Stepping out in faith

Some of you may know well our diocese’s camp and conference center, the Cathedral Domain, located in Lee County, Kentucky. It is a place where young and not so young alike have had their lives and their faith shaped immensely. I was there this past week (along with some of you here…)—I had the privilege to serve as the chaplain to young people having their first camp experience for first and second graders—an experience known as “mini camp.” During the time that Mini Camp was taking place, another camp was going on at the same time at the Domain—the overnight version of Reading Camp was taking place. At least some of your have heard about Reading Camp! The camp is an experience for kids to have more individualized attention while teachers and other volunteers work with them on their reading skills—reading is something I often take for granted, but I realized, with these kids, how different their lives are and would be if they do not attain basic reading skills—think of all the things that require reading in our culture—road signs, signage in stores—that’s not to mention all of the great stories that a non-reader, or a deficient reader misses out in books—reading makes life different—more accessible.

These kids enter camp with varying reading levels—but one thing that most of them have in common is a lack of confidence—a lack of faith—that they can be better readers. These kids come from varying backgrounds—some come from one parent homes where there’s not a lot of free time for the parent to read with them, some have slight disabilities, like dyslexia, so they haven’t had the opportunity to have someone help them individually in figuring out ways around it; others come from homes where the parent can’t read himself (or herself); some come from homes where English is not spoken—all sorts of different situations. While I was at mini camp last week, I took a couple of hours each morning and went and sat in the pleasure reading learning station at Reading Camp. I got to meet a number of good kids, but the one thing they seemed to have in common was this lack of faith in their ability to read. Each day, adults and teenage counselors spent time with these folks and drew them out of their shells—and worked through challenges and spent time with them building up their confidence.

One young woman told me that she’s never read a chapter book before—but all the other girls in her class did and she wasn’t sure she could do it—but we sat together for a half an hour each morning and we worked through a chapter book—it was slow at first, but she caught on deciphering words and stepping out in faith—and she’s well on her way to completing her first book with chapters.

Lack of faith can be a very stifling thing. It hindered these young people, and hopefully their experience at camp is one that let them know that there were people who cared about them enough to help them build their confidence in reading—and not just that, but their confidence in themselves—it let them know that there were people who cared about them—that they were valued people.

Faith can be a funny thing. The children I encountered this past week in Reading Camp began with a lack of faith, but the children at Reading Camp were willing to step out a little bit—they were willing to be in relationship with the teachers and volunteers who wanted to work with them and they prospered. The people of the crowd needed miracles to change their faith situation. While Jesus walked the roads of Israel, remarkable occurrences happened—healing miracles of all sorts—people, though, had the opportunity to have faith and believe, or not. It was the faith that those who were in need had that healed them. Reaching out in faith can seem to be a silly thing, but when the faith is in things that are of God, then faith can heal—the healing takes place in different and unidentifiable ways—we are not always expecting the way that God will interact in our lives—the children of Reading Camp may not have been expecting a surge of confidence, faith, and support. They, and we may not receive healing in the way that we want, but God is there, working in our lives and in the lives of the children of Reading Camp—healing, supporting, loving—active—God, with us: Emmanuel.

-Rev. Elise Johnstone from Good Shepherd Episcopal Church in Lexington was a volunteer at the Pleasure Reading Center at the Mission House and Cathedral Domain Reading Camps earlier this summer