Friday 6/19: Confession, Prayer Ropes and Sing-a-long

Today we were blessed with yet another beautiful and sunny day. God is truly with us at Fanari Camp! Our campers participated in the sacrament of Holy Confession during Orthodox Life (OL) to prepare us for Holy Communion at Divine Liturgy on Sunday. We also learned about and made prayer ropes in today’s “Flex” session, Arts & Crafts. Everyone enjoyed watching Steve, from the Archdiocese’s You Tube “Be the Bee” talk about why a prayer rope is a helpful tool to remind us to pray with our soul and body. When our mind wanders and our heart is restless, hold it and say the Jesus Prayer, “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God have mercy on me a sinner”. It was a prayerful and meaningful day. Mr. D. led all our Bible Study classes while the priests were hearing confessions and skit preparation continued in Theater for tomorrow evening’s skit night. This evening, our campers had a blast playing the song game – great song choices with some wonderful choreography. Congratulations to the Athenians who were victorious! Afterwards, we gathered around the campfire – the first official campfire in our Retreat Center fire pit – for a sing-a-long led by Fr. George. Songs included some of our favorites: “Pharaoh – Pharaoh”, “GLORIA” and “Father I Adore You”. We also learned another hymn of our Church, “Theotokos Ee Elpis”, (Theotokos you are our hope) as well as, a favorite from years past – “Let There be Peace on Earth”, keeping up with a motto we have been using this week, “Same Traditions – New Beginnings”. After a reflection by Mr. D. about his love of Fanari Camp and some great devotionals, our campers have settled down for a good night’s rest as we get ready for our last full day of Fanari Camp Session 1.