BEND — It was another weekend without significant travel but that does not mean that I had a quiet weekend at home. I did have a weekend at home but I would not describe it as silent. It was more like a home invasion. Since we do not yet have our Diocesan youth camp/retreat center available, a decision was made some time ago, in some kind of moment of insanity, to host the high school, junior high and elementary camps at the property where my home is located. This works amazingly well and would be perfect except for the fact that the usual tranquility of my home is just a bit compromised. Thus the spare bedrooms were occupied by the female members of the Yakima-based Reach Team, the living room became meeting space and campout area for the male members of the team and the living room became the Chapel. Besides this, the yard became volleyball court, the driveway became basketball arena and the yurt the girls dorm. The horse stables became the boys dorm. My kitchen, where I do only a nominal bit of cooking, was taken over by the Knights of Columbus and other volunteers for food storage and preparation. The spare shower and bathroom saw greater use this weekend than in the previous several months. A downhill lawn area doubled as a slip-n-slide. An open area served as the venue for our nightly campfire. All in all it was great; a bit exhausting for all participants, but great. I can only hope that the other camps go as well or even better.
As I sat with the high school teens around the campfire on Friday night I imagined how great it would be to have a properly prepared campfire area and suitable cabins for the youth to inhabit when they left the fire circle. The boys seemed to genuinely enjoy the prospect of sleeping on the floor in the stables and the girls seemed to relish the yurt accommodations. I am certain that neither appreciated the increasing pungency of the portable restrooms but no one complained even about that. I take both of these as good indicators that the young people were sufficiently engaged in the camp/retreat process and that these were considered minor interferences hardly worth noting. I do, however, want better for them.
We did make a short field trip to the barn for one of the evening sessions and this too was very well received by the campers. They were obviously enthralled with the barn and equally taken with the expansiveness of the grounds and with the potential which it holds. As we have heard before, I heard one teen comment rather plaintively, “Why can’t we have it now?” I explained that it was merely a matter of another million dollars or so but that we continue to work on it. The response of the young people does help dispel the fears or doubts which almost of necessity must arise when one takes on a project of this magnitude. It reminds me that the project, while certainly one based on sound business and economic considerations, must ultimately be faith-based and that this may preclude the kind of absolute certainty we crave. I guess we could think of the Apostles who had just finished fishing, but not catching, and who were approached by the Lord with the request to go out fishing again. There are hundreds of possible responses. We need to repair our wet but unharmed nets. The boat needs to be looked over to see if it is still seaworthy. We are hungry and tired. We have tried every possible fisherman’s trick.It’s hopeless. Everyone will think we are crazy. It is the worst time of day to fish. The fish economy is not good enough to spend more time at this venture. How are we going to pay the members of our crew for the extra hours? There are more productive ways for us to use our time for the rest of today. Yet, none of these were the answers given. The faith response, “We have been hard at it all night but at your word we will go out again!” When I see the faith response of the young people to our meager efforts to provide a faith-based camp/retreat experience, the Apostles’ response makes a lot more sense.
The high school camp is followed by the presently ongoing junior high camp/retreat. Once again the attentiveness of the youth to the lessons and songs tells me that a hunger is being fed. There is also ample time for the recreational elements and this helps displace the abundance of energy but the youth are as attentive to the lessons as they are to the games. Some may have smuggled in iPods or handheld gaming devices but, in all honesty, I have not seen them. They seem to be surviving the absence of technology moderately well. This too tells me that the young, if given the opportunity and structure, will very readily grow to appreciate things of deeper spiritual value.
In discussing the expanded potential for such camp/retreat opportunities, many possibilities for “fishing” come to mind. Camps exclusively for boys or girls at the high school and junior high level are a real possibility and a need. Priestly vocation camps would be marvelous. Multi-parish Confirmation retreats scheduled throughout the year so that parishes of various regions could come together for a more comprehensive, overnight camp/retreat experience would heighten the significance of Confirmation. Evangelization retreats, which have been held in a number of parishes, could be held rather regularly and even routinely at our developing site. Retreats could be generated for the permanent deacons of the Diocese, for members of the Knights of Columbus, for the Daughters of the Americas, for altar servers, for lectors and acolytes and Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion. I am realistic enough to know that the retreat center will not be bustling with activity every weekend but my hope is that there is some kind of sponsored or spontaneous event which occurs there on a very regular basis. I do hope and believe that it can become for all of us, in the Diocese of Baker and beyond, a very spiritual and enjoyable holy place, a place to come and meet the Lord, a place to come and simply be with the Lord, a place to hear the Lord’s request to go out “fishing” again.
