We're traveling this summer--
learning, serving, sharing, camping

More than 110 persons have traveled to Europe this summer on three tours sponsored by the Division for Outdoor Ministries. Their primary purpose was to attend the Passion Play held every ten years in Oberammergau, Germany. Group members thoroughly enjoyed the ‘unforgettable’ and ‘very moving’ experience.

Although the play was the highlight of the trip, the travelers also had a wonderful time visiting Germany, Italy, Austria, the Netherlands, England and France. As they traveled, group members spent time with old friends and made some new ones.

More than 300 youth from Ohio Conference churches attended the National Youth Event in Ames, Iowa. Our young people were very active in recruiting their friends to join them, making this the largest delegation ever from the Ohio Conference to attend a National Youth Event. Many thanks to Susan Towner Larsen, Minister for Church and Education for the Ohio Conference, and Margaret Mills, Western Reserve Association staff, for their excellent leadership in organizing this major effort.

The Ohio Conference camping program was in full swing at both Templed Hills and Pilgrim Hills this summer, offering a wide variety of camps for children and adults. The Ohio Conference Minister for Outdoor Ministries, Cynthia Speller, and her staff worked hard to make each camp a successful experience (camp photos are posted on our website atwww.ocucc.org). We have not tallied final attendance figures yet; they’ll be available this fall.

Major improvements have been made at both campsites. Campers at Pilgrim Hills enjoyed the new lake pavilion, just-completed Prettyman cabin and clear, rust-free water from the new water system. At Templed Hills, two more cabins on Six-Cabin Hill have been replaced, and the drainage problem at Memorial Building has been corrected.

Nine international guests served as counselors at various camps this summer. There were four visitors from Germany, three from Colombia, one from Uganda and one from Australia. These friends are great additions to the camping experience every summer.

Thirty-four persons traveled to the Ukraine in late June on a mission sponsored by SARA, Sharing America’s Resources Abroad. This program of the Ohio Conference coordinated the donation of thousands of medical supplies and medicines to our partners in the Transcarpathia area. Two ambulances were given and dedicated, and two commercial washing machines were given to the hospital. A new truck was delivered to the church orphanage; it will be used to deliver food and hundreds of other items to the government orphanage for the children at risk in that poor country. The trip was a moving and powerful experience for all the participants.

This September a delegation will be going from the Ohio Conference and the Indiana Kentucky Conference to the Evangelical Church of the Union in Westphalia, Germany to celebrate the tenth anniversary of our partnership with the German denomination. During our ten-year partnership, many German pastors have worked and served in UCC churches, and several of our pastors served in Germany. Church-to-church partnerships have been developed between individual UCC and Evangelical congregations, and members of American and German congregations have crossed the Atlantic to visit their partner churches.

The delegation traveling to Germany in September will include Ohio Conference Moderator Leslie Carole Taylor; Dr. Laurinda Hafner, past chair of the Committee for 2000; and Ms. Nancy Cope, longtime chair of the Ohio Conference Church Development Committee. The group will also include members of the EKU/UCC Ohio Conference Working Group--Rev. Sam Schroeder, Rev. Mark Steiner, Rev. John Long and myself as the Conference Minister. Our delegation will spend time in local churches, sharing our common mission and vision for the church. We will present a beautiful quilt to the Evangelical Church of Westphalia to mark the occasion.

As we return to Ohio after our journeys and experiences, we carry memories of people and places that we will treasure, and we thank God for the gift of travel and renewal.