Translating Faith From
Camp to the Real World
For those of you who don’t
This is the text of Jennifer
know me, my name is Jennifer
Thomson’s sermon delivered on
Thomson, I’m currently a
May 22 for Youth Sunday at Christ
senior at West Potomac, and I
Church, Alexandria.
will be attending Virginia Tech
in the fall. Today, I am honored
to be the youth preacher!
Christ Church has been a part of my life
since Day 1. My parents actually met through
the All-Parish Retreat at Shrine Mont. I met
my best friend here at Christ Church. I’ve been
part of the choir since I was 3—you name it,
I’ve probably done it. This place has had quite
an impact on me.
Another place that has had a huge
impact on me is Shrine Mont (which you
can all sign up for now!). It’s a little oasis of
paradise hidden in the beautiful mountains of
the Shenandoah Valley, free from texting, social
media and all those electronic distractions.
That’s one of the reasons why I love it so
much—it’s free from distractions.
Shrine Mont has a lot of summer
camps. I went to the Music and Drama Camp
(referred to as MAD Camp) for eight years.
If I had a few hours, I’d love to tell you all
about the crazy adventures it took me on,
but I’m just going to focus on one thing: the
hike up North Mountain.
We began to hike up North Mountain
in Session 2 of camp. It’s about two hours up
and two hours down. The first time hiking
it was not easy. Parts of the trail are really
rocky and unstable. And this is where I want
to mention a line we heard earlier today from
28
Romans: “…suffering produces endurance,
and endurance produces character, and
character produces hope…” This is basically
like when you complain about something and
your dad says, “It builds character!” Well, on
the hike up North Mountain, we definitely
felt a little suffering. But it’s all worth it once
you get to the top.
Once you get to the top, it doesn’t
seem like much. It’s just a bunch of trees.
To get to the scenic view, you have to scale
this giant grey rock. The counselors formed
a system to help lift us all up and over. Once
you get up there, you turn a corner, and
suddenly, you are on top of the world. The
view is amazing. Imagine clear, bright blue
skies over the mountains that roll on for
miles. We do this thing called the Shouting
Prayer, where we—guess what—shout a
prayer. It’s a call and response, but I’ll just
read the lines to you quickly: “God loves the
world, God loves us, God loves you, I love
you, God loves me, I love me, Thanks be to
God, Amen, Amen.” We shout it and wait
after every line—you can hear the sound of
our voices echo over the mountains.
However, the real fun begins when
you have to climb back down that other side
of the rock. Once again, the counselors had
to form sort of an assembly line to help us
descend the rock. Well, when I was 11, it
was really scary. My legs were too short
to reach the next ledge. The counselors
assured me that they would catch me, but I
did not believe them. It took me awhile, but
SUMMER 2016 / VIRGINIA EPISCOPALIAN