Finding harmony in God and nature at Amigo Centre
Swans gliding on a calm Michigan lake in early fall.
Early morning mist shrouding wetland.
Poison sumac warning us to stay away with its bright fall colors.
Dew lacing a spider web in the dawning new day. In the woods, dark wet ground sports four or five different mosses, said our guide. Hmm. I knew mosses sometimes looked different, but didn’t know they had different names. How rich and varied is the natural world when we take time to truly notice.
Finally, brilliant sun beaming through the woods, warming our slightly chilly walk.
And much more that I can’t name now.
It had been a long time since I’d been on a true nature hike with a naturalist (far right, Jim Gascho).
My stomping grounds at Camp Amigo were not the first childhood camp I ever went to (established in 1957, and I remember well my dad’s excitement to help with early projects making a campground out of woods and lake). Little Eden (how aptly named) a bit further upstate was my first, where my parents coaxed me into leaving my “gi gi” pacifier as a toddler.
But these grounds at Camp Amigo are close to holy pilgrimage every time I have the opportunity to return to this lower-Michigan-basic-lake-cabins-woods-tennis-and-ball-courts-church campground. How well I remember pondering life direction and my own spiritual wanderings around evening campfires.
The camp is now called Amigo Centre, headquarters for an exciting outdoor/environmental educational program for public and private school children and hosting a variety of adult programs all year long such as Road Scholars, which I’ll write more about soon, and Quilting Retreats and Scrapbooking and other cool stuff.
Its slogan/logo is “In Harmony with God and Nature.” A perfect slogan for this blog, too, methinks. God for me is inseparable from nature whether it is ocean’s depths or mountain heights or limitless sky or rollicking river.
I do not just find God in nature, God finds me and wraps me once again in thrall of a wondrous world.
Thanks be to God.
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Where do you find God, or God find you? What places do you remember in your childhood or teenage years as being special? I’d love to hear about them.
findingharmonyblog 
I had a similar experience with the American Youth Foundation at Camp Merrowvista in New Hampshire. Your post brings back happy high school memories of climbing mountains, sleeping in three-sided cabins open to the woods, and canoeing.
Glad this post helped reconnect you with your own camping/hiking experiences. That’s what it was supposed to do. Thanks for the comment!
Love the pictures…brought back lots of great memories for me too at Camp Amigo back in the days.
I too went to Camp Amigo both from church and then we had several retreats from Bethany there. I remember God speaking to me there too. Decidedly there is something about nature – as He created it – that call us to Him. In the beginning . . .
I was just really struck by their motto and stuff. Have you been back there lately? Changed but still awesome. Thanks for the comment!