I will start by saying, “I’m not much for musical movies”. But I wanted to see this one because it was about camp; and a Christian camp at that on Netflix. The movie is “A Week Away“.
Movie description: Nowhere left to go, Will Hawkins finds himself at camp for the first time. His instinct is to run, but he finds a friend, a father figure and even a girl who awakens his heart. Most of all, he finally finds a home.
He finds himself on a bus to church camp. This sounds SO much like many of the campers who come to our Ignite Partnership camps.
During the campfire scene, various people stand and say, “I don’t know much, but this much I do” and then go on to say something about another person at the campfire. As the camp director quotes his wife saying, “God is up to something. He is up to something good. He’s up to something amazing“. And, being a musical, after his daughter speaks, they break into the song, see click here; Our God is an Awesome God, in multiple harmonies and even a descant.
This reminds me a lot of our “Encouragement Fridays” at Widjiitiwin. On Friday mornings at 7:00 am, the staff gathered to encourage each other (as part of our daily staff prayer times). It went something like, “I have an encouragement for (insert camp name)” when they did something amazing for my cabin by helping me with devotions or took time out of their schedule to sit with a camper or helped run the silly campfire or gave their testimony or the leadership team did the dishes or so much more that happens at camp. These times are very meaningful for recognition of what someone has done, but also to let them know how much it meant to you for them to do it.
At the end of the summer we also take time to put each staffers name on a large piece of coloured Bristol board and the the rest of the staff take turns writing encouraging words to that person. I still have a bunch of the ones given to me over many years.
WHO will your words be an encouragement for today??
A Week Away was filmed at YMCA Camp Widjiwagan in Antioch, Tennessee, USA.
Meandering Moose 