This reflection comes from Hannah Lehman, longtime camper and summer staff in 2021, 2023, and 2024. Hannah currently serves with Mennonite Voluntary Service in Tucson, AZ. This blog is shared in celebration of Camp Friedenswald’s 75th anniversary. 

Camp Friedenswald is where I have experienced the most crying, from myself and from others.

My first year on summer staff was the summer of 2021. I was only 19 years old and nervous to be on summer staff when I didn’t feel prepared or old enough. I ended up having one of the best summers of my life. On the final day of the final camp week, after we finished our final round of cleaning, we all gathered by the fireplace by the peaceful grounds for a final debrief. We shared words of appreciation for the summer, then sang a final “The Lord Lift You Up.” The second we started singing, tears started flowing uncontrollably from my tired eyes. I was exhausted from a long summer of mentoring youth. I was hungry, because we had just spent hours cleaning. I was sad, so sad that the summer was over and this unique group of staff would never exist in the same way again. I was grateful for the transformative experience I had and the connections I had made. I was, for the first time in my life, not ashamed that I was crying, because I knew that everyone around me was also feeling big emotions and that we were in this together.

Even now, as I write this reflection, I’m on the verge of tears because I miss camp a lot and am sad that I won’t be able to return as summer staff again. I thank Camp Friedenswald for giving me the space to feel my emotions and for the soil and people to receive my tears.

Hannah Lehman