St. Alban's Episcopal Church

Summer is the time of vacations, camps, VBS, high temperatures (we have certainly had those!), pool fun, beach fun, water fun, and most of all quality time with friends and family. My time recently has been mostly driving for vacation and picking my daughter up from Camp Trinity, where I also spent some of my teenage years. It always warms my heart to go back to that special place where I have so many precious memories. We all have those places I am sure that will forever hold those spaces in our hearts. These Episcopal camps, Camp Trinity, Camp Henry, Camp Kanuga and many other church camps offer the most life giving programs that will enrich our children’s lives forever. I want to share a personal story that happened with my daughter this summer after picking her up from Camp Trinity. I don’t know about you, but I always have the best conversations with my children when we are driving. She talked non-stop about everything she did, friends she made, inside jokes with counselors, and the list goes on. We talked about how we had missed each other and how happy I was that she had gone, enjoyed it, and put herself out there to experience it all even though truthfully she was a little anxious when I dropped her off. She paused and looked at me, touched my arm, and said, “Don’t worry Mom, I know God has a plan for me, we talked about it at camp”. Well every now and then, you have a parent moment that makes it all worth it and this was one of mine. My eyes began to tear up, as they are now, as I type this and I took a breath and was just in awe of her new found realization that I had known all along. It’s an incredible moment when they realize it too! I felt strongly about telling this story, because that is what these Episcopal camps do, and do well, I might add. All this is to say, that if you haven’t considered looking into one of these for your child, I highly recommend it from the bottom of my heart.

We work hard to share these same enriching, life giving, inspiring messages with our children and youth right here at St. Alban’s! Next week, we are thrilled to be hosting VBS Compassion Camp: Changing the World with Lovingkindness for 27 children, Monday-Thursday from 9-11am. There is an amazing team of volunteers that we absolutely cannot do this without and I am thrilled to say we have more youth helping this year than ever before. Our goal is to share having Compassion all around us, for ourselves, for our neighbors, and for our world. Our stations include Bible Stories, Create & Play, Compassion In Action, and Recreation/Snack. Of course, the children’s favorite is usually Recreation/Snack, and we will do our best to make the others just as fun. It is our pleasure to share our hearts and provide them with lifelong messaging that will impact their lives. Please keep us in your prayers that each child receives these messages and is inspired! Thank you for your support!