By Kat Burgett
During the last week of June, 21 high schoolers and six adults went away to High School Camp — though not very far away, because this year we stayed in and around Durham! Two questions guided our time together: What kind of life is God inviting us into? What is God calling us to be and to do? So we structured our time at camp around three things to which God calls all Christians: worship, work, and rest.
Each morning and evening we worshipped. In the morning we prayed a service of Morning Prayer from the Book of Common Prayer; in the evening we gathered to sing, pray, discuss the day in small groups, and hear a story from a Blacknall guest about a time when they saw God at work in their work. (Special thanks to the "cool adults" who joined us for dinner and worship throughout the week: Jeff Baker, Taylor Brennan [plus Toxie Ray], Kaitlyn Schiess, and Christian and Cory Pikaart [plus Daphne].)
During the day we traveled to work with and learned from a different ministry partner. We packed food at the Walltown Neighborhood Ministries and Iglesia Emanuel food banks; we gardened, cooked, and hung out with friends at Reality Ministries; we embarked on a two-day Genesis Journey with Durham CARES that took us on tours of Historic Stagville and Downtown Durham; and we washed eggs, weeded gardens, put up a basketball hoop, and fed cows at the Bell Farm.
And in the afternoons and evenings we were grateful for the gift of rest. We swam, played basketball, napped in hammocks, made friendship bracelets, baked cookies, roasted marshmallows, played glowstick Capture the Flag, communed with farm animals, and just enjoyed one another's company.
The whole week felt like a gift from God, who used this time to remind us that we are more than our accomplishments, and that true joy comes from pursuing the things of God in relationship with one another. And the week certainly could not have happened without the amazingly generous hospitality of Karen and Don Frush, who hosted us overnight at their farm in Bahama all week, or the dedicated service and good humor of our leadership team: Dave Dunderdale, Sarah Lapp, Allie Hargrove, Owen Schutte, and Jill Marcantonio. Thank you to them, and thanks be to God!
Kat Burgett is the Director of Youth Ministries at Blacknall.