Camp Nazareth: A Short Story

I have spent years creating a mask for myself. A mask that I wear everyday I step out of my house, everytime I go to church. I have not talked to anyone without my mask. Not my friends, not my mother, and not God. I have not talked to God without my mask because I feel betrayed. In the past four years two of my closest friends have tried to kill themselves. I saw my mother's heart break when she held her father's bones 21 years after his death. One of my family members told me that I don't have what it takes to follow my dreams, that I'm not good enough. Some of the people that I trusted to never leave my side have rejected me and now make fun of me. In the past four years I have never felt more alone and isolated. For the past four years I have been doubting my faith. I didn't realize that my faith had weakened until I went to Camp Nazareth in 2015. I have been going to Camp Nazareth for three years now. Every year I have gone I've gone for a reason. In 2014 I went to camp to see if it was really as amazing as all of my friends said it was. In 2015 I went to camp hoping that the Kardiotissa, a myrrh streaming icon of the Panagia, from Taylor Pennsylvania, would make an appearance on Thursday night. I had experienced the icon in 2014 when she was brought to the camp for the first time and it is …show more content…
I went to camp that summer with so many questions that didn't have answers. Why were so many bad things happening to me? Why wasn't God listening to what I asking? Why had he forgotten me? That summer I didn't get answers. Instead I was given a bible verse. Psalm 91. “‘He is my refuge and my fortress, my God , in whom I trust.”’He will cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart. You will not fear the terror of night, nor the arrow that flies by day, nor the pestilence that stalks in the darkness, nor the plague that destroys at