An excerpt from Days Filled with Sunshine: 100 Years of Camp Arcadia by Stephanie J. Jass
By Kristin Jass, 2012
“We live, in fact, in a world starved for solitude, silence, and privacy: and therefore starved for meditation and true friendship.”
C. S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory
Twenty years before the Lewis quote, the founders of Camp Arcadia realized it: people are starving for meditation and true friendship. And the hunger continues, which is why Camp Arcadia remains relevant all these years later. This is where our starving minds are fed, our thirsty hearts find water. This is where we discover and nurture true friendship with others and in our families.
So, in this God-drenched place . . . where we regularly meet angels, where the wisdom of teachers breaks like soaking rain over our parched souls, why do we need a new chapel? Why do we need a space dedicated to worship when the culture of Camp Arcadia encourages continual, authentic worship throughout our words and actions?
We welcome this chapel because it will become a focal point for so many aspects of worship and praise. We will bear witness to the cycle of Christian life in baptisms, weddings, and memorial services in this space. We will laugh and sing and hear music and play games in this space. We will pray and meditate—sometimes in solitude when our hearts are broken or yearning and sometimes as a joy-filled community—in this space. Can we predict all the ways this chapel will be used over the coming decades? Can we imagine the small and large miracles that will happen here?
No, but we know that at Camp Arcadia we find this precious balance: the ability to seamlessly meld the past with the present and to walk confidently into the future. What I think we can know with certainty is this chapel will be a sacred space, satisfying the hunger for meditation and friendship for us and generations to come.
One Response
True friendship. It comes with Christ at the center to ground and to cultivate, to sustain and to strengthen. What a friend we have in Jesus! The few times that I’ve had privilege to worship at the lakeside chapel, I’ve been uplifted beyond measure. May God bless all who made it happen, and God bless RKD forever!