[This is the 4th of 4 posts about the National Scout Jamboree]
Dear Friends,
Two weeks ago, I was in West Virginia, at the 2017 Boy Scout National Jamboree. This post will focus on the second Sunday during the Jamboree...and go right up to the end of the whole event.
Sunday was just an incredible experience. One of the highlights of the entire Jamboree. The reason? The LDS Sacrament Meeting.
I've experienced one like this at the last Jamboree...and this was even better. It was held in the outdoor amphitheater, at the Summit Center. There was a lot of preparation that went into this - as there were 2,200 to 2,300 LDS members at the Jamboree. The Sacrament was administered at the meeting...which is one of the largest audiences to perform that ordinance for. Priests, Teachers and Deacons were gathered from around the camps to participate. They met before the meeting...and I watched as these amazing young Aaronic Priesthood holders prepared themselves for the service:
Right before our meeting, a Catholic Mass was held in the same location. Because they were running late, I had the chance to sit in the meeting for quite a while. They had an archbishop visit from the Vatican. The size of the group was bigger than ours - and I loved to see Scouts and Scouters worship together:
The administered communion to everyone in the crowd - they had dozens of stations under these yellow umbrellas:
Then, it became time for our service. We assembled ourselves on the ground. I brought a chair - us old guys can get away with that:
What follows are pictures from the BSA photographers, as we don't normally take pictures during this sacred ordinance. I'm sure glad that they shared the photographs, so that I can show just how amazing this was. There were about 60 Priests, with almost 120 Deacons that actually passed the Sacrament to all in attendance. What a humbling and spiritually-uplifting experience to see the Aaronic Priesthood in action. I just sat there and took it all in...grateful for my small part in it, and glad that these young men could render this service.
Elder Holland presided at the meeting. As you can probably imagine, his talk was just fantastic. He focused on the Sacrament, it's origins and its importance to the world. He talked about the fact that this ordinance is offered every seven days - without fail - to every person in every part of the world. He spoke of its importance in renewing the baptismal covenants and allowing us to fully participate in the Atonement. All of this - and it's entrusted to "teen-agers". He pointed out that this was how much faith Heavenly Father had in these young men.
That afternoon, we opened the exhibit, and were overtaken by waves of people. Maybe because it was Sunday...or there wasn't much else to do...but we had a steady stream of "customers" for the rest of the day:
It ended up being a long, LONG day. At the end of it, I had to wait in line for a special laundry service that they offered to staff. I had to wait in line for over an hour, in the direct sunlight.
By the time I made it to dinner, my sugar was quite low. I dragged myself back to the tent and collapsed. It was a satisfying, but exhausting day....
The next day was Monday. We had been notified 48 hours earlier that the President was coming to visit. Each Jamboree, there is a standing invitation to the sitting President to come to the Jamboree. Our President decided to take the opportunity. I won't waste the time to explain how that went, or how horrible of an experience it was. However, I did notice a huge increase in security. Suddenly, there were armored vehicles everywhere!
I will say that one of the only good things that happened, was a fly-over from Air Force One, for the Scouts. If you want to know more about this day...just let me know.
While walking in to our section, we passed a long line of Scout volunteers. Each of the Scout units performed a day of service, in the surrounding community. This video is a time-lapse look at the line of volunteers, preparing to go...
That morning's devotional had a special guest - Stephen Owen, the General YM President of the Church. He was a delight to listen to. Afterwards, we had a moment to chat...and I really respect him. He spent a lot of time visiting the various campsites, to interact with the YM. It sure made me proud.
They shut down our area early, due to the Secret Service taking control of certain areas of the Summit Center. This gave me an afternoon off...but there were only a few other places open - and they would soon close, as well.
I hiked over to the other side of the Jamboree. Along the way, I found patch trading by the Scouts to be in full swing:
As it turns out, even darkness didn't stop some of the patch trading in the smaller camps:
With time on my hands, I made my way over to the Game Design merit badge tent. I delivered a couple of lectures there, as one of the requirements is to speak with someone that actually works in the game industry. I had a blast geeking out with some of the Scouts, when they wanted to talk about games.
