I attended girls’ camp at one of the most beautiful places in the Sierra Nevada mountains: Camp Ritchie.
Camp Ritchie is right by a lake, and surrounded by a majestic forest.
But its most defining features are the large granite boulders.
They are everywhere!
They serve as seats, steps, pathways, foundations, and places to repel down.
Each of my six years attending camp there, I could count on the granite boulders to be there.
They didn’t change.
I remember a leader of mine telling our group on a warm, starry night that she was grateful Christ was the immovable, unchanging foundation of her testimony, just like the rocks that were always waiting in the same place, year after year, at Camp Ritchie.
But I was never the same girl up at camp.
I think of 12-year-old Cali running into camp looking for a good time.
I think of 14-year-old Cali walking into camp with some big questions about whether God was real or not.
I think of 16-year old Cali hoping camp would give her some direction and peace, expecting answers with a sure testimony.
I changed so much at and between girls’ camps.
And the boulders stayed the same.
“A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart… and I will give you an heart of flesh.” (Ezekiel 36:26)
We don’t want stony, stagnant hearts.
Hearts that stay the same over the years.
Hearts that “are just the way that they are”.
We want moldable hearts of real flesh, that grow and change and feel and love and hurt and heal.
But all this change is only possible because of the steadfast, unchanging rock of our redeemer.
He is the rock we can depend on to remove the stony places from our heart.
Happy Studying!
-Cali Black
12 Responses
Ah! I love Camp Ritchie too! My girls get to go there now. It is such a wonderful place.
It’s the best!
I was a Stake Camp Director in Pleasanton and we went to Camp Ritchie. It was fun to read your post today and know exactly what you were talking about. It is so beautiful there and such an awesome place to develop a testimony!
<3
My name was on the rolls of the church, but I hadn’t been in 4 years. One day, some girls showed up on my doorstep and said “we heard you’re inactive. Wanna come to girls camp?” And so… Camp Ritchie is a special place for me too!
Aww, I love that!
I, too, went to Camp Ritchie, 35-40 years ago. Wow. I’m old. Ha ha. I’ve always said that we had the most beautiful, best girls camp experience in the whole wide world! It was the highlight of my year, as my parents got divorced right before my first year of camp. I will forever adore those boulders, the lake, the lodge, the cabins, the trees, and, most of all, the incredible spiritual experiences that embedded themselves in my heart forever.
I love hearing what a special place it is to other people! <3 Thanks for sharing!
I too have had the same kind of experience with the hymn I Believe in Christ” from sitting with my friend in Sacrament Meeting as a teen and were both the only active members in our families, and through our my life in many different circumstances. And now at 53, still, having all these memories of progression and associating them with this hymn – I Believe In Christ so come what may, with Him I’ll stand in that great day, when in this earth he comes again to rule among the sons of men.
I love this, thank you for sharing! <3
Loved Camp Ritchie!
Me too! 🙂