Camp brings kids from
three
faiths together
Aug. 7, 2002
By Neill
Caldwell*
GLENDALE SPRINGS, N.C. (UMNS) -- The sign at the entrance
to
Elk Shoals
United
Methodist Camp reads "God's County," and this
month a
unique kind of camp
experience set about proving it.
The
children of
Abraham -- Jewish, Muslim and Christian -- gathered in the
first week
of
August where the New River slices through the mountains of
northwestern
North
Carolina.
For a week, 30 boys -- Christians from Watauga, Ashe and
Wilkes
counties,
Jews from Charlotte and Muslims from the Greensboro area --
sat
around the
campfire, went tubing and fishing, listened to "Jack tales"
and
did all the
typical summer camp activities.
The unusual part of
this
first-ever Interfaith Camp was that these children
normally don't spend
a lot
of recreation time with kids from other faiths.
Campers were grouped
into
three teams -- by toothbrush color so that the
boys would not segregate
themselves into their own faith groups. From the
start, the youngsters
began
learning about the differences and similarities
between the three
monotheistic faiths. But mostly they learned how easy it
is to be
together.
For the Rev. Pete Parish, Elk Shoals camp director, being
surrounded by
running, playing children of different faiths was
something of
a dream come
true. "When I was first employed by the camp, I knew we
had to
have some
innovative programming or improve the programming that was
already
here,"
said the United Methodist pastor, who also serves the four-point
Helton
(N.C.) Charge.
A native of England, Parish toyed with the
idea
of bringing in Protestant
and Catholic kids from Northern Ireland. But
once
the tragedy of Sept. 11
happened, he began developing a new
idea.
"I
said, 'Wouldn't it be great to bring Christian, Muslim and Jewish
kids
together, before the hate is indoctrinated into them?' We've got
to stop
the
next generation from being tainted with the bigotry and prejudice
that
our
parents fed us."
Parish connected with Shaiq Mohammad,
president
of the Islamic Center of
Greensboro. Mohammed immediately committed to
making
the camp a success.
"Pete planted the seed, and all I am doing is
watering it," Mohammad said.
"But you brought a big bucket," Parish
added.
Parish then connected with Rabbi Murray Ezring of Temple
Israel
in
Charlotte, who quickly committed to recruiting a group of Jewish
boys.
"This
is the height of what being Jewish is all about, which is
bringing
people
together," Ezring said.
"Part of the conference's master
plan
for camps is to develop new and
different camps," said the Rev. Jack
Porter
of Dana United Methodist Church
in Hendersonville, one of the week's
volunteer counselors and formerly
director of camping ministries for
the
Western North Carolina Annual
Conference. "This is a great example of
that,
to see kids becoming more
sensitive to differences and being willing to
tolerate them. We're finding
friends we never even knew we
had."
The
most difficult part of the camp was conforming to the
dietary
restrictions of
the Jewish and Muslim campers. Ezring helped get the kitchen
kosher,
even
bringing in kosher hot dogs and marshmallows, summer camp
staples in
any
faith.
"One day a young man said he wanted bacon," Ezring said,
"but we
can't do it
because we have to keep kosher. 'That's OK,' he said, 'I
can do
without my
bacon this week.'"
Money was raised -- and is still
being
raised, Parish said -- so that
children could attend without worrying
about
the cost of camp. The office of
Bishop Charlene Kammerer in Charlotte,
N.C.,
donated $6,500, more than half
the project's budget.
"The
logistics
have been hard work, but it's all been worth it," Parish
said. "There
has
been a lot of faith sharing, even among the adults. There's
more in
common
between our faiths than you might think. These are not
'stand-alone'
religions but are continuations of the same divine message."
"Our
basic
beliefs are so similar," Porter said. "You know that, but
experiencing
it
first-hand is very different."
"We're all on a journey to God, or
Allah,
and sometimes things get in the
way," Parish told the campers. "The
only way
to get through our prejudices,
our preconceived notions, is with help."
That
point was brought home in
practical application on the camp's ropes
course,
where Parish had hooked
bungee cords together to form a huge spider
web. The
goal of the exercise
was to get every boy from one side to the other
without
touching one of the
cords. The campers soon learned that the only way
to do
that was to pick a
person up and pass him horizontally through one of
the
small openings. Soon
the youngsters were literally placing themselves
in one
another's hands.
"What did you learn?" Parish asked when the last
one had
been handed through
the web.
"Work together," one boy
offered.
"Don't let go!" said another.
"Right," said Parish.
"Never let go of your brother. You have to learn that
to get anywhere
in life
you have to rely on one another."
Perhaps the best learning time
came
when the kids gathered for
question-and-answer sessions. Campers placed
questions into a box during the
day, and the questions were later
pulled out
and discussed. Questions were
typical of what kids want to know about
other
cultures: "Why do Muslims pray
without shoes?" "Do Jewish and Christian
kids
have to wash their faces
before praying?" and "Do Muslims have a
version of
the Ten Commandments?"
"For 9-, 10- and 11-year-olds, there were
some
pretty thought-provoking
questions," said the Rev. Doug Pryor of
Central
Terrace United Methodist
Camp in Winston-Salem, N.C., another of the
counselors.
"We had a discussion about war," said Porter, "and
someone
said that he
wished we wouldn't have any more wars. Someone else said
that if
we kept
doing things like this camp, we won't."
"We've had some
good
discussion about our belief systems," Mohammad said.
"Some were
surprised to
learn the strong similarities. We're learning every
step of the
way."
"I've learned more about Islam here than when I lived in
Afghanistan," said
Pryor, who served in Afghanistan with the Peace
Corps.
"The love of Christ encompasses all people and overcomes all
things," Parish
said. "You have to understand that we have three faiths
here
which have a
respect for Jesus, which believe in a Messiah and believe
that
good will
triumph over evil."
Campers experienced worship of all
three
faiths, going to one of Parish's
churches, Helton United Methodist
Church, on
Sunday morning. Follow-up
events will be held during the school year;
one
family in Charlotte wants to
invite all the campers to attend their
son's bar
mitzvah, and Mohammad says
the Greensboro Islamic Center will also host
an
event for the boys.
Parish wants to invite the same boys back for
camp
each year "so we can
watch them grow up."
Camper David Klein of
Temple
Beth El in Charlotte described the camp as
"awesome."
"It's a
good
thing to do," Klein said. "I'm learning a lot of new things,
especially
about
Muslims."
"These groups are supposed to be afraid of each other,"
Ezring
said, "and
look at them. They're bosom buddies."
"The greatest
success
of this camp is that Christian and Muslim kids have
felt comfortable
talking
to me, and my kids have felt comfortable talking to
Peter and Shafiq,"
Ezring
added. "We're building trust. The kids sense that
we care about them
both as
a group and as individuals."
"The kids have also felt very
comfortable
interacting with each other,"
added Mohammad, "and with respect for the
other
groups."
Examples of unity abound. Some of the kids joined together
to
paint a huge
mural with messages and images of understanding. Mohammed
Abdelrazig, age 9,
decided to write the word "peace" in English, Arabic
and
Hebrew.
By midweek, some of the Christian and Jewish youngsters
were
learning about
Muslim prayer time by participating in the Islamic
prayers.
The image of
that was powerful. "I've felt God so closely here this
week,"
Parish said.
"Well," Ezring responded, "we're in God's
country."
#
# #
*Caldwell is a journalist residing in Lincolnton,
N.C.
News
media contact: Linda Green7(615)742-54707Nashville,
Tenn.
10-71BP{349)
*************************************
United
Methodist News Service
Photos and stories also available at:
http://umns.umc.org
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