By Marina Papafil, Camping Ministries Coordinator

We are thankful for another wonderful season of Our Metropolis Summer Camp at Camp Nazareth! This year’s theme was Where To? “Our help is in the name of the Lord, who made heaven and earth.” Psalm 124:8

Progressing off of last year’s theme and where we left off with our campers, we focused on the journey back to the Father’s house, the Church. Our curriculum team integrated the Psalms of ascent into various parts of the week as we took our daily themes from these Psalms and framed different aspects of them during our journey:

• Monday - The Acknowledgment of the need to leave;
• Tuesday - The Mapping out and Embarking on our first steps;
• Wednesday - The Persistence or Perseverance to continue as we fatigue due to the journey’s length;
• Thursday - The Encounter as we arrive at our destination (focusing on our elation of completing the journey and the joy as we experience the Father’s House);
• Friday – The Departure back to the world. Being in the world (but not of the world), we return to our daily lives, but still carry with us the experience of the Father’s house. We make more in our daily lives the joyful reality of the Church.

We were joined by some dynamic Clergy, seminarians, and our Y2AM Director Alyssa Kyritsis this summer, who all helped deliver these important messages to our campers.

Overall we had 340 campers this summer! While our total count was down from 2019, we enjoyed a great increase of campers from the last two years. We especially enjoyed having our JOY campers back with us on-site, after having hosted two summers of online camp with them. We maintained our grade breakdown for each week and continue to see the benefits of that model. We were able to carry out a specialized evening program for our 10th-12th graders Week 4, that touched different elements of the curriculum and spoke to challenges they are facing now, as well as in the next stage of their lives.

Week 3, our 7th-9th graders was our biggest week of Camp with 130 campers in total. We were also blessed with 44 young adults who made up our dedicated cabin and administrative staff, along with 24 support staff and Clergy.
Our campers were happy to be back to an (almost) normal program, and we loved having them! Our days were filled with faith, while attending church and Orthodox Life sessions, fun, with various activities, games, clinics and Olympics, and community, as friendships were formed and bonds were strengthened.

Our campers continue to amaze us with their knowledge and thirst for our faith. It is a pleasure to have them with us each summer and watch them grow in their Orthodox faith!