The Village People

You
Make
Camping
Awesome, Amazing, Adventurous!!

It's fun to stay at the YMCA!  These are my Village, People.

This weekend, we embarked on our second annual church camping trip.  It rained.  It was cold.  It was windy.  And it was marvelous, unforgettable, the kind of feed-your-soul weekend that I yearn for during the hard and trying and lonely times.  When one camper so eloquently offered her thanksgiving and praise of our group, she described The Village we'd created, thankful for the fellowship shared among our multi-generational group, thankful for watchful eyes and caring hands and loving hearts.  Thankful for laughter and songs shared 'round the campfire, thankful for open conversation, for kindness, for acceptance.  And she offered a prayer of concern, for those who seek a village, for those who desperately need a village, for those who have no village.  Her words echoed in my mind long after they were spoken, being too familiar with how it feels to be without.

Our Village includes toddlers, teenagers, grandparents, young parents, and seasoned parents; college professors, teachers, writers, an illustrator, an architect, a nurse, a rare books artist, musicians, a tour guide, a wine pourer, two pastors, a doula, a speech therapist, a foreign exchange student, athletes, and church leaders.  And yet this is just a sampling of the greater Village we have in our whole church family.

After we had packed up our wet and muddy tents and chairs and sleeping bags and stoves and the kitchen sink, and after we had gathered as a Village in worship on Sunday morning - non-campers in the brick-and-mortar sanctuary, campers huddling beneath the rain tarp sanctuary we'd created - I was reminded once again just how lucky we were to be a part of this Village. 


I was reminded once again how good it feels to be Home.