| Search PNC News for stories of people and churches in our UCC Conference: |
|---|
PNC camps gear up for 2013 retreat and camping sessions
Mark Boyd, managing director of N-Sid-Sen, is keeping the camp and conference center visible through regular entries on Facebook.
 |
N-Sid Sen has a new dock. |
Deeg Nelson, managing director at Pilgrim Firs, begins plan for a sabbatical from March through May. His goal during that time is to study how camping is changing and how to keep “ahead of the curve.”
He will be interviewing people in the conference on their perspectives and will visit UCC camps involved with incorporating “green” elements in Minnesota and Wisconsin, plus one in Texas.
With the Outdoor Ministries Committee, both have recruited camp directors for the 2013 season and begin plans with them for content under the theme, “All Things New.”
Boyd said the focus will be on “new experiences to enjoy” and coming with a “clean slate upon which to begin with new and old friends” and bring “new perspectives into their lives.
 |
Kendall Crane from Admiral UCC stands in the peace sign at the top of the Peace Garden at Pilgrim Firs. Photo courtesy of Deeg Nelson |
“As they join other campers and their counselors in seeking God, they will discover or be reminded that God is with them in each moment,” Boyd said.
“They will also learn that new friends and new adventures can offer a different perspective and God will continue to do a new thing in all of us, both individually and collectively,” he said.
Nelson said work began last summer at Pilgrim Firs for developing its “Peace Garden,” which will go from an 80-foot-diameter peace sign above Huckleberry House Lodge. At first, the garden will provide low-maintenance root vegetables with fruit trees along the edges for food to use for camps and for local hunger programs.
2013 retreats & camps at N-Sid-Sen:Junior & Senior High Midwinter Retreat Women’s Retreat Leadership Retreat Work Camp - June 17-22 Young Adult Camp Intermediate Camp Kid’s Camp - July 7-10 Senior High Aqua Camp July 14-20 Family Camp #1 Junior High Aqua CampAug. 4-10 Family Camp #2 For information, |
2013 retreats & camps at Pilgrim FirsGLBT Spiritual Renewal Retreat
Kids Camp Family Camp Environmental Justice Retreat For information, |
“It is a cooperative venture with Sidney Glenn Elementary School a few blocks away and the Kitsap Food Bank,” Nelson said.
The project underway now is to build a fence to keep out rabbits and deer. Nelson said that the garden will include a sundial and benches so it can be a place people can come to meditate.
Most of the “construction phase” for the garden will be done by campers, beginning with junior and senior high camps last summer and running through summer 2013.
Long-time counselors and campers Jason Wilkes-Sikkel and Boone Davidson are the site coordinators for the project.
Nelson anticipates the garden space should be cleared and ready to plant in spring 2014. As groups and camps come in between now and then, they will work on the garden as a service project.
Out of three trainings of the Environmental Justice Center at Pilgrim Firs, there are trainings scheduled in Connecticut, Wisconsin, Florida and Ohio, he reported.
“We anticipate that now we will do one training each year,” he said.
Pilgrim Firs continues with the building insulation projects, and Nelson hopes to gain ideas for new technologies during his sabbatical.
Copyright February 2013 © Pacific Northwest Conference United Church News
Share this article on your favorite social media 