The most recent Trinitas Father & Son Camping Trip was one for the books. This annual event was attended by over one hundred young men and their fathers and one serious rain storm. Even while the weather forecast worsened in the days leading up to the storm, Trinitas parents were reminded by visiting speaker Keith McCurdy that difficulties and challenges are essential to the growth and development of sturdy young men.
While the rain fell, young men substituted the traditional game of nighttime capture the flag with a rowdy round of mudball while the younger boys did battle in the gaga ball pit. Both activities remind us that boys are made with a natural strength that yearns to be tested. They need to compete, to wrestle, to establish a pecking order. When they do not have a good outlet for those things to work themselves out, they may become bullies or sissies or cowards or other creatures that society despises. In a game like these, boys can test their strength against other boys and learn where they stand with each other. This is play that edifies boys because it helps them understand their own strength, what they are capable of, and what they are not.
Other highlights of the weekend include the fellowship that comes to men when they eat heaping portions of smoked meat unencumbered with vegetables. Fathers and sons alike feasted alongside old friends while making new acquaintances. Lasting Trinitas relationships are more often forged while serving or participating in special events like lock-ins, field trips, and feast days than in the common activities of the classroom.
But the camping trip was not all mud and meat, at times the night rang with the voices of men singing songs like King Alfred Warsong ("For the Lord is our defense, Jesu defend us; for the Lord is our defense, Jesu defend!" or with prayers for members of the Trinitas family experiencing trials of cancer or the impending death of loved ones. As God's kingdom is built through the singing and prayers of God's people, so young men are built into Christian manhood in boisterous song and regular prayer.
While the storm raged, campers were introduced to this year's assigned reading, C. S. Lewis' The Screwtape Letters. Drawing from the eighth letter of the demon Screwtape to his tempter nephew, Wormwood, Mr. Cowart identified the Law of Undulation and challenged fathers and sons to live faithfully and obediently even in seasons of spiritual dryness and temptations to fleshly lusts. On Saturday morning, Mr. Warmouth continued the discussion of The Screwtape Letters with a helpful explanation of true Leisure and a call to intentional and formational rest that is not the laziness or distraction that too often destroys men of all ages.
If the next Father-Son Camping trip is marked with beautiful weather, we will, of course, be thankful, but for now, we can't help but think that the weather given to us sons by our Good Father was exactly what was needed this year as Trinitas continues in the good work of raising young boys into sturdy, God-honoring men.
