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DEL.ICIO.USYoung campers need time to grieve, heal
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Where was he?
Registration was done, over with.
Devotion service had wrapped up. The teens were in their cabins, relaxing, getting ready for bed. The lights would go out at 10:45 p.m.
And Edward Thomas Brown still hadn’t shown up.
He lived in Hoschton, about 30 minutes from the Lawrenceville Methodist Campground off Braselton Highway. He was always responsible and prompt, yet he didn’t pick up when friends called his cellphone, wondering about his whereabouts.
He was supposed to be at camp, one of the 60 kids and 30 adults who’d gathered to spend a week doing handy work for the shut-in, the elderly — anybody, actually, who needed something painted, patched or pruned.
For six days, the campers rise at 7 a.m., eat, prepare for their assignments, and go out in the community to perform eight hours of physical labor. Then they return to camp for food, rest, devotion.
Wednesday marked the start of the Lawrenceville Assistance Project, sponsored by First United Methodist Church of Lawrenceville since 1994. Love in action. That’s how Brent Bohanan, a former FUMC youth director, describes the project.
Late Wednesday, I drove up to the campground to meet a few of the folks behind the project, the subject of Thursday’s column. Northbound traffic had been a bear. It wasn’t clear if a fatal accident that took place in the Hamilton Mill area of I-85 had played a part.
At camp, though, calm prevailed.
The teens sat around picnic tables or benches on the front porch of their cabins, chatting. Amy Keller, an FUMC intern and veteran volunteer of the project, jotted down notes for a devotion that she would deliver that evening.
Around 10 p.m. Wednesday, the adult chaperones roused the teens from their cabins and gathered them under the arbor. The young people figured something was awry — the Rev. Davis Chappell, the senior minister at FUMC — had arrived.
Then, he told them the news. That Edward Thomas Brown, 17, had been killed in a car accident while en route to camp. That Brown had died at the scene.
“It was tough to watch,” said Keller, 22, who didn’t know Brown well because of their age difference.
“A lot of the older kids were upset. They had done Bible study with him and had gotten really close to him. Their hearts are breaking.”
The camp, which was to conclude Tuesday, has been canceled, but just for the summer. It may be held in the fall to honor Brown, whose funeral arrangements had not been released Thursday.
“A lot of these kids have grown up together,” Bohanan told me. “It’s like part of their family is now missing. Their world has been turned upside down. How can they think about next week or going to school in the fall when something like this has happened?
“The kids need a little time to grieve.”
And possibly heal.
• Rick Badie’s column usually appears on Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. Contact him at 770-263-3875 or e-mail rbadie@ajc.com.
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