What is Juneteenth? Check out this comprehensive resource from the UMC General Commission on Religion and Race:

https://www.r2hub.org/library/juneteenth

It is important to celebrate all of God’s creation, and Juneteenth is a unique way to celebrate. It is paramount that camps are finding ways to encourage, equip, and empower Black and brown voices. This can be done in a multitude of ways through camping and retreat ministries.

A few suggestions to implement at camp:

• invite BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) to lead in worship
• attend a predominantly black church with your staff and/or campers
• create space for staff and campers of color to authentically share any harm that may have been done based on the color of their skin 

While our country has come a long way since 1865, there is still much work to be done. Our ancestors traveled through many places to get to the promised land, including some water. I invite us to take a moment to reflect on the water of our baptism that brings us to freedom:

“On behalf of the whole Church, I ask you:

Do you renounce the spiritual forces of wickedness,

reject the evil powers of this world,

and repent of your sin?

I do.

Do you accept the freedom and power God gives you

to resist evil, injustice, and oppression

in whatever forms they present themselves?

I do.”

Many of us United Methodists have heard and made these vows. The water of baptism has divinely connected each of us. It is through these waters that we find celebration in the freedom that God gave all creation. As the old Negro spiritual teaches us to “wade in the water,” we must be willing to come together so that all may embrace the freedom that God’s loving grace has gifted us. 

To all my BIPOC siblings, embrace these words from Marianne Willamson:

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. 

Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.

It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us.

We ask ourselves, ‘Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?’

Actually, who are you not to be?

You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world.

Go serve the world unapologetically, just as you are. Happy Juneteenth!

References:

• The United Methodist Hymnal: Book of United Methodist Worship. (1989). Nashville: United Methodist Publishing House
• Gainer. Folk Songs From The West Virginia Hills. (2017). West Virginia University Press. pp. 216-217, "Wade in the Water" 
• Williamson, M. (1996). A Return To Love. HarperCollins

Josh Shaw serves on the UMCRM Board of Directors. He is the Executive Assistant/Event & Community Outreach Coordinator at Cachengo, Inc., and he stays in ministry by regularly leading a Junior High camp at Lakeshore Camp (TN) and serving on the Tennessee-Western Kentucky Annual Conference Youth Leadership Team. He is an Enneagram 2 and a Ravenclaw. He finds joy with his pup, Queen, nieces and nephews, and expressing creativity through choreography.