Day Four dawned about the same as other days, but when I climbed out of my cot at 6:30 am I felt like I had overslept. I had not planned to sleep that late on such an important day. The camp was alive with activity because today was arrival day. Before the end of our day, forty seven scout units would arrive, unload their buses, set up their tents and their campsites, attend meetings, and get a lot of things organized before bed.
Our whiteboard counting down the arriving units.
Though it doesn’t always happen that way, this year, at first, the arrivals came slowly and I began to worry that we would, eventually, get slammed with many arriving at the same time. Later, while we did get very busy, sometimes with six or more buses unloading at the same time, we still managed. Our subcamp is not small, but even so, I lost track of how many times I walked back and forth escorting Scoutmasters to registration or troops to their campsites. I did take a short break to hop onto a Zoom meeting for a conference committee on which I serve, but since my presence wasn’t strictly required, and we were quite busy at the time, I didn’t stay in the meeting for very long. By dinner time we only had four or five units that had not arrived so I was told that it was safe for me to leave camp to eat.
At 8:00 pm I prayed before a planned meeting with all of the Scoutmasters, Senior Patrol Leaders, and our subcamp chiefs. As chaplains, we had asked that they bring their troop Chaplain’s Aide with them to this meeting as well and, after the opening prayer, we split them off and had our own meeting outlining some of the upcoming religious activities, a special Jamboree Chaplain’s Aide patch that they could earn, information about the Faith and Beliefs tents in the Jamboree activity area, and other religious information that we asked them to communicate to their troops. At the conclusion of our meeting we passed out Klondike bars and Bomb Pop popsicles.
Once that was done, I thought my day was pretty much over, until two scouts came into our office and told us that the youth female toilets weren’t flushing. And, since we always send two adults, I was asked to walk with one of our Commissioners to check it out. When we arrived, we asked one of the young ladies exiting the bathroom to clip of the chain showing that it was closed, and then we waited for everyone else to finish showering and doing what they needed to do. But, while we were waiting, the Adult women’s toilets stopped working, and then the Youth male toilets as well. There was much scrambling to accommodate everyone appropriately, and in the morning I learned that they had ultimately gotten a plumber out of bed to get everything fixed overnight well after I had gone to bed sometime after 11:00 pm.
After dinner I took some photos of our camp. As you can see if you compare the photos I took a day earlier, much has changed now that tents for two thousand people fill our camp.
Once again, today was not really that exciting, but it included a number of things that just needed to be done. I was up and moving by 6:30 am and at breakfast by 7:00. Not much really happened before lunch other than helping out in the subcamp office and wherever other light work was needed but since there wasn’t anything pressing going on, four of us made the trip to the other side of the camp to the Trading Post to buy a new necessities and souvenirs for ourselves and anyone that might need a thing or two.
After lunch, there was a chaplaincy meeting in which all of us were commissioned into our two weeks of mission and received several informational briefings. Following that meeting, we gathered for a group photo and then went to the dining hall for a larger meeting that included chaplains, mental health, and the Listening Ear folks (who are essentially lay counselors). By the time we left for our first meeting it was raining, and by the time we returned to camp folks were tying everything down in preparation for predicted thunderstorms and high winds (and currently a tornado watch).
Below is a panorama of our subcamp, taken from just in front of the dining hall. My tent is just below the tower that you see in the center right. Tomorrow is Arrival Day when 2000 scouts and leaders will be processed into our camp, set up tents, and populate our camp for their time at the jamboree. If the weather allows, tomorrow or the next day I will post this same view after their arrival. This may help you imagine what I mean when I say that we walk to the dining hall twice a day for breakfast and dinner (and pick up items for lunch after breakfast).
Delta Two Subcamp panorama before Arrival Day
As I write this evening, currently after 8:30pm, we are in our roofed pavilion waiting to see if the weather will become as bad as some of the forecasts and warnings have suggested that they might be. While none of us minds if it rains while we are in our tents, no one wants to have to scramble for shelter in their pajamas if the weather turns violent.
As always, let’s plan to meet here again tomorrow.
