Each year the weeks leading up to camp are so exciting. You get to hear all the chatter from youth about how much fun camp was last year, and how they can’t wait to do it all over again. They’re excited to get to do different activities, to listen to the different clergy who come to visit, and to just spend time in fellowship with their friends, both old and new; they will tell you themselves, there really is nothing like Camp WEMO.

Every year there is always a general theme that we try and revolve camp around, this year it happened to be love. Each morning we greeted the day with a pep talk from the interns and a couple of Youth Ministry Council members, Jordan and Emily. Monday morning, we got to hear Taylor Mansfield talk about the following passage from 1 John:

4…⁷Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. 1 John 4:7

Tuesday morning we got to listen to Katie Mansfield talk about:

19…¹⁹Honor your father and mother; also, You shall love your neighbor as yourself. Matthew 19:19

On Wednesday Hayley Cobb shared with us her thoughts on:

3¹See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and that is what we are. The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.1 John 3:1

Thursday morning we heard from Jordan discuss:

4…⁸Above all, maintain constant love for one another, for love covers a multitude of sins.1 Peter 4:8

Finally on Friday we got to hear Emily sum everything up for us. These pep talks offered everyone an insight on what we should be focusing on for the day and how we should show others love throughout the week.

The Youth Ministry Council planning team for camp reached out to many clergy to visit us twice a day for ‘Clergy Time’ to talk about what love means to them, and to also plan an activity time so that the youth and adults could spend some time with them having conversations and asking questions, while also do an activity such as making chocolate mouse or decorating an altar cloth.

This year, Camp WEMO was exceptional and the clergy who came to visit, and the staff who were there to help was one of the reasons why. Other reasons the week was such a success were the way the senior high youth cheered each other on during the float trip when someone fell off the side of the raft and had to swim back, then there were the campers applauding each other when they finally worked up the strength to stand up and use the restroom or get a refill of water. During the week at camp everyone accepted the call to love each other and live that out throughout the week, and with the help of messy games, and activity and worship times as a community, we all succeeded.

Katie Mansfield is an intern with the diocesan youth ministry.