Maren’s history with Camp Asbury stems back to the womb, traveling down the mudslide when her mom and dad were volunteering at camp. Her family has deep roots at Asbury, and roots were something that Maren has found she’s craved throughout her life. “My mom’s a Methodist pastor, so we moved a lot, and as a family our connection to space was often limited by her appointments. Asbury was a place that I went to that I had a connection with longer than many of the communities that I lived in. So, having it as one of those places is important.”
As a camper Maren remembers Asbury as a place that she loved and always felt love mirrored back to her. And having spent so much of her youth at camp, she can count her developmental milestones amongst the landmarks at camp. “I think camp in general gave me lots of things to be good at. I think the greatest things in life are things that present you with lots of little challenges. You encounter some tasks that are really difficult, but you can add up lots of little wins along the way. And I think camp and being out in nature, having to problem solve or having to get along with the same people for a week, all those different types of challenges, combined with the support you have, help you make those little wins.”
Maren’s faith journey has been a complex one, growing up a pastor’s kid. Having her faith leader as her mother, establishing a faith community that she felt she could identify with and establish as her own was a challenge. She saw that Asbury was different from the other faith communities in her life. At camp she was able to expand her world view because there is so much more diversity than the small circles she was exposed to. To this day Maren sees camp as one of her spiritual homes, “I love the Northeast Ohio Camp philosophy, that the best way