giving, and sacred space. My week at the Retreat was the reminder I needed of exactly why camp defined my younger years and guided my early relationship with God. I could see the kids literally coming more alive and more into themselves as the week progressed. Camp was always the place where I felt most comfortable, most safe, most welcomed to be my true self and to show a more vulnerable side of myself. Seeing the youth at the Retreat open up over the course of the week reminded me of the importance of having my own space in my young life to truly explore who I was and show sides of myself I usually kept hidden. This week was a necessary reminder for me of the quintessential magic of camp. I think I needed camp just as much as camp needed me this week, and thank God for that!
The week was also filled with so much fun! I had so much fun becoming a part of their camp community, and oh boy did the Retreat welcome me with unapologetic and open arms. I cannot even count the amount of times I almost collapsed from laughing so hard with my campers and fellow counselors. I got to participate in the last night talent show, play some pickup basketball and get humbled by high school boys, cotton-eye-joe my little heart out at the all camp dance, canoe down the silver spring river in the pouring rain, remix the daily scripture to the tune of Baby by Justin Bieber, embrace my inner mermaid with the girls in the pool, and get absolutely SOAKED during the all camp water balloon fight. It was rare over my time at the Retreat for anyone to see me without a radiant and genuine smile stretched all across my face. My week at camp was an embodiment of endless joy!
While all of these other incredible elements of camp made my week so amazing, having the chance to lead my workshops with the youth was the undeniable highlight. The youth were so open and excited to participate in my workshops. I had the pleasure of sharing 3 workshops with this camp; one centered around Queer justice and Christianity, one centered around Christian Nationalism, and one centered around finding our safe places. They were all amazing experiences for me to try out the justice work the Peace Internship challenges me to engage in, but my queer justice and Christianity workshop was where I felt the most impact and change working through my time with the campers. I got to do that particular workshop with each and every camper at the Retreat at Silver Springs. Having conversations about what it means to be queer and what LGBTQIA+ identity means opened up the minds of some campers to new perspectives. Hearing how Christian motivated anti-LGBTQIA+ legislation had impacted the lives of campers in Florida made the topic of my workshop all the more real. Getting to go through the first Genesis creation story and explore a new interpretation that lends to a Christian call to radical inclusion of our genderqueer siblings was so incredible to witness. Campers wanted to talk more about it with me after our workshop time finished. They wanted to tell me how they were going to share this inclusive scriptural lens with their queer friends and family members because they were simply so excited to have a new way of looking at the Bible that was affirming and radically inclusive. They wanted to share this different interpretation with their family and have conversations about queer identity through a Christian lens outside of camp. I could see them getting excited about the realization that their call to queer inclusion could be something God was calling them to as well. It was such a beautiful and wonderful experience to walk that path of justice and inclusion with these campers and to show them how we as Christians are called to include and love our queer siblings through my workshop.
I feel like before this week, I only knew the tip of the iceberg regarding the transformative nature of the Peace Intern program, but the experiences and conversations I had with the youth through my workshop truly showed me how critical this program is to empower youth to be change makers.
While I can’t share my entire workshop with you over a blog post, I invite you all to listen to the song I use to close my groups in prayer each session so you too can feel a fraction of the way the spirit is moving in and through the youth at the Retreat. The song is called Plowshare Prayer, and it is by a non-binary artist named Spencer LaJoye.
Thank you all for your continued prayers, and for being willing to come on this journey with me and read about the ways I am being called to bring God’s Kindom of justice, peace, and inclusion to the holy grounds of camp.
Blessings and see you next week,
Ella Johnson