By Laura Bolton of Crestline, California, USA
The effect of righteousness will be peace, and the result of righteousness, quietness and trust forever. My people will abide in a peaceful habitation, in secure dwellings, and in quiet resting places.
Part of planning youth camps is creating room assignments. Anyone who has ever planned a camp knows the puzzle of assigning cabins. However cabins are split, we assume there will be girl cabins and boy cabins. This camp was no different. We made the assignments and divided our campers as thoughtfully as possible.
On the first night of camp, once campers are settling in, we invite each cabin to create a poster and a chant. It was loud, creative, and exactly what you would expect. Everything was unfolding as planned until one of our cabins came to us with a request. “We would like to be called the Avocados.”
Not the boys. Not the girls. The Avocados. Fitting for a camp in California.
They explained that rather than being identified as a gendered cabin, the best way for their group to move forward together was to exist outside of the gender binary. So that year at camp, we had the girl cabins, the boy cabins, and the Avocados.
What followed was not chaos. It was not confusion. It was an incredible week of camp. The Avocados prompted me to listen more closely. I began researching and talking with more youth who were passionate about what they called “purpling.” If boys are blue and girls are pink, what color are those who find themselves somewhere else entirely?
The following year, we added a “gender expansive” option to our registration form. The first year, no one selected it. I wasn’t discouraged or surprised; new things take time and persistence. The second year, we had a gender-expansive cabin. And not only did we have one, but it was also our largest cabin at camp.
As a church, we uphold Unity in Diversity and the Worth of All Persons. The gender-expansive cabin creates space for youth to experience both of those principles in real and tangible ways. They are often asked to choose and to conform; this space allows them to belong without pretending.
The change I have witnessed in campers who once felt they had to be something they were not, and who now get to live honestly, is everything.
Sometimes the Spirit moves through a simple request. Sometimes it looks like a cabin full of Avocados.
Prayer Phrase
“Let us work for the good of all” (Galatians 6:10).
Spiritual Hunger
Jesus discerned hungers of body and spirit, and he fed them through a physical, verbal, spiritual ministry of presence. In a time of listening prayer, ask God to help you discern physical or spiritual hungers of people in your congregation, community, and global family. Invite the Spirit to move you to one hospitable act that “feeds” someone’s hunger today.
Today’s Prayer for Peace
Engage in a daily practice of praying for peace in our world. Click here to read today’s prayer and be part of this practice of peace.