Well, today was an easy day… sort of. I was up, as usual, a bit after 6:00 am, showered, shaved, and headed to breakfast. After that, I put on my dress uniform, waited for a while, and then left for church around 9:30 am. I arrived a bit early because even though I wasn’t personally involved in anything up front, I correctly guessed that they would ask the Methodist pastors to participate in serving the communion elements at the end. In preparation for that, I had also asked a couple of the Chaplain’s Aides from our subcamp to be ready to assist as well.

The worship service was nice and the message was good. Bishop Debra Wallace-Padgett from the West Virginia Annual Conference presided over communion and I spoke with her briefly both before and afterwards. I was assisted in serving communion by one of the scouts with Down’s Syndrome and he was not only thrilled to help, but did a great job as well. During my conversation with his leaders I found that he had accidentally lost the small form we had passed out at the Chaplain’s Aide meeting a few days prior, and he needed a new copy so that he could earn the special Jamboree Chaplain’s Aide patch. So, later that day, I stopped by their troop campsite and dropped off a new copy for him and a spare for his leaders.

Several conversations happened throughout the day with both our subcamp leadership and with the young woman that I mentioned had been struggling. At least one of those conversations seems to have made a difference and we seem to be moving in a positive direction. I have some plans for tomorrow or the next day that, I hope, will also move us in a positive direction.

Finally, our day concluded with a doozy of a fireworks display that lasted *much* longer than I expected, particularly when they have already notified us that the *big* fireworks display will be after the closing ceremony on Thursday.

In any case, let’s meet here again tomorrow.

Blessings,

Pastor John