Each new month that we are still at home and limiting our exposure brings new changes and emotions. I’m experiencing a new sort of weirdness now. It was weird to not be able to see friends, go out to eat, or swing by Marshalls on my days off. As April began, it was weird to have missed so many church events… the dress drive, Saturday breakfasts, and other fundraisers. As I sat in my office a month ago and looked at everything that was probably going to be scratched out in my calendar, it was weird to think of a summer not filled with bus adventures, youth, kids, and an absurd amount of Little Debbies.
Now as we wrap up the month of May, the reality that Camp HoriSon won’t be happening is just now setting in for me. For 12 years we have had a church bursting with smiles, laughter, and joy as we have hosted 60 – 100 campers here at Poplar Springs. Plans were already finalized, field trips booked, and curriculum created. All of the weirdness, now that the summer changes are official, has turned to grief and sadness. It is a great loss for me as I know it is for many of you, your youth, and your kids.
We’ve all experienced loss over the last few months. Some of us have had to say goodbye to family members without a church full of friends to support us. Some of us have had to end our time at Elementary School, Middle School, High School, and college without saying goodbye and to wrap up our time accordingly. Among so much emotional loss, some of us have had to grieve financial loss as well.
In a time when we are vulnerable… a time when we are sad, angry, devastated… may we gather the strength to lift our losses up to the one who knows them each by name and who feels the pain of each one just as much as we do. May we look onward with hope that God will eventually bring us out of this time and restore us… having refined us through the test of the fire and readied us for the battles ahead.
Nicole Hamrick