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