Youth retreat to Whidbey Island, make new friends

The numbers couldn't have worked out more perfectly: ten youth from St. Thomas, ten from St. Mark's Cathedral. We set out through rain and traffic Friday evening and even got separated onto two different ferries. But eventually, we all made it to Camp Casey on Whidbey Island.

The St. Mark's youth, under the able leadership of Children & Youth Director Cindy Spencer, do this retreat every single year. This is the third time St. Thomas youth have joined them to make a special effort at building new friendships. We had a young bunch this year: one sophomore, two freshmen, and a host of middle schoolers.

This particular retreat is not meant to be intense. It's time away, time for recharging and refreshing. More than once I heard a youth say, "I'm bored!" I think this really means, "I'm slowing down for the first time since Christmas, and I don't know how to handle it!" I get that way too. A little boredom is sometimes necessary before we can get used to the fact that we are human beings, not "human doings."

That's not to say we did nothing, of course! We cooked our own meals and cleaned up after ourselves. We walked on the beach in the rain and chose rocks with which to build an altar. We played lots of board games, card games, and basketball games, we did the Limbo, and we watched a movie or two.


But perhaps the highlight for most of us was our time playing at Fort Casey. This fort was built to be used in the event of a foreign invasion from the East that, of course, never occurred. It was decommissioned decades ago, and the military barracks that make up Camp Casey are now owned and operated by Seattle Pacific University. Fort Casey has everything you'd expect: giant stone structures built into the grounds, battlements, and dark rooms that are great for playing Sardines, or The Hunter and the Hunted.

On Sunday morning, we shared Morning Prayer. We sang songs together and heard the Gospel account of Jesus' Transfiguration on the mountaintop. Instead of a sermon, we each drew our own "transfigured selves," and then we worked together to design a "Transfigured Person." We came away Sunday afternoon having learned that God wants us to keep becoming more like ourselves ... the people we are when we feel truly alive. May God be with us all as we come down from the mountaintop of Camp Casey, back into the world we know so well.

My special thanks go out to Cindy and Heath Spencer, Sunni Bannon, and my wife Christy and daughter Sarah, who shared the weekend with us.

- Josh Hosler