God Help the Outcasts

Today at Eighter’s Camp, we not only learned about the Fabulous Female, but we also started discussions of societal outcasts. The kids were immersed in scripture and asked to imagine what it must have been like for Mary to have a message from an angel about her conception of Jesus, and then to have to endure a pregnancy knowing this and living with the judgment of society. She must have endured at the very least, some ostracism.

This allowed us to lead them into conversations about today’s outcasts, who they are, how and why they are treated as outcasts and how we, as Christians, respond. How do we respond? How should we? These are intriguing conversations. As suspected, media often contributes to our cultural understandings. When you’ve watched the media discuss issues around immigration and start to verbalize what you’ve heard in the presence of a new friend…a friend whom you’ve laughed with and played basketball with and with whom you can now appreciate as such a special person…and realize this friend is uniquely affected by these conversations. This is when you begin to really understand what it must mean to be an outcast…when you watch a friend come to tears speaking about what they experience in the outside world, it makes you a little more sensitive about issues.

Watching the growth of these young ones, within just a few short days, never ceases to amaze me. At camp, their world shrinks. Without the influences of technology, social media and their peers, they are forced to look at one another and practice a little empathy. But, it’s not hard to get them to do this. We don’t have to coerce them into practicing compassion and mercy with one another. It really does happen naturally. It truly is a part of who they are. All we’ve managed to do in this short period of time, in this patch of land in the middle of nowhere, is to show them how to make room for God. The rest must come directly from above.

I’m so glad I can be a part of all of this.

Blessings,

Tracy