Recently I have often found myself reading things written before the pandemic. Watching TV shows from years past. Talking about the way things were done in “non-Covid times.” And I keep asking myself – what about now? What about in these times, today, in the current moment of all that it isn’t and all that it is. How does this apply now? What about now?

This summer at Ferncliff we learned a lot of lessons about staying in the now. Running day camp, overnight camp, mission team, and guest group programs during a pandemic is a lot about the now. Many aspects of camp life had to be adapted to work now rather than how we’d done them in the past. And the now keeps changing. Gone are the days of finalizing decisions long before – things keep changing up until the very moment and nothing is final until it’s right now.

Staying in the now meant we focused in on our campers. Our youth. We focused on their needs – in the now. Sometimes it was filling up their water bottles. Sometimes it was reminding them about their swim towel. Sometimes it was a band-aid. Sometimes it was slowly easing their anxiety about not having been around people for 15 months. Whatever they needed – now.

Our summer staff worked their tails off staying in the now. They adapted. They played many roles and wore many hats. They switched between washing dishes to lifeguarding at the pool to taking photos of Arts & Crafts to setting up Capture the Chicken –  because it was needed right now. They got to know each individual camper, what they looked forward to, their favorite game, and what made them most excited to be at camp now. Each day was something different, some new challenge, some new answer to the question – so what about now?

It’s been a couple weeks since camp ended and I find myself asking more and more – so what about now?

I got ordained to the Ministry of Word and Sacrament a week or so ago. In the Presbyterian Church (USA), the path to ordination is at least a three-year process, with years in “Inquiry” and “Candidacy,” examinations in knowledge of Bible, Theology, Worship, and Polity, and quite a few rounds of committee and presbytery examinations and votes. I started the process in 2015 and have been taking steps along the way for…wow…six years now. With all that time in the process, I never actually spent any time thinking about what would change when I finished it – so what about now?

The pandemic has brought a lot of us to new awareness of the now. Changing guidance. Masks, no masks, masks. One, two, three vaccine shots. Back to school, back to work, quarantine, back to virtual. It’s all about the now. What can we do now? What can’t we do now? What works now? So what about now?

It’s quiet at Ferncliff – for now. Nature Preschool has kicked off for the school year and they’re looking forward to engaging a whole new round of students in the incredible nature here at Ferncliff. Conference and Retreat Groups are slowly returning – more and more as the weather cools off from the heat of summer. We take time to put away all the lifejackets and fishing poles and gaga balls from camp. We ask ourselves, and you – so what about now?

 

Rev. Jocelyn Wildhack is our Chaplain and Camp Director. She is now ordained as a minister in the Presbyterian Church (USA).

We’re getting pretty good at hosting events that meet the needs of the now – outdoors/indoors, socially-distanced/pods, masked, etc. If you’d like to have an event at Ferncliff, call our office or contact martha@ferncliff.org.

If you’d like to watch Jocelyn’s ordination service now – click here.