Copyright © 2005 The Episcopal Diocese of East Tennessee

By Tim Grindstaff
Grace Point Correspondent

Spend thirty minutes walking around the diocese’s Grace Point Camp and Retreat Center, and you will soon realize this: The biblical garden of Eden may have vanished, but the garden we share as humans is still very much alive and kicking. And as with all gardens, this one takes a gardener to thrive.

Nineteen women and two men are the Grace Point gardeners who call themselves Sisters of Grace, a “landscape support group” dedicated to the many opportunities for work around the grounds.

Once a month they gather for work, supper and worship. If you’ve visited Grace Point recently, you’ve witnessed the fruits of their labor. For example, the holly bushes at the Retreat House have been removed, and flowerbeds have been coaxed into order.

Then there is the mysterious brush removal along the lake. At least it appears at first glance to be a straightforward clearing of saplings and thicket. Look more closely: The clearing to the left and rear of the barn has an order to it. Clear intention and careful, attentive planning are conspiring to birth something more.

I toured this area with the Rev. Bo Lewis, vicar of Grace Point. As I looked out of the clearing to the lake, I couldn’t help thinking about the second day of creation, when God commanded separation between the waters above and those below. But here, in the lake’s reflection, it became impossible to tell where the sky began or ended. This was becoming a place to pause for meditation, for prayer or to gaze out across the mirrored stillness of the lake.

So it is that out of the tangled vines and vegetation along the Watts Barr lakeshore that the Sisters of Grace are building the Stations of Creation.

The idea drew its inspiration from a trip Lewis and his wife, Jan Lewis, made to the Episcopal Conference Center at Oakhurst, Calif. Commonly called ECCO, the center features a wooded trail that includes the 14 Stations of the Cross as a journey of prayer and meditation.

“The Sisters of Grace wanted to develop a meditative trail at Grace Point,” Jan explained, “and the idea emerged for the stations to be about celebrating the natural beauty that is so much a part of Grace Point. The idea seemed to work with Grace Point’s focus in other areas on the environment.”

As you walk the shoreline, the path will periodically expand for benches and sculpture, she said. These areas will be the interpretive part of each station, but they will also provide an opportunity to simply look around, perhaps to sight an osprey or an eagle circling nearby. The path ends directly behind the barn in a large meadow-like circle with a magnificent oak.

The Stations of Creation construction is ongoing, and the Sisters of Grace are discussing commissioned works for each station with a metalworker.

To learn how you can participate, contact Jan Lewis, 865-376-1133.

Beginning June 7 through July, summer campers converged at Grace Point, the diocesan camp and retreat center on Watts Bar Lake near Kingston. Over the course of the summer, more than 100 campers fashioned monkey’s fists and other ornamental knots, constructed birdhouses and painted faces.

They hiked on newly cut trails, rested on brand-new benches and admired spectacular sunsets.

They launched several new kayaks, canoes and sailboats and used them along with older models as pews in a watery church to share the Holy Eucharist.

They got creative in the Art Barn, a facility expanded and scoured by last year’s art director and Resurrection, Loudon, parishioner Callie Van Koughnett and her crew of volunteers.

They participated in “educational conversations” with “Sister Nature” Ann Huston, a parishioner at St. Stephen, Oak Ridge, in the newly established nature lore program, an educational program designed to teach campers how to become good stewards of the natural world.

They farmed a worm bed constructed last winter by the Rev. Stephen Askew and Patricia Tanzer Askew, and they speared the harvest on fishing lures to tantalize the gilled lake residents.

And they fed their summer camp memories with the savory smells and tastes of Frank Moore’s hearty camp cooking. One young St. John’s Cathedral camper even reportedly lamented to his parents two weeks after returning home that he was homesick for Frank’s cooking, especially the stew.

During session one, Tennessee Wildlife Resource Agency representative Les Jones of St. Paul, Athens, hosted a boat safety program for senior high campers so they could be tested and certified to safely operate watercraft.

The senior high session emphasizes skills these teens need to serve as counselors for younger campers.

Frank Maples of St. John’s Cathedral, Knoxville, instructed session two campers in proper stroke techniques for canoeing and kayaking. (These vessels are the preferred forms of travel at Grace Point.)

Later in session two, rising 8th- and 9th-grade campers staged a Pirate Day, complete with costumes and a raid – and a Captain Hook who bore a suspicious resemblance to the cathedral’s dean.

The Rev. Art Bass, director of session three, described a night winding down after making s’mores and sitting around the campfire telling tall tales.

Suddenly an “Indian” raid awakened the snoozing campers. Fully costumed staff members had chosen to launch Indian Day with a surprise attack, and a memory was born for the rising 6th- and 7th-grade campers of session three.

Summer camp at Grace Point is all about transformation and renewal, spiritual growth and new relationships – often illustrated in fun and unpredictable ways.

‘The 12 Days of Christmas” got a twist for session four. The Rev. Claire Keene, who co-directed the camp with the Rev. Kay Thomas, said the rising 4th- and 5th-graders put new lyrics to the familiar tune to sing the creation story.

