Migrant Workers

Senior High Work Camp is a Really Big Deal at our church. We're a relatively large and affluent church in a relatively large and affluent community, and the work camp - which has been happening for 2 weeks every summer for the past 40 years - has varied in terms of how seriously participants take it. Some years in the past there have been a lot of kids on the trip, not all of whom are church members or participate with the life of the church in any other way. Sometimes there have been problems (allegedly!) with smoking, drugs, alcohol, or respecting the authority of the chaperones. New leadership, stricter rules, and time have successfully addressed many of those issues. But sometimes the "work camps" just sound a little . . . cushy to me. Sometimes it seems more like a sight-seeing hostel vacation than an actual work trip. Sure there's painting and hammering and you're sleeping on a church floor, but . . . there also an awful lot of special events fun stuff.

I was excited to learn that our kids are going to Alamosa, Colorado this summer, and I think this summer's work camp will be great. Part of their work experience will be field work. This, I believe, has the power to be a hugely significant experience for the participants.

See, I have this idea that work camp is - ideally - a transformative experience. A time for introspection and reflection, a time of hard physical labor, a time of being exposed to things so far removed from your own daily experience that it changes the way you see the world.

I remember traveling to Chinle, Arizona, in the Navajo Nation as a teenager on a work camp. Obviously, we couldn't sleep 8 hours and work 16; there needed to be a constructive way to fill the time. We went on hikes and nature walks, we explored nearby national parks and monuments, we had outdoor prayer and meditation services, we had communion under the big western sky. It was an immersive experience, and it was transformative.

There does have to be some fun; there does have to be a way to blow off steam. But how much is too much?

One church I attended as a teen "bribed" kids to attend events by paying for things. The youth group leader would pay for movies and ice cream out of his own pocket - an expense I did not find trivial. The Sunday School teacher would take all kids with perfect attendance to a concert in the city at the end of the year. I had a good time at the movies and concerts, don't get me wrong. But I am uncomfortable with the feeling of bribing kids to do what is "right," especially within the context of a work camp experience.

One year our youth were working in Michigan, and spent a couple of afternoons in Chicago sight-seeing. This seemed incongruous with the work camp experience, to me. But maybe it wasn't.

My husband and I disagree on this. What do you think? Is it OK to drive a few hours to a nearby big city and go to expensive museums and shows? A major league baseball game? What is the right balance between "work" and "play" in a work camp experience?

Monday Question of the Week . . . Youth Sunday

This past Sunday we had our Youth Sunday. The music was beautiful. The senior sermons where poignant and powerful. As a whole the service was cohesive and we have heard nothing but wonderful comments from the congregation. So this is my question. Does your church have a Youth Sunday? If so, what is the general opinion of it by the congregation, staff, ect? What do you consider to be the primary importance of Youth Sunday? Is it about letting the congregation know about what going on in the youth program? Or is it about offering the youth an opportunity to experience planning and leading worship?

Hump Day Prayer . . . Youth Sunday

This coming Sunday is the Sunday where we hand everything over to the youth. The last time that I helped with a Youth Sunday was my Senior year of high school and I have really loved walking down this road again such a great group of youth. Here is the Prayer for the People that I put together for the service.

Lord God, we come before you this morning with motives mixed, or perhaps with no known motive at all. Yet here in this place - whose very walls are filled with memories - you are with us here and now. We thank you that it is not necessary for us to wait for your presence until we deserve it or until we have banished all other thoughts and considerations from our minds.

Lord, help us to know and understand why we are here. Why our lives really matter? You have placed us on this earth to tend and keep it, we are called to actively participate with you in taking care of the world that we find ourselves in. This world is filled with such beauty and such order and such good, and yet at the same time filled with such heartache and such pain? Give us your grace that we may join together to work for the kingdom that you promise on earth. Let us never rest at peace until hunger, oppression, discrimination, pollution, and war have been banished from our planet. And bless the efforts of those who are working to eradicate these ancient afflict. Unite all persons of goodwill, who perceive your grace in many various ways, as we work together for your world.

We pray for your church-for this congregation that we love, for the denomination of which we are a proud part, and for all who bear your name regardless of what other name they bear. We pray for ourselves: for those of us who are sick and who need your gift of healing, for those who are in despair and who need your gift of comfort; for those who are nearing the end of their life and who need your gift of faith.

Help us here and now, to understand the decisions we make and the life we lead has greater meaning beyond today. To understand why everything we think, everything we say, and everything we do matters. Desperately wanting to understand what significance this minute, this hour, this week, this month, this year has to our lives and to our world. Help us to not just sit back and wait for something to happen or someday to come. Teach us to live lives not for some unknown future but for today. That we may firmly believe and act out our faith, that your will is being done in us and through us. The choices we make now will shape our world and lives for eternity. Because of you, our lives have meaning today and our lives today have meaning forever.

We literally are partners with you, O God, in making this world the kind of place that you originally intended it to be. We are people committed to partnering with you to make this world, the world that we live in, the kind of place that you originally intended it to be. May we be the kind of people who, when we live this way, the very trees of Paradise will be planted. We trust that you will provide that tree whose leaves are the healing for all nations.

In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.