Day Two, Monday started about 6:30 am with breakfast by 7:00 and a subcamp staff meeting by 8:00 am. After that, with no designated chaplain type duties for the day, all of us pitched in to clean our twelve shower houses. Some rough cleaning had been done before our arrival, but all of them had to be swept out, hosed out, trash cans and trash bags put in, some scrubbing was still required, and plastic fence (kind of like snow fence or poultry fence) put around the perimeter so that scouts would not be tempted to shove a camera under the open bottom of the shower house. My role in this was to help put up shower curtains. Unlike previous jamboree’s, the bathroom and shower stalls now have individual steel doors. Unfortunately, as shown in the attached photo, some of those doors fall well short of closing the gaps, so we put up shower curtains to close the gap.
Mind the gap!
Even though most of that work was well in hand before lunch, by that time we had already started sweating through our shirts. We had, however, in a short time completed much of the work that was planned for the entire day. A few other tasks were scattered throughout the day, but the biggest challenge for the remainder of the day was to stay sufficiently hydrated and not get some kind of heat injury. It might not have been “Texas Hot’ but we spent a good part of the day under red or black flag conditions (over 90 degrees and high humidity). It was a relief when it finally started to cool down after dinner, and the air conditioning at the dining hall was fabulous for the short time we were there. We finished the day with another subcamp staff meeting covering what had been accomplished as well as introductions (since all of us are finally on site) and tasks that will need done tomorrow.
Tomorrow we will work to complete our preparations for the arrival of our scouts on Wednesday both in the subcamp and as chaplains. Chaplains will meet tomorrow as a group, and then with the medical and mental health staff.
Again, not a terribly eventful day, but we are one step closer to being ready for scouts on arrival day.
I have decided to make an attempt at posting daily, or as close as possible, updates to what I actually do as a chaplain at the National Scout Jamboree. Clearly, as a play on the Star Trek phrase “Captain’s Log” I am shamelessly naming this series, “Chaplain’s Blog.” In any case, today is my first official day at the Bechtel Summit in Glen Jean, West Virginia serving on the chaplain’s staff. Even so, my preparations started months ago in certifying or re-certifying a number of required trainings such as inclement weather, child protection, mental health, and a few others. For the last few days, I was retrieving camping supplies, cameras, flashlight, and other things that get put away around the house and at work when I am not at scout camp. Yesterday, I even spent an hour or two in the driveway replacing the electric drive on a rear window of my pickup truck and then cleaning out all the stuff that normally resides in the back seat but which I won’t need here.
So, this morning, although I had set my alarm for six, I was awake and moving by five-thirty. I did the usual Sunday things, shower, shave, etc., but then finished my final packing of my shaving kit and all of the chargers for my electronic devices (like phones and my cochlear implant). I had breakfast, picked up a soda, and loaded the truck by 8:30, and was joined by Josh (age 21) from our church’s Troop 50 who will serve as a Chaplain’s Assistant. We departed and headed for the Jamboree some time after 9:00, stopped at Subway for lunch south of Charleston, WV, and arrived here shortly before 2:00 pm. Then we waited in line for an hour or so at the Welcome Center to get our jamboree credentials and a few other things. The drive from registration to our subcamp (Delta Two) took us through the New River Gorge National Park but we were here in 20 minutes or so (it’s a *really* big camp).
We got our tent assignments, unloaded the truck, and then I drove to the far side of the camp to my assigned parking lot. Since I was one of the first to arrive at the distant overflow lot, it took a bit to figure out where we were supposed to be, but we got that sorted and then I hiked two or three miles back to my tent. But, just as I arrived (now it’s around 6:00 pm), the rest of the staff was leaving for dinner, so I hiked up the hill (another half mile or so) to the dining hall. By the time we were done eating, it was time to head over to the next subcamp over (Charlie Two) for the first of two offered Protestant worship services (there were also two offered Catholic services). Once that was over, we walked back to our tents and finally just sat, hydrated, and caught up on messages and social media.
So, now it’s after 10:00 pm and Day One is over.
