Family Camp at Rainbow Trail Lutheran Camp
Last week the Bostrom family spent a week at Rainbow Trail Lutheran Camp for family camp. RTLC is an ELCA camp in the Sangre de Cristo mountain range about 90 minutes southwest of Colorado Springs, CO. Sheridan is growing in its partnership with RTLC. They are the host of our Spring Break Ski Retreat and our families, children and youth attend a week of camp here in the summer. This was our sixth year at Family Camp and one of the reasons we return every year is because the Christian community is amazing. This year was also special because there were two families from Sheridan with us.
A Typical Day at Family Camp
The morning starts slow with hot coffee in a porch swing as the sun rises over Pikes Peak. Some mornings there is holy communion on the ball field; other mornings there is prayer at the labyrinth. Hot breakfast is served at 8am. Morning worship is at 9am and includes camp songs (with hand motions and jumping), scripture reading, prayer and a faith witness shared by one of the summer counselors. The faith stories and journeys of these college age counselors are meaningful and touch my heart with hope. The remainder of the morning is Bible study for all ages. The children and youth divide up among the counselors for age appropriate Bible study and the adults gather together for Bible study. This year’s Bible study leader was Pastor Jay Gamlin, an ELCA pastor from South Carolina. He led a study on Christian unity and helped us understand ways to love our faithful brothers and sisters, even when we think differently or land in different places theologically or politically. Lunch is served at noon, sometimes inside, sometimes outside. The afternoon is a time for rest, friendly visiting, and making things with our hands. The projects range from projects in the wood shop to making your own jewelry to pottery. At 5pm, challenge hour is when the family camp volleyball tournament happens. This is a more intense tournament than you might expect for a family camp. 6pm is dinner time and the highlight of every evening meal is the hot homemade bread that I like to put butter and honey on. Yummy!!! The evenings always have an all camp activity like a carnival, dance, concert and a camp game show called “pop shop millionaire.” At 8:30 is evening worship with the more reflective camp songs around the campfire, scripture, prayers, and families come forward to share families stories. After worship some families play board games with each other and some families go to bed after a fun-filled, but tiring day.
Highlight of the Week
The highlight of the week for our family was hiking in the mountains together. RTLC has a different hike every day. Tuesday, Rhonda and Soren hiked up to Venable Falls, nine miles round trip. This was the longest hike Soren had ever done in his life. Wednesday, Annika and I hiked up to Eagle Peak at an elevation of 13,200 feet. It was a long day, 14 miles round trip, and 12 hours total. Annika made it to the top, though! The best part about this day for me was holding Annika’s hand for about 6 hours. Friday, our whole family hiked together. We did a 10 mile round trip hike to an overlook called Peerless. This was the longest our family had ever hiked together. If there is such a thing as nature deficient disorder, we were cured of it last week.
Our family will probably continue going to RTLC family camp. The combination of God’s creation and Christian community restores our bodies and souls every summer.
Family Camp Information
Rainbow Trail Lutheran Camp
Hillside, Colorado
2016 Dates, TBA