“On the sixth day, we were to celebrate God’s creating animals and human beings,” Keene reported. Campers were awakened by staff members who had been transformed into creatures in a garden of Eden: a flying squirrel, cha-meleon, deer, snipe, penguin, mouse, elephant, gray fox, Chihuahua, lion and – of course – Adam and Eve.

“After breakfast campers donned face paint and made ears and tails to complete their own transformations,” she wrote.

Session five, which catered to rising 1st-, 2nd- and 3rd-graders with a parent or adult guardian, had as its theme “The Kingdom of Heaven is like …”

A treasure hunt based on a parable was orchestrated on the last night. The plan was that campers would find and enjoy the treasure – a soapy slide – in the field, and then discover a further clue buried in the grass, which would direct them to an ice cream feast.

Problem was, one camper was undeterred after finding the slide. Wholly determined to unearth the final clue, the camper succeeded. Staff members obligingly hiked to the Commons Building, returning with ice cream treats for all.

“Let’s hope the experience was like another parable – even tiny as the mustard seed – to be remembered,” wrote the Rev. Perry Scruggs, session five director, “and as formational as to grow into the largest of trees.”

Seventeen youth from parishes around the diocese worked as staff for the summer camps: Travis Adeline, Sara Clevenger, Kellan Gibson, Larissa Gould, MacKenzie Hardt, Ann Huston, Thomas Huston, Mary Jones, Chad Nicely, Jennifer O’Steen, Emily Poulsen, Olivia Reed, Thomas Schlitt, Emily Thomas, Bobby Twiggs, Callie Van Koughnett and Sara Waddell. Mike Keene, the camp program director, put it plainly: “Without them, camp doesn’t happen.”

A new camp planned for the last weekend in July didn’t happen. Session director Jan Lewis had planned for adult campers to inexpensively escape their busy schedules for just a few days and enjoy the beauty and peace of Grace Point. “Of the eight people registered, four had to cancel the week before camp,” said the Rev. Bo Lewis, Grace Point vicar and Jan Lewis’ husband. But it’s an idea worth trying again, he says.

Other camp experiences offered at Grace Point this summer included Mountain-to-Mountain, which connects youth of reduced circumstances in Appalachia with youth from the parish of Good Shepherd, Lookout Mountain; and the Ulster Project, which links American Catholic and Protestant youth with Irish counterparts.

By Mike Keene

There is a place
where the kids sing “Johnny Appleseed”
as Grace
before their meals.

Where they go down to the lakeshore
in the early morning fog,
shout “Good Morning!” to God,
and listen to the echoes coming back.

A place where a dad
is so concerned
for his daughter to receive mail on her very first morning there
that he drives 50 miles early that morning to put the letters directly into that mailbox.

Where young people spend their days swimming, fishing, canoeing, kayaking, tubing, hiking, bog slogging, making
tie-dyed T-shirts, tying monkey’s fists, braiding hemp,
making paper, hand building and firing pottery, building birdhouses, soapy-sliding, playing games, watching birds, listening to frogs,
and singing “If I Were a Butterfly” and “Little Bunny Foo-Foo” and “Han Skal Leve.”

Where junior staff members are invited to go snipe hunting …

There is a place where a 10-year-old
with a fishing pole over his shoulder
and a tackle box
in his hand
walks down a gravel path to join his friends on the fishing dock.

Where people say “Please” and “Thank You” and “Good Job!” a lot.

A place where a bald eagle flies over two or three times a day,
where ospreys live all around the neighborhood,
where indigo buntings, scarlet tanagers, cormorants, bluebirds, mockingbirds, blue herons and night herons are regular visitors.

Where there’s a campfire on the Point nearly every night,
and folks pray and sing together,
maybe ending with “All Night, All Day,
Angels Watching Over Me.”

A place where “Taps” is played every night
on a battered 1964 Boy Scout bugle
purchased on eBay for $29.95.

There is a place where folks throw tarps out on the ground at night
and drag out their bedrolls and pillows
so they can watch the stars go round.

Where is that place?
You know it – it’s summer camp at Grace Point.

The secret’s out: Make your own Grace Point Blackberry Cobbler

No summer in this region is complete without picking wild blackberries in the thickets that grow along wooded areas and in pastures.

Grace Point summer campers in session four participated in this time-honored tradition and were rewarded not only with that unbeatable fresh berry flavor but also with enough berries to enjoy later in Jan Lewis’ blackberry cobbler:

Mix together in a large Pyrex pan that’s at least 2 inches deep:
• 10 cups fresh blackberries, carefully picked by campers
• 2 cups fresh strawberries, chopped
• 6 tablespoons cornstarch, mixed into 3/4 cup orange juice
• 3 cups sugar
Dot with 6 tablespoons butter, and heat in oven until juice is boiling 

While berry mixture is heating, make the dough:
• 4 1/2 cups biscuit mix
• 9 tablespoons oil or melted butter
• 6 tablespoons sugar
• 3 medium eggs
• 1 1/2 cups milk

Drop the dough by spoonfuls over the hot fruit, leaving 3/4 inch between dough drops. (If there’s not room for all of the dough, use leftovers for biscuits!) Bake in 400-degree oven for 30-40 minutes.
Serve warm with ice cream to hungry, happy campers!