I realize that this series isn’t likely be terribly exciting (but you never know), but I’m hoping that this will offer some insight as to what I do, and by extension what chaplains generally might do when we volunteer and sleep in tents for two weeks serving at the the National Jamboree. Hopefully, we will meet back here tomorrow.
Blessings,
Pastor John
PS. The photo above is my place of residence for the next two weeks.
Most of you know that I am involved in Scouting. I was a scout in my youth but did not pursue it the way that my two Eagle Scout brothers did but that doesn’t mean that I didn’t like it. I came back to scouting when our sons were old enough to join Cub Scouts, and I have remained active in scouting since then. And, once we came to Christ Church and the incredible leaders (and scouts) of Troop and Pack 50, I am once again, attending weekly and even joined them at scout camp last year.
Cold Showers and Tent Camping
But even so, some of you may not understand why I occasionally serve on the staff of the National Scout Jamboree or what it is that I do when I am there. At a fundamental level, from my earliest days of scouting as a youth, things like the Philmont Scout Ranch, other high adventure camps, the National Scout Jamboree, and the World Jamboree were unattainable, unaffordable, dreams. I left scouting too soon as a youth, but our family could not afford such a thing in any case. But, in 2015 or 2016, the United Methodist Men, who function as our denomination’s liaison with scouting, issued a plea for pastors to serve on the chaplain’s staff for the 2017 National Jamboree and I jumped at the chance to fulfill a truly “bucket list” item.
Was it primitive? Of course. It’s called scout “camp” and not scout “hotel” for a reason. But I camped with scouts in my youth, camped with my family on vacation both as a child and as a parent, camped in the military, camped at Annual Conference, and even camped on vacation. Camping doesn’t bother me. I *like* camping, even if the ice-cold showers are not my favorite thing. But what happened at the 2017 Jamboree, and every subsequent event of that kind, was so deeply worthwhile that I keep spending my own money to go back.
And yes, the staff pay to go to the Jamboree. Many of the scouts, and even leaders, assume that what they pay to attend covers the cost of the staff as well as the cost of the Jamboree itself. But no, the staff pays as much, or more, than the participants themselves. And, although there are repeated promises that the staff will get designated “days off” to attend some of the available activities, everyone knows that, while the intentions are good, there are rarely more than a few hours that we can sneak off to see some of the sights.
But What Do You Do?
Much like scout camp, the chaplains at the Jamboree fill several roles. Our primary responsibility, of course, is to being a spiritual leader. But at scout camp that doesn’t always look like what we do at church. We do, as a group, organize and officiate worship services for the staff as they arrive on Sunday evening, and then for the entire camp the following week, but with several dozen chaplains, many of them Protestant, I am unlikely to preach, although the Bishop serving West Virginia might be asked to say a few words at the Methodist worship service. At these services I have passed out music, offered prayer, assisted with the serving of communion, or shared a brief meditation.
During the week, chaplains take shifts so that someone is always on hand at the field hospitals to minister to both patients and doctors, as well as to work with mental health professionals if needed. Chaplains also help medical staff to watch for scouts who might be at risk for heat injury while sitting outdoors for hours at large events. Early in the week we will introduce ourselves to all the troop leadership in our subcamp (this year there will be 40 troops with approximately 2,000 scouts) so that they can call on us to talk with campers for everything from homesickness to a crisis at home such as divorce or the loss of a parent. We also have occasionally functioned as mediators between adults who can get a little frayed at the edges after a week or two of cold showers, lack of sleep, and herding cats.
But when we’re not doing chaplain things, our second (third?) role is to do whatever needs doing for the regular subcamp staff. We help to greet and guide troops on arrival day, when hundreds of Greyhound buses disgorge thousands of scouts in a handful of hours, and the reverse on departure day. In between, the logistics of overseeing two thousand scouts and 80 or 90 adult leaders can be formidable. This scout needs an escort to the medical tent, someone else needs the key to get their daily allotment of propane, another lost his identification, or needs directions, or other staff have done these things and they just need someone to staff the office (tent) while they are gone, or a thousand other things.
