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News and Ideas from around the Anglican World |
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February 2006
Keeping summer campfires burning all year round
By Sarah Stevenson
There are all kinds of reasons, but I think this verse goes a long way to answering the question: “Bear ye one another’s burdens.” Photo: Sue Careless One of the things we seek at St Michael’s Youth Conference (Maritimes) is to become a real community. Several staff refer to this community as “the St Michael’s family,” and indeed for some conferees, St Michael’s is the most stable, consistent family that they know. Through the conference, we seek to build friendships -- Christian friendships -- seeking Christ in one another, as we seek Christ together. This seeking doesn’t cease with the end of the conference itself, hence the necessity to stay in touch throughout the year.
Every year, the director, Rev. Kevin Stockall, tells the conferees that the staff is indebted to them for what they teach us. He is absolutely right. Various cabins over the years have challenged my understanding and my ability to articulate my faith. Every single girl I have shared a cabin with has taught me something about living in community.
For me, one of the great pleasures of being a long-term staff member
is seeing these young people grow up, and grow in faith and
understanding. The nervous 13 year-old that at 18, is looked up to
by 13 year-olds. The teen that struggles to make friends at home
finds acceptance and friendship at St Michael’s. The reluctant
participant comes to experience something of God’s love. One of our
counsellors this year was formerly (and infamously!) one of our most
intellectually challenging conferees when he was 15 years old. He
was relentless. I happened to be in attendance at his university
graduation last spring. He sent me pictures his father took of the
two of us that day, saying that it was completely appropriate that a
member of the St Michael’s staff be
One of the senior boys remarked on the last day about how hard it was to leave St Michael’s. He and his best friend from the conference live in different provinces and yet they share a very close friendship in spite of having spent only 25 days of their lives together.
All of us on staff through the years have learned about bearing one another’s burdens: celebrating marriages and doctoral dissertations, rejoicing over the birth of children, mourning the death of a child. Like many of our conferees, we have shared meals, visited each other’s homes and rejoiced in the knowledge that a friend is only a phone call or email away.
Parents tell me regularly how important St Michael’s is to their kids, in ways that we as staff never see. For some, it is a source of acceptance and friendship with their peers that they don’t find in their towns or schools. For others, it is having the security of an adult friend that isn’t a parent or family member. Some of the staff have been surprised to learn from parents that a conferee describes them as role model. Several parents have remarked that their child comes home changed, even for a little while, and each year the change lasts a little longer.
I think I am safe in speaking for the staff in saying that we do pray for the conferees (and each other) throughout the year. But how do we stay in touch in more tangible ways? We do send a mailing list (street & email addresses) in the fall. Ideally, this arrives by the Feast of St Michael and All Angels on September 29, certainly by late October. This mailing traditionally also includes the conference sermon from the closing Eucharist, and the conference photo. Individual staff members write to various groups of cabins or classes at Christmas and other times throughout the year.
Not all, but most of our conferees have email and use instant messaging services. When I was concerned about registration this summer, the director’s older daughter (a 4th-year conferee) used IM to find out who was planning to come back but hadn’t sent their form yet. Email and IM are very cost-effective ways of keeping in touch, but be prepared for email addresses to go out of date quickly, and to include by “snail mail” those who do not have electronic access.
A portion of the staff also ran a lively mini-St Michael’s Youth Weekend in late October in Moncton for conferees in the immediate region.
In the end, it doesn’t matter what method is used to stay in touch -- as long as you stay in touch. St Michael’s is about community, about relationships, about friendship. Friendship with God, and friendship with one another.
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So why
is it so important to stay in touch with our summer campers
throughout the year? |
Copyright The Anglican Planet © 2006 |