Partnership with Sweaty Sheep new worshiping community provides unique camping experience

November 17, 2017

Michael Pate, who is homeless, wrote a poem and painted art about his experience of feeling loved last week, at a healing and learning retreat at Zephyr Point. (Photo by Ryan Althaus)

Michael Pate, who is homeless, recently experienced what he couldn’t imagine.

“I never thought anyone could fall in love with me,” he said. “But I feel full of something right now. That’s the closest I can come to labeling it.”

In what is believed to be a first for a camp and conference center in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), Zephyr Point on Lake Tahoe held a five-night healing and learning retreat for a group of homeless, physically and developmentally disabled people and “at-risk” young adults.

They came to Zephyr Point through the shared mission of recreation with several nonprofits in California, including Sweaty Sheep Santa Cruz, a new worshiping community in the Presbytery of San Jose.

“The retreat was our way of saying ‘thank you’ to homeless members in our community who cleaned up downtown streets,” said Sweaty Sheep’s Ryan Althaus, who is also the presbytery’s hunger advocate. “During this time of reprieve and recreation, our team could observe the impact removing individuals from cyclical cycles of homelessness has on their recovery and motivation.”

For participant Phil Hill, it was profound. All week he felt confronted by difference — in backgrounds, beliefs, values, abilities and people. As he came face to face with these differences, he felt like he had a choice to make.

“I could either unlock the part of my soul that longed for connection, or I could continue to approach life from a place of fear,” Hill said. “I think I will choose healing, connection and freedom — choose to love through difference.”

The idea of holding a retreat at Zephyr Point came when Brian Frick, the Presbyterian Mission Agency liaison for camp and conference ministries, introduced Althaus to Ryan McKenzie, Zephyr Point’s director of program ministry.

They began talking about how Zephyr Point was a wonderful place for those of privilege, and how the board wanted it to be less exclusive by bringing in underserved groups who might otherwise not be able to have a lakefront experience.

For Althaus, it was a moment of clarity: A PC(USA) retreat center and a new worshiping community, along with other partners, could interact with the board to help make Zephyr Point less exclusive.

As that interaction unfolded during the “Evolve and Let Go” retreat, they began to see things differently.

Watching the joy in the eyes of those receiving linens and watching how they reacted to being out of Santa Cruz for the first time in decades helped them recognize that people — not proper protocol — are their value.

“Giving them the gift of sleeping in a bed, caring for them in the most hospitable way, was like confirmation,” McKenzie said. “This is what we want to be a part of.”

For Frick, the week at Zephyr Point was a great example of how worshiping communities can use camp and conference centers and how the centers can serve the mission and ministry of the PC(USA) that goes beyond traditional summer camp for kids.

“Worshiping communities are reaching underserved populations; they can use our retreat spaces to further engage their and our communities,” he said. “The thing is, Zephyr Point didn’t have to do this. Their money flow was fine. They could’ve just sat on it, but they chose to use their money for ministry to a whole new group of people.”

Pate wrote this poem about what he experienced at Zephyr Point:

The seeds of sorrow fall from her eyes,

Splashing as they reach their destination …

at the feet of reason,

Where the earth in season

transforms the meaning …

of life

… into a promise to overcome the impact of strife.

Smiles shine thru the abysmal darkness,

abolishing the fear that once consumed the fruit of goodness,

with a voice of corruption echoing in the mind

of the one who cries these tears,

that give life.

Once the pain and the suffering have become recognized by the innocent,

reflecting back in the mirror of another’s dew of sorrow …

… splashing against the very flower,

 found beneath the feet of reason …

… still I smile

 Paul Seebeck, Mission Communications Strategist, Video and Digital Asset Management, Presbyterian Mission Agency

Today’s Focus:  Sweaty Sheep new worshiping community

Let us join in prayer for:

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff

Kathryn Threadgill, PMA
Paula Tibbs, PMA

Let us pray:

Gracious God, please make us eager and willing partners with our brothers and sisters, so that together we may be faithful witnesses to your love and grace for all people, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Daily Readings

Morning Psalms 130; 148
First Reading Nehemiah 12:27-31a, 42b-47
Second Reading Revelation 19:11-16
Gospel Reading Matthew 16:13-20
Evening Psalms 32; 139