On the few hours during the week that I break away, or pass by traveling from one place to another, there are many interesting things to see and do in the merit badge tents, informational displays put on by environmental and conservation groups, military units, national parks, coal mining companies (it *is* in West Virginia after all), automobile manufacturers, the Rotary Club, and many others. I have, in different years, gone rock climbing, ziplining, mountain biking, watched Scottish Highland games, talked to someone in Colorado via Ham radio, and met wonderful people from every corner of our nation, Canada, and around the world.
Yes, I do have a little fun, but I also learn something every day, work from breakfast to bedtime, and am effectively the pastor of a small-town of two thousand people comprised mostly of young adults. I am thankful that Christ Church recognizes that this is not a vacation but simply ministry in a different location. By the end of these two weeks, I will be exhausted, sunburned, and a little dehydrated, but although every single day, and every jamboree is different, I will also be helping youth and adults to have an amazing experience. Without question, the work is hard, but it is also remarkably fulfilling and rewarding.
And that is why I spend two weeks outdoors, sleep in a tent, and take cold showers.
Thank you all for allowing me the opportunity to do this.
Merciful God,
Even though we are Scouts, we have not always acted honorably.
We have failed in our Duty to God, and we have not helped as we should.
We have not always obeyed the Scout Law.
We have broken our Oath to one another and to you.
Forgive us we pray.
Free us for joyful obedience through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.
Pardon
Hear the goodnews:
Jesus never said that we had to be perfect Scouts, or even Scouts at all, in order to be forgiven.
Jesus died for us while we were stil sinful and broken, and it is by his stregth and power through which we can be healed.
In the name of Jesus Christ, you are forgiven.
Let us repeat that and say it to one another:
In the name of Jesus Christ, you are forgiven.
Glory to God,
Amen.
Note: I wrote, and used, this for the Protestant worship service at the World Scout Jamboree on Sunday, July 28th,2019. Some portions borrow from, or are adapted for this purpose, from the Great Thanksgiving in the United Methodist Book of Worship.Did you enjoy reading this?Click here if you would like to subscribe to Pastor John’s weekly messages.Click hereto subscribe to Pastor John’s blog.
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It’s a good thing I brought my new boots.
Yesterday, my old boots (comfortable friends with lots of miles and one National Jamboree) fell apart (again). Thankfully, I had recently purchased a new pair (with Patti Partridge ‘s help and a gift from my Mama) and broke them in over the last couple of weeks. So yesterday, even though it rained all day (with a few short breaks) and all night last night, my feet stayed dry throughout the chaos of welcoming 38 or so troops from around the world.
Our subcamp staff is nothing short of amazing. Of the 24 of us, only five are American, four (I think) are from the UK, one from Australia, one from Canada, and the rest from non-English speaking countries from around the world. We were able to greet almost every troop in their own language. As well, the flexibility and patience exhibited by the troops, even after traveling great distances, and being on buses for sometimes eight to ten hours (or more) has been incredible.
Today, all these young people are exploring, meeting one another, playing games together, and shaping a new world. Sure, it’s hot, wet, dirty work but maybe these young people can go home and tell others that the world *can* live together in peace.
Yes, we’re all having a great time.
But our hope is that we’re changing the world and moving us all toward a better future at the same time.
Isn’t that worth a few muddy boots?
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Several of my Facebook friends have been stirred up over the news that the Boy Scouts of America would now be accepting girls into the Cub Scouts and allow girls to earn the Eagle award. Relax folks.
You need to know the facts.
First, this isn’t new. Remember that The Boy Scouts of America, is the United States branch of an organization that exists in over 190 countries. The BSA itself consists of several organizations: Cub Scouts, Boy Scouts, Venturing, Explorers, Sea Scouts and also the STEM Scout pilot program. All of these, except Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts have admitted girls as young as eleven years old, since around 1971.
Second, as an international organization, the Boy Scouts have allowed girls in both Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts in nearly every country on the planet except for the United States and a few other countries, most of which are predominantly Muslim. That’s why international events like the Scout Jamboree and the World Jamboree have had female participants for decades and the camps they use are already fully equipped, and staffed, to support them.
