Wrangler Dani

When I was a teenager, our church started doing an “All-Church Campout” every year during Labor Day weekend. It was a little country church, and that meant that literally the ENTIRE church went camping – young, old, trailers, tents – you name it, it was there. For the young’uns, it was a dream come true – an swath of lakeside real estate filled with friends, church services outside and dinners served on paper plates around a campfire. I remember our pastor scrambling eggs every morning on a his industrial-sized Coleman stove and my mom attempting (in vain) to get him to burn the bacon for her.

It must be an Oregonian thing to do, because our new church also has “Summer Camp” every year at a lake and it happened last weekend. It’s a bit bigger than the church of my youth, so we actually had a kitchen and a dining hall rather than an assortment of Colemans and a fire pit, but the idea is the same. The church gets together in the woods for some clean-air, dirty fingernails time, and fun ensues.

It’s neat to see “church” happen in a place that is its own cathedral – towering pines and the massive expanse of clear lake water remind us all that we are less important than we usually think. Amidst the rowdy kids’ games and good-natured teasing, there’s an undercurrent of grace and joy that you can’t find anywhere else, except in a community of believers. I admit I was nervous to go, since we don’t know that many people and I worried about awkwardly standing around the edges, clinging to a cup of coffee – but I made it through without being too awkward and I think we might have even made some friends. Social interaction for the WIN!

Adam and I took the kayaks and impressed a few people with the wonders of Hobie (yes, it’s our party trick) and when the wind kicked up in the afternoon, we took them out for a rowdy paddle in the waves. All in all, we had a great weekend. It was a good reminder, after all of my uncertainty, that we can see God at work in more than one community, and that our new story can hold just as much love as the old still does.