WOW

Last week I spent some time at Camp WOW. Several area parishes, encompassing three different diocese, participate in this junior high ministry, summer camp. The campers spend four days at a campground, complete with cabins, a dining hall, a swimming hole, and a chapel. The kids have an awesome time. I go there for confessions and for mass. It is a lot of fun.

Junior High kids are at a good age to begin to look at values and lifestyle choices in their young lives. They are not little kids anymore, and are old enough to understand that their choices can have consequences - for life. In my closing homily I asked the question of how do we want people to remember us. Hopefully the memories we leave people with are good ones. We certainly would not want others to recall us as a frump or nabob.

This was an excellent time for evangelization. The High School students who were the camp counselors, had to reflect on their own faith and what brought them to the camp. For all of the Junior High kids, this was really the first time for them to consider faith and values, outside of mom and dad, and even school or R.E. This will hopefully inspire them to develop a habit of asking the question, "Who do I say Jesus is?" And of course we want to examine that question in the context of our faith life.

The evangelical nature of this camp will hopefully enable these very young people to think beyond religion, into a sphere of a lifestyle based on conversion and discipleship. We would like them to begin to articulate and share their faith through faithful witness, words, and acts of charity.

Many of us might remember the Psychologist Lawrence Kohlberg and his Stages of Moral Development. The lowest level is that of avoiding punishment and being rewarded for being good. If that is where our faith is, it is not really very deep. The highest level, which very few attain, is doing good because it is good to do.

We want these children, or young people, to strive for the highest levels of faith and morality. This process of evangelization will set the stage for a life long relationship with Jesus Christ and his Church.