When I woke up this morning, I really didn’t have a plan of what I intended to do and, as it often does, life filled in the vacuum. I thought that maybe I would take the time on a sunny unstructured Saturday to visit some of the booths and displays, especially those in the Faith and Beliefs area. But it was not to be. While I was at breakfast, I was greeted by one of the Catholic chaplains with whom I shared a tent at the 2019 World Jamboree and he asked that I take the time to speak with him when I was done eating. I did so, and the core of that discussion was that he had been having a conversation with a young man who was raised Brethren, was currently Methodist, and was exploring a call to ministry. The difficult wrinkle was that he was engaged to a Catholic girl and was wrestling with the possibility of becoming Catholic, though he understood that would mean that, being married, he could not consider a call to ministry.

My friend had advised him that he should never consider becoming Catholic if his motivation was to please his future wife or her family, but only if he was fully convinced of the truths held by that faith. In any case, we agreed to meet later that morning with another staff member, a Methodist lay person, who had also been counseling the same young person. Upon my return to camp, I met one of the folks from Mental Health who was working to assist one of our scouts with Autism so that he could be accommodated at the fishing merit badge area but that also meant that transportation would have to be arranged (and that can be difficult). After a visit with the young man and his father, and more discussions with Sam, our chief subcamp Commissioner, I headed back up the hill to my meeting outside the dining hall, both with my friend Bill (the priest) and the Methodist lay person, but I also ended up joining their ecumenical chaplain’s meeting (I think). With those conversations concluded, I returned to have lunch, after following up and finding that all had been arranged and coordinated for the trip to and from the fishing merit badge area.

After all that, I thought maybe I would still be able to head over to the other side of the lake to explore, but by then I was informed of a staff meeting that was being scheduled before dinner, but early enough to make a trip to Faith and Beliefs difficult. So, I took a short nap, read a little in my book, and waited for the meeting. But… while I was doing that, I was able to persuade one of our young adult staff to have a conversation with me. This young lady has been struggling (though I won’t say more than that here) and I have been trying to gain her trust. Our conversation was ultimately cut short so that we could attend the staff meeting, and after that we headed for dinner.

After dinner, several of us Chaplains (and Chaplain’s Assistants) met a new chaplain that arrived today for the second half of Jamboree (while we had earlier said goodby to one who had only been able to attend the first half). We held an impromptu commissioning service, laid on hands, and prayed over him before we all headed back to our own subcamps.

While more things happened “in the background” regarding several of the above items, not much else really happened this evening other than making plans to attend worship tomorrow, and me camping out and working on this blog while many of the scouts played music outside, traded patches, and generally had a good time.

I hope to see you all again here tomorrow.

Blessings,

Pastor John