The Tragedy of Camp Mystic

 

                                  Camp Mystic Texas cabin after the flood of July 4, 2025

Almost exactly a year ago heavy rains and catastrophic flooding occurred in Texas Hill Country. This was one of the deadliest storms in US history and nearly 140 people died . 

Amongst those who perished were 28 campers and staff members from Camp Mystic, a Christian summer camp which would have celebrated its 100th anniversary this year. The meandering Guadalupe River turned into a raging torrent and swept away many of the young girls in the lower lying cabins. 

In April there were hearings into what went wrong at Camp Mystic and last week a report from the Texas Legislature concluded that the camp did not have written emergency ​evacuation ⁠plans and poorly trained its staff, Some of the parents of children who died testified in April and called for the closure of Camp Mystic and this week the camp filed for bankruptcy.

                                                               Camp Mystic in a happier time 

I have followed this story to a degree, perhaps because I worked at Christian camps in my youth and our children and grandchildren have attended them. We know what joyful, formative places they can be, including for faith. 

I have yet to hear anything about climate change as an intensifier of the storm. I don't know whether those who owned and supported the camp actually "believe" in climate change in a state where so many are deniers, including lots of conservative Christians.

There is a term "an act of God" to describe natural disasters but there is strong scientific consensus that climate change is disrupting weather patterns and that belief, one way or another has nothing to do with it. It is the scientific reality of human-caused climate chaos.

What happened at Camp Mystic was a tragedy and the families of the children who died deserve prayerful support. Perhaps closing the camp was the only possible outcome, bankruptcy or not. 

 It's hard to know if this will be a wake-up call regarding what we are doing to our planetary home. We can pray that politicians everywhere including here in Canada will come to their senses about the threat we face. God the Creator, help us all. 

"I Trust You" Prayer

 

“When you are praying, do not heap up empty phrases as the gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard because of their many words.  Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.

Matthew 6:7-8 NRSVue -- Jesus of Nazareth

Last evening I watched a short video that popped up in a social media featuring an aging woman I'd never heard of before. She was observing that she's spent a lifetime praying, often lengthy and earnest. In recent years she's realized that she's been telling God things she/he/they already knows, so why go into such detail? In this season of her life a three word prayer has become her go-to, "I trust you." The wisdom of this simple prayer really hit home.

This morning I cycled to visit two elderly people son Isaac asked me to see just once when he was away for few days because they are in Belleville hospital. I've continued to drop by over the past month or so because they're nearby, their stays have been extended, and I just like both of them. One is struggling with health complications, the other is on the way to a new home in another city nearer family. I shared the "I trust you" prayer with them and they both really like it. I began our concluding prayers with the words "we trust you" although I added some condiments particular to their situations.

As I was leaving I encountered the lovely midlife daughter of one of these persons who drives an hour each way to support her parent. I could tell she feels the weight of doing the right things in her role and so I shared this little prayer with her -- what did I have to lose? Her face lit up and she said "is that enough?" She commented that on her drive she prays but isn't always sure what to ask for or express. I told her that this prayer works for me and she said that she's going to start using it. 

We do make prayer complicated at times, or even give up praying because we are tongue-tied or weary or feel that we aren't being heard. We can certainly chose to offer more, but when we're tangled in life's weeds, a simple expression of trust may be sufficient. We have a lot of challenging circumstances in our lives at the moment so "I trust you" is going to get a regular workout. 

"Out of the Closet", Faithfully

 

This is Pride Month in Canada, an opportunity to acknowledge the challenges and accomplishments of the LGBTQ2S+ community across the country. We attended the regional event in Picton, a town in Prince Edward County and somewhat to our surprise there was a big turnout and a really celebratory vibe. I saw a long lineup of really...colourful...individuals at a food venue where the vendors were a Syrian once-refugee family we know, the two women dressed in black hijabs. I had to smile, proud that this is the Canada I want to celebrate, one where there is broad acceptance and inclusion. 

I caught a glimpse of a former parishioner from a congregation I served and I sought him out through the crowd. He was there as part of a group sponsoring LGBTQ2S+ refugees from countries where their orientation is shunned and decried, often led by religious groups. In some of those countries their orientation is illegal and even punishable by death.

We caught up on our lives and he told me that his partner had died, a source of deep sadness. I assumed that he was a gay man but he never spoke of his orientation and he never acknowledged he had a same-gender partner even though we had several LGBTQ2S+ staff members in the congregation. 

