Landscapes- Katie Randazzo

“A sacred place is not chosen, but it chooses.”

This past summer, I worked at a Young Life camp in the Adirondacks. The history of the camp is intricate and complicated. A Jewish girls camp originally owned the camp space, with multiple buildings nestled on Saranac Lake in upstate New York. A few men who were in Young Life leadership positions prayed for a camp property to be built in the north east region of the country. They did not have any offers on property until they came across the girls camp in New York. They contacted the owners and they were willing to sell it for a low price to Young Life.

            That is leaving out many details of the history, but you get the jist. The camp property, the sacred ground, was passed through two religions. It is weird to think about the history of the campground as sacred to people of two different religions, but I think it is an example of the axiom that sacred place is not chosen but it chooses. It does not matter what religion was being practiced on the campground, teenagers from different walks of faith over many years have grown in their faith through the same place.

            While on the camp ground in July, a group of women visited the camp who were frequent guests at the Jewish girls camp many years before. They had a meeting with the camp staff and were in tears about the mission of Young Life helping individuals find Christ and put their faith in Him through the campground at Saranac Village. The depth of honesty and support blew us all in the room away- that no religious beliefs separated us, but the fact that we had all encountered the sacred in the space and that is all that matters.