June 16, 2023

I've had the joy of spending time with some of our younger Saint Annians at a smaller version of Summer Stretch this week!

For those who may not know, Summer Stretch is a day camp for kids K-8th grade that Saint Anne's had offered for a number of years before taking a three year hiatus due to COVID concerns. This year we brought it back on a smaller scale. The camp is centered around a well-known passage from Micah, Chapter 6:8: "What does the Lord require of you? To do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with your God." At Summer Stretch (the idea is to stretch our hearts and minds) we spend the week considering what that means, and practicing different ways to live it out. This week we visited a family shelter, an elder care center, picked up garbage at Minnehaha Falls, lived into the value of relaxing, and had some fun along the way!

One of my favorite parts of this week wasn't planned. While we were exploring the concept of Walk Humbly, we stretched yarn between our chairs: each person naming something they find sacred in the world (animals, places, elements, people), and holding onto the string before tossing it to someone else. This process created a "web" of string between us and gave us a visual of how we are all connected. When one part of the string was moved, the entire web would move. 

From there, "the web" took on a life of it's own. When Carolyn Swiszcz shared a sun catcher craft that included the option to draw the animals or elements named in our web activity, we decided to incorporate the sun catchers into the web. Soon a few strings of fairy lights were added, and rather than being removed at the end of our lesson, "the web" became a place that for the rest of the week the kids crawled into to rest, to reflect on their days, and to share their thoughts and ideas. Through the web, connections between us became more than connections. The web gave us a sanctuary within a sanctuary.

Thank you to RaeKell Lambert, Ramona Webb, Carolyn Swiszcz, and the Saint Anne's parents and kids who made this week a very special one!

My prayer for each of you is to find the connections between us and see them as sacred. My prayer for you is to find joy in all of the ways we are called to show up in the world to do justice and love kindness, and to find sanctuary in walking humbly with our God.