I was very blessed to spend the last week at Camp Wingmann, serving as chaplain as I have done every summer since 2004. I always find that week to be among the very best weeks that I have every year for one simple reason. There are a lot of pieces that point to that one simple reason: great worship time, joyful music, the delight of watching children enjoy their time together under the mantle of learning more about their faith including prayer, watching the staff function and grow in their capacity for leadership. And, there’s lots of comfort food!

All of those point to the one thing. It is this: Camp Wingmann is what the Celtics would refer to as a “thin place,” where the veil between heaven and earth is thin. We are blessed anytime we get to visit such places. The Church of the Good Shepherd is one of those places.

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As many of you know, Deacon John and I are just back from a 10-day trip to the Holy Land. Our primary focus was on all of the places we went and the biblical history that had unfolded all around us and even under our feet.

We also ate different foods there. Israel has a Mediterranean diet, a lot like Greek food, and they are kosher. I knew a little about the kosher diet, no pork or shell fish, but it was quite different to be immersed in it. For example, Jews may not eat dairy products at the same meal with meat. Dairy is fine, just not with meat. So, there is a general rule in Israel. Everywhere we went there was no dairy in the evening and there was no meat at breakfast. Not only no bacon, or ham or pork sausage, of course, but there was no meat at all at breakfast. We adapted, but we missed bacon. One of our group actually texted me a picture of frying bacon the morning after we returned.

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The first time I experienced the power of the Holy Spirit, I was just a kid, 13 or 14 years old. I was at the home of Bill and Joanie Yates. (This was years before he became a priest. Bill and Joanie were young teachers and leading the youth group at All Saints in Lakeland.)

A friend had invited me to their youth group’s Bible study where things were quite different. We dug into the Bible, of course. And we sang a lot. But the thing that was really different was the way we prayed. I was used to praying. My parents taught us to pray at meal times and before we went to sleep. We went to church regularly so I was used to the liturgy and we’d pray in Sunday school.

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