disabilities | Pastor Partridge

Chaplain’s Blog – Day Eight

July 26, 2026

by John Partridge

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

Chaplain’s Blog – Day Five

July 23, 2026

by John Partridge

With all of our units in camp, the morning was more relaxed than the busyness of arrival day. I was once again up and moving by 6:30 am and headed for breakfast not long afterward. After breakfast we picked up our lunch selections and headed back to camp where didn’t do much other than being visible, present, and available for an hour or so. At that point, I took advantage of most troops being out of camp to take a shower. After that, Josh, my Chaplain’s Assistant and I walked over to the MASH hospital to have a chat with the the mental health team and make arrangements for a member of their team, Hannah, to meet us after an early dinner (at 4:00 pm) and escort them around our subcamp to meet all of our Scoutmasters.

Almost as soon as we had finished crisscrossing our camp and had met with nearly all of the troops and said goodbye to Hannah, we changed into our dress uniforms and headed for the main stage and the opening ceremony and concert. I walked over with our other chaplain’s assistant, Terry, and we chatted as we sat on the grass. But, after several sets of opening remarks, presentations, and a speech by the West Virginia Governor, Terry informed me that he was no longer able to sit on the ground, and we decided to head back to camp.

Once here, I once again thought my day was over, got out my laptop to type this blog entry, but once again, things did not go according to plan. Instead, I was interrupted by our Chief of Chaplains. At some point, one of our scouts with disabilities had a medical emergency and two of his friends, along with an adult aide, needed to return to camp but, being in a strange place, and unaccustomed to being out after dark, they were a bit panicked, and were unable to find their way back to their campsite. So, since our team was well aware of the needs of our disabled scouts, I enlisted the help of Sam, our head Commissioner, and the two of us escorted the two scouts and their adult leader back to their camp.

It doesn’t sound like I did all that much, but while my GPS watch says that I walked about ten and a half miles yesterday during arrival day, I still managed to walk nearly nine miles today.

Once again, let’s try to meet back here tomorrow.

Blessings,

Pastor John