This time two years ago our children were looking forward eagerly to their first Christian young people’s camp under canvas. They’d accompanied us on family camps in other parts of the world. And we’d taken them camping from time to time. But this was to be their first experience of spending a week without Mum and Dad but with lots of other Christian youngsters.
They had decided which camp they wanted to join. They were putting together their packing lists. We cautioned them that nothing was certain. We were in the early stages of the Covid-19 epidemic. There was no guarantee that life would have returned to normal by the summer. But like most people we believed that the crisis would be short lived and we hoped that the camp would go ahead.
It didn’t. Our children were disappointed and we were disappointed for them. But, we said, ruefully, ‘There’s always next year.’ We were wrong. As we moved through the early months of 2021, it became increasingly obvious that the camp they hoped to attend would again be cancelled. I know of some camps that did go ahead, but our children’s choice wasn’t among them.