Looking back through 37 years of pastoral ministry I can identify a number of LGBTQ2S+ members in the various congregations I served who never "came out of the closet" during my time, or only did so with considerable caution and with the assumption that I wouldn't share this reality with others. They didn't want the drama or possible rejection and in some situations they were not "out" to family or even spouses. Closeted is an older but apt term because they too often were in a stiflingly enclosed place psychologically and spiritually. And think about it, heterosexuals don't have to identify their orientation in any public way.

A couple of weeks after I began ministry in 1980 in outport Newfoundland a boy of 16 took his own life. He walked past his family watching television, took a rifle out of a cupboard, and went  into the backyard where he shot himself. The traumatized family called the paramedics, police, and the new minister. Because the first two were nearly an hour away I arrived first to the chaotic scene and went to the body in the dark. There is no seminary preparation for this sort of pastoral situation and I was 25-years-old. 

It was decades before it occurred to me that this bright young man, passionate about the arts and theatre, may have been gay and quietly in despair. While this may be stereotyping on my part, his interests were certainly uncharacteristic for guys his age in that culture. Derogatory jokes and nasty terms for gay people were still very much in use at that time. 

We have come a long way in our society but we need to continue on a path of affirmation and love in Christ's name. God give us the grace and courage to lead the way, faithfully. 

The SBC, Untruth, and Disunity

 

The men take themselves so seriously

with their coats and votes,
while Spirit laughs, plants trees, grows fruit.
The Southern Baptist Convention
said women cannot preach and lead.
So silly. Like standing on a bank
yelling at the river to stop flowing.
Like ordering dawn to become night.
Like scolding the tide from the shore.
Like expecting Spirit to ask permission
before descending where She will.
Women will keep preaching
because a voice older than any vote i HAV IN
keeps saying: Yes, her. She’s the one.

                                     Samantha Bise 

Not long ago I wrote about the impending creepy and misogynistic motion at the Southern Baptist Convention to deepen its ban on women preaching, including commenting online about sermons. The measure, sponsored by Southern Baptist Theological Seminary President Albert Mohler, is known as the "Truth and Unity Amendment". In the end the vote wasn't even close with 75% of the "messengers" supporting the amendment. This is supposedly biblical, ignoring the Easter story in John's gospel in which Mary is the first witness to the Resurrection.  

It's part of the relentless efforts by male leaders in the SBC to silence women in expressing their God-given faith. Some congregations and high profile women have been kicked out, harassed out, or left in frustration. This is about power and control, not the gospel of Jesus Christ. 

There are some great cartoons out there including one where the Risen Christ speaks to Mary Magdalene on Easter morning:

Jesus: Go and tell the men I have risen!

Mary: Crap, This is gonna sound crazy but I can't. In 2026 the SBC voted to silence me.

Jesus: What's the SBC? 

I wish I could share the image with you but it isn't accessible. 

I have included the powerful poem, above. "So silly. Like standing on a bank yelling at the river to stop flowing."

Cat Stevens & Morning Has Broken

 

1 Morning has broken like the first morning,

blackbird has spoken like the first bird.

Praise for the singing! Praise for the morning!

Praise for them, springing fresh from the Word!

2 Sweet the rain's new fall sunlit from heaven,

like the first dewfall on the first grass.

Praise for the sweetness of the wet garden,

sprung in completeness where God's feet pass.

3 Ours is the sunlight! Ours is the morning

born of the one light Eden saw play!

Praise with elation, praise every morning,

God's recreation of the new day!

                                                       Voices United 409

In the early 1970s Cat Stevens was the folk/pop/rock dream guy. With dark and unruly hair and beard he churned out hits including Wild World and Peace Train and Moonshadow --I can hear you humming them!

 Perhaps the most improbable of his popular songs was a cover of a hymn with lyrics written in 1931, set to an even older Gaelic tune. Morning has Broken is in many hymn books and over the years folk in different congregations were surprised that we were singing a pop song,  assuming Cat Stevens wrote it. 

                                              

                                                                       Rick Wakeman 1970s

I discovered recently that the jaunty keyboard intro to Steven's version was created by Rick Wakeman of the prog rock band Yes. Steven's heard him noodling before the recording session for the hymn and liked the tempo and feel of his playing so asked him to do the intro in that style. When you listen there is a sense that the ear-catching first bars settle into the hymn in a more familiar way, with Cat's guitar as accompaniment. 

It's interesting that while this is a Christian hymn, reflecting Stevens' spiritual quest, he eventually embraced the Islamic religion and changed his name to Yusuf Islam. He all but gave up musical performance and song-writing for a couple of decades. Eventually he realized that musical expression was not forbidden in Islam and now performs and records under the name Yusuf. 

Fifty years after the the 1970 release of Tea for the Tillerman, in September 2020, Stevens remade the album as  Tea for the Tillerman2. This version includes new lyrics and new instrumentation, and he sings along with his 22-year-old self in Father and Son. We received this second version as a gift and quite enjoyed the changes. 

The Solstice and Celebrating Creation

 

                                                                 Killbear Provincial Park

All things bright and beautiful,

all creatures great and small,

all things wise and wonderful:

in love, God made them all.

1 Each little flower that opens,

each little bird that sings,

God made their glowing colours,

God made their tiny wings.  R

2 The purpleheaded mountains,

the river running by,

the sunset and the morning

that brightens up the sky;  R

On this Summer Solstice our daughter Emily and husband Brad are camping in beautiful Killbear Provincial Park on Georgian Bay. It is a place of memories for Brad's family and where he proposed to Emily. They are urban people with a trendy part of downtown Toronto as their current habitat but both of them spent lots of time in the outdoors as they grew up and still love the natural world.  

                                                      Killbear photos June 21 2026 -- Emily Hendriks

They were also raised in Christian families which attended church but that's not part of the rhythm of their lives at this point, Yet they have noted that there is a sense of the sacred in this place and that they have spontaneously sung a couple of hymns while they're rambling about, a somewhat surprising admission.  In a text exchange Emily commented that the hymn All Things Bright and Beautiful was bumping through her head yesterday. It sounds perfect for the location. 

Perhaps our favourite Solstice Day ever was on Haida Gwaii a couple of years ago. We celebrated the astonishing natural abundance of this island archipelago off the BC coast on what is also National Indigenous Peoples Day. It couldn't have been a better setting. 

Wherever we are today we can give thanks to the Creator and celebrate the gifts of Creation. 

3 The cold wind in the winter,

the pleasant summer sun,

the ripe fruits in the garden:

God made them every one.  R

4 The rocky mountain splendour,

the lone wolf's haunting call,

the great lakes and the prairies,

the forest in the fall;  R

5 God gave us eyes to see them,

and lips that we might tell

how great is God our maker,

who has made all things well.  R

Refugia for Butterflies

                                                        Yellow Swallowtail

"The private garden has become the last viable habitat for many butterfly species in developed regions of the United States. A functional house — with correct slot geometry, a puddling station, and untreated wood — can mean the difference between local extinction and a stable population. The problem is not people's willingness. The problem is that most commercially available butterfly houses simply do not meet the basic biological requirements."

Dr. Patricia Nguyen Entomologist, UNC Asheville — Dept of Biology & Environmental Studies

 Nearly 20 years ago I stepped away from congregational ministry for a few months to recalibrate and renew.  I spent about half the time in an old farmhouse on Ragged Chutes Road in the back of beyond. The sprawling farm was at the end of the gravel road and I was alone during the week with Ruth joining me on Thursdays evenings after work, then driving back early on  Monday mornings. During the week it was just me and the critters, the deer and bears and coyotes. There were also birds and dragonflies and butterflies aplenty. I called this spot Refugio, a Spanish word meaning shelter used to describe the hostels on the Camino pilgrimage. The farm was a safe and healing place amidst the big pines and maples. 

I came across the word in it's plural form recently in the title of an article in Nature magazine about the decline of butterflies in North America: More than 70% of Americans live in areas with no natural refugia for butterflies. The private backyard may be the last one left.

Butterflies are not decorative. Where they disappear, the birds that feed on their caterpillars disappear. The wildflowers that depend on them for pollination stop reproducing. The decline is not an aesthetic loss — it's a collapse signal. And the signal has been flashing red for years.

The article is also about Dot Calloway, a woman who crafts butterfly refuges for backyards, something I'd never heard of before. They are essentially butterfly hostels with carefully calibrated slots where the butterflies can tuck themselves away from predators as well as providing a source of water with a perch. To me they look like little chapels. What a wonderful vocation, a practical commitment to Creation. She writes a letter to every buyer. Sadly, Dot is closing her workshop after more than 30 years. 

In our backyard we see monarchs and swallowtails and viceroys and others. We are we are always pleased to observe them at a couple of bushes adjacent to our deck with blossoms that attract them. I suppose it's very nerdy to get excited about a yellow swallowtail but I'm happy to confess that for me it's a sacred encounter. 

Dorothy "Dot" Callaway (75) in her workshop in Weaverville, NC. Thirty-two winters, more than 3,000 houses — and now the last collection.

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