In that general area were a lot of interesting displays. One tent had a sculptor that was working on an image of the founder of Scouting - Lord Robert Baden-Powell. It was really interesting to see the artist create this beautiful piece of art.
The Order of the Arrow (OA) is a service-based organization, within Scouting. You have to be elected by your peers to join, and you spend time performing service. The OA had hundreds of young men at Jamboree, serving as guides to the various units all over the area. In the OA tent, they had some beautiful paintings on display...which reminded me of Rockwell pictures:
Back at Camp Echo, I took the time to recharge my phone. You have to understand that battery power was at a premium. I handled it pretty well. One of the things that really came in handy was this solar-powered light. I left it out during the day, and it kept the entire tent lit well into the evening. It folds up really small...a definite plus:
The day came to an end in triumphant fashion...the sunset was particularly beautiful that evening...and again made you love to spend time outdoors:
Our last days were spent working one-on-one with Scouts, Scouters and staff members. People were starting to realize that time was limited to finish working on their Compass Awards. Devotionals each morning were a welcome start to the day. We heard from Mark Francis, the Director of the LDS-BSA Relations group. He is such a nice guy, and works so hard on behalf of Scouting in the Church:
I worked with a number of LDS youth from the Buffalo Trace Council contingent. Every boy in the contingent was LDS, except for one. All of these amazing Aaronic Priesthood holders, brought this one young man back to the LDS Exhibit tent, and worked with him...so that he, too, could earn the Compass Award. I witnessed patience, love and understanding, as they helped this single boy work through every single requirement. The amount of effort they made to help him memorize the scripture and quote were humbling.
Remember that map of the U.S.? This is how it looked by the end of the week. The East Coast and Utah were completely covered with flags:
That night, we had to make our way back to the campsite, to drop off equipment before a special dinner. To get there, we passed Goodrich Lake, where the boys were holding water sport competitions:
We had to hike through one of the big camps - so I grabbed a couple of pictures to show what it looked like in the Scout participant section.
Here's an overhead view of how massive those camps really are...and remember, there are five of these:
The next day was the very last day of the Jamboree. I had arranged to bring my wife and kids out to the site, so they could catch just a glimpse of what I had been doing. More importantly, it's what I had been talking about for months. They finally arrived that morning, and I was beyond excited to see them!
I made sure that I took them to the LDS Exhibit, so they could see where I had spent every day for the last two weeks.
It was raining that day - one of only two days that it rained. The kids didn't mind, and we made sure to show them as much as possible. This was Freedom Loop - where all of the military branches had displays and activities. I made the kids pose in front of a Bradley Armored Vehicle.
I also took them to the Sustainability Treehouse. This was a gorgeous structure that had activities on all floors - each designed to help people understand how to better take care of our planet:
At the top, you could write a message on recycled aluminum. The kids decided to add their names to the exhibit:
We took the kids across the Console Energy Bridge (see previous post).
The rain got a little intense. We had to find shelter pretty quick, to eat our lunch. There isn't a ton of covered space, but we managed to find a little corner, and enjoyed our food:
As the kids walked around the Jamboree, I was amazed at how many patches that people gave them. All done in a spirit of friendship, they did quite well. I should bring them out earlier next time ; )
Alas, the visit came to an end, and I packed them on to a bus, to go back to their car. It was such a delight to show them around the area - despite the rain. As my son said to me - "I don't care about the rain...I'm just glad we could be together." Absolutely, son.
With all of that done, we packed up the exhibit and stored everything we could. Most all of the materials would go back to Salt Lake City. We had a final meal together and I said my goodbyes to the folks I had spent two weeks with at Jamboree. I took one last picture at the Welcome Center, before my family picked me up and we left town.
I'll never forget the experience. Hopefully, seeing the smiles on my face, you understand what a great time I had. It wasn't easy, but the best things in life require hard work. I certainly worked hard every day I was there, and I loved rubbing shoulders with some of the best men and women around. Devoting myself to a noble cause, and helping to provide a great experience for hundreds of people was thoroughly satisfying. Some could ask - "who is crazy enough to take two weeks vacation, pay to volunteer, and work during your vacation??" That would be me. And I would do it again.
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