That bring us up to date as we consider the recent announcement and change to BSA policy. Let’s take a look at what the announcement actually says:
Hispanic and Asian communities prefer to participate in activities as a family. Recent surveys of parents not involved with scouting showed high interest in getting their daughters signed up for programs like Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts.
That’s a significant motivation to be racially inclusive and, frankly to be good citizens, as well as a good idea for an organization that has been shrinking as busy families have less time to join any kind of club. The same struggle is seen in music, sports, and theater programs at schools as well as all sorts of community groups and clubs.
Starting in 2018, families can choose to sign up their sons and daughters for Cub Scouts. Existing packs may choose to establish a new girl pack, establish a pack that consists of girl dens and boy dens or remain an all-boy pack. Cub Scout dens will be single-gender — all boys or all girls.
The control of implementing this is completely local. If your pack doesn’t want females, or if you simply don’t have the female volunteers to properly supervise the addition of girls, then don’t. But even if you do, the girls and the boys will belong to separate dens and will only be together at Pack meeting when all of the leaders, male and female, are present. And remember, Cub Scouts don’t have camp-outs unless their parents are with them, and scouts never share a tent with an adult, unless that adult is a parent.
BSA will also deliver a program for older girls, which is projected to be available in 2019, that will enable them to earn the Eagle Scout rank. This unique approach allows the organization to maintain the integrity of the single gender model while also meeting the needs of today’s families.
Read that again. They did not say that girls will join the Boy Scouts. What they said was that they are developing a program that will make the Eagle rank, and presumably, merit badges, etc., available to girls. That does not say that girls will be integrated with the boys, but instead emphases that they want to “maintain the integrity of the single gender model.” How they intend to accomplish that has yet to be explained, but there’s nothing here that seems worth getting upset about.
So relax.
I’m a pretty conservative parent of boys and a girl. I was involved in scouting as a boy and I have been active in scouting since my boys were in grade school and joined Cub Scouts. I attended this year’s Boy Scout Jamboree, and I saw plenty of female Venturers, as well as female international scouts. As a chaplain, I was pretty plugged-in to the news of what was happening across the camp. And as far as I know, there were zero problems that arose because both genders were present.
Honestly, I think that this is a good step. It makes a premier program of leadership development available to girls who will hold important positions of responsibility in our industry, our culture and our society. And, as described, it will take nothing away from the boys. Why would we rob half of our children, and ourselves, of this opportunity?
I just spent two weeks living in a tent, sleeping on a cot, walking farther than I have in
Our home away from home.
decades, taking really cold showers, and I probably had one of the best times of my life doing it. For two weeks in July, I served as a chaplain, along with about 76 other pastors (including just about every denomination and faith you can name), at the National Boy Scout Jamboree which is held every four years at the Summit Bechtel Reserve in Glen Jean, West Virginia. While many people have heard about the Jamboree, many have questions about what a chaplain does and why the Boy Scouts would need so many of them for a single event. Honestly, I
The chaplains of the 2017 National Scout Jamboree (photo by Father Senic Cirera, San Mateo, California)
asked myself the same questions before I went, and while some of the answers are simple, others take a little more explaining.
The easiest question to answer is why the Jamboree would need almost eighty chaplains. Simply put, scouting has always regarded the spiritual life of its members to be an important value regardless of faith and with something over 28,000 scouts and 6,000 staff converging on the Summit for two weeks, this small city needed trained pastors to provide spiritual care. As a member of a sub-camp staff, my tent-mate Michael Lavoi (a Mormon chaplain) and I were responsible for a “congregation” of more than 20 sub-camp staff as well as 2,000 scouts and their adult leaders. As staff members, we helped out in registration during the busy arrival day, helping to carry mail, or wherever an extra hand was needed. And, although the first few days were easy from a pastoral perspective, after everyone started getting tired we were called upon to help scouts, and adult scout leaders, mediate personal conflicts. There were young people who were homesick, some that were in fights, leaders who knew about a death in the family of one of their scouts but whose family asked that they not be told, there were threats of suicide, thefts (yes, it happens even in the Boy Scouts), and everything else that happens when people live together.
But that isn’t all we did. Chaplains took turns working shifts in the basecamp medical center so that one of us was either present or on call so that we could encourage the doctors and nurses but also to be on hand to provide comfort to scouts who were sick or injured. We took turns offering worship opportunities, not only on Sunday, but every morning or afternoon. Each scout had the opportunity to earn a special “Duty to God and Country” patch during the jamboree, and one of the requirements to earn it was to meet with their chaplain and talk about what their “duty to God” might look like in every day life. That meant that many of our daily “office hours” as well as our evenings were spent meeting with individual scouts, or entire troops, to discuss subjects of religious significance. Often, as we met with these young people, and shared meals with them, they asked other substantive questions about God, religion, faith, and other things.
Of course there was worship. The first Sunday we were there, before the scouts
arrived, we held a Protestant service in the back of the dining hall and had somewhere between 300 and 600 staff in attendance. A week later, the Protestant service was held in the stadium and, while we met in the pouring rain, there were still
Left to Right, Bishop Sandra Steiner Ball (West Virginia Annual Conference), Rev. John Partridge (East Ohio Annual Conference), Scout Mark Dyer Jr. (Peninsula-Delaware Annual Conference) Photo by Deborah Coble, West Virginia Annual Conference
probably two or three thousand in attendance. Afterward, the United Methodist chaplains hosted a communion service (open to everyone) on Brownsea Island near
the stadium. That service, officiated by West Virginia Area Bishop Sandra Steiner Ball, was attended by 200 or more and the communion elements were served by the 15
United Methodist chaplains alongside United Methodist scouts who had volunteered to help. As I returned to my tent from our communion service, I noticed that the rain had finally stopped, and that may have contributed to the increased attendance (probably 5000 or more) at the Catholic worship service which followed ours at the stadium.
It’s worth noting that the Summit is enormous and covers 14,000 acres and adjoins 70,000 acres of National Park Service land in the New River Gorge National Park. That means that nothing is close to anything else. A walk to the bathroom is a quarter mile round trip. A visit to the medical tent is a mile. A trip to the stadium or to the chaplains’ headquarters can be two miles one way, and if you hike up to the top of Garden Ground Mountain to visit the Scottish games or the pioneer village, its at least three miles, all up hill, one way. Over the course of two weeks, I walked about 75 miles and my partner, Michael, had hiked well over 100 miles.
But being a chaplain isn’t all work. In two weeks you have the opportunity to live with, and share your life with, your fellow staff members. Some of these scouters return every four years and request the same arrangements so that they can work together again. There’s a chance to encourage young people and to build relationships with people of other faiths, and people from other states and other countries. Not only was the jamboree attended by participants and staff from all 50 states, but also from 58 other nations. Our leadership tried hard to make sure that staff members could get some time off and see some of the activities in and around the Summit, and although there isn’t enough time to see everything, as you visit you find yourself among young people from around the world. While I didn’t get a chance to ride the half mile long zip line (the “Big Zip”), I did get a chance to climb a rock wall, navigate the treetop high ROPES course, and ride through all of the mountain bike courses.
Remember that while the Boy Scouts in the United States is mostly for boys, ours is one of the only countries where that is true. All of the international troops are coed, as are the older youth from the Venturing, Explorers, and Sea Scout programs in the United States. And so, while I was invited to participate by the United Methodist Men, whose office includes our official United Methodist scouting representative, there is a desperate need for female chaplains as well. Out of all the chaplains present, only one was female and, since our denomination is one of the few who ordain female clergy, the United Methodist Church has the opportunity to fill this need. Chaplains and other staffers at the Jamboree ranged in age from their 20’s up to well into their 80’s.
My two weeks at the Jamboree were probably some of the hardest and yet some of the most rewarding, and fun, that I have ever had. They are indeed, memories that will last a lifetime. But the next Jamboree is in four years and the United States will host the World Jamboree at the Summit in two years. Whether you are clergy or laity, male or female, young or old, you have gifts and skills that can be used to encourage and bless the next generation of young people from around the world.
Pastor Partridge 