Summer

Harper Lee's "To Kill a Mockingbird" was published 50 years ago this summer. It is a book that changed me - it gave me a hunger to read, and also opened my youthful eyes to the reality of prejudice and how each of us can make a difference to our society. Early in the book the young narrator, Scout, reflects on summer...

"Summer was on the way; Jem and I awaited it with impatience. Summer was our best season: it was sleeping on the back screen porch in cots, or trying to sleep in the tree house; summer was everything good to eat; it was a thousand colours in a parched landscape; but most of all summer was Dill."

For the past 6 years summer has been many things; time off, beaches with the family, the dog running in the sea, long evenings with less meetings; but most of all summer has been Scoughall.

The final week in July has found me at the beautiful campsite on the East Coast of Scotland. While there a temporary community has been formed made up of a team of 30 adults, and 50 young people (P6-S2), from all over Scotland, but with a strong Lanarkshire contingent.

Summer is Scoughall; songs on the minibus, young people scattered across the field or the beach, quiet times and noisy times, sad moments and moments that we will remember all our lives, an awareness of God's presence and a longing that we would know that reality when we return to our homes, space to pray and worship, young people growing into adults; hurts healed and stories shared; tiredness, sun, and sticky toffee pudding!

Summer is Scoughall - maybe you, or someone you know, could be a part of it in 2011!