“Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace,
goodwill toward men!” (Luke 2, 14)
Words are not strong enough to describe the joy felt by the participants at the summer camp of our Metropolia, organized again this year on the property of the "Protection of the Mother of God" Monastery in Allegan, Michigan. For two beautiful weeks, 28 boys and girls from Illinois, Ohio, Wisconsin and Michigan learned how to enrich their lives in the Orthodox faith, while making friends and enjoying all the gifts received from God.
Throughout the camp, the children harmoniously combined prayer with catechism lessons, nature walks, music classes, logic and math games, arts and crafts workshops, sports activities, and visits to a nearby farm.
The Divine Liturgy was served every day, sometimes even at night, at the request of the children, and the girls in particular were very excited to read the prayers and chant, progressing so much that during Friday’s Vespers they were able to give the answers all by themselves. It was a great joy to see the children standing in line for confession, then reading together the prayers from the Canon for Holy Communion, using the prayer rope to say the Jesus Prayer, or learning liturgical chants, emphasizing how important the seriousness of the Orthodox faith is for children.
Rev. Fr. Petru Neaga and Rev. Deacon Alexandru Lazăr held daily catechism lessons where they talked about prayer, family, friendship and virtues, lessons in which both children and adult volunteers actively participated with various questions, benefiting greatly from the topics discussed. The children learned about the lives of Saints such as St. John Maximovitch, St. Herman of Alaska, St. Mary of Egypt, St. Catherine, allowing them to get to know them better and to reach out to them for help in everything they do.
The boys had the honor of having His Eminence Metropolitan Nicolae in their midst on the occasion of the 21stanniversary of the ordination to archpriesthood on July 14, 2023. HE Metropolitan Nicolae spoke to the children about the importance of knowing the Saints and having them as models, urging them to live their lives in such a way that they too end up among the Saints.
At the plastic arts workshops, the girls created unique projects enriching their creativity and imagination by experimenting with different techniques, among which the most well-known are: decorated crosses in the traditional Romanian form, clay modeling, watercolor painting, linocut printing and making prayer rope bracelets. Then they had the opportunity to practice their knowledge of mathematical logic through various games and puzzles, applications in fraction division problems, statistics and graphic applications. They also visited a nearby farm where they saw various domestic animals and birds in their natural habitat.
The boys studied the life of the Mother of God, identifying the icons specific for each feast of the Mother of God, studying kontakions and hymns, and decorating the Prodromitsa Icon of the Mother of God, they worked with clay, using the potter's wheel and drawing a parallel between the art of pottery and the chapter of Genesis regarding the creation of man. They also identified the species of trees and plants, as well as the birds and chickens in the Monastery yard, and decorated a cross with different plants, flowers and feathers. All the children solved riddles, listened to stories and played chess.
The camp schedule included sports activities and games to give the children the opportunity to enjoy each other and the outdoors. Soccer and gaga-ball were and remain among the children's favorite games.
We would also like to thank His Eminence Metropolitan Nicolae for the kindness he shows towards our children, encouraging the organization of this camp every year; Father Abbot Protos. Andrei Jilcu and Protos. Daniil Pinciuc for hosting and the indulgence they had towards all of us; Rev. Fr. Petru Neaga from the "Buna Vestire" Cathedral in Cleveland, OH and Rev. Deacon Alexandru Lazar from the "Saints Constantine and Helen" Cathedral in Chicago, IL for all their patience and effort with the girls and the boys, respectively; to all the volunteers, known and unknown, who strived to use their time and talent to support this camp, and last but not least to the children and their parents, for participating in the camp with the aim of enriching themselves spiritually and culturally in the Romanian Orthodox spirit.
May God reward hundredfold everyone's efforts!
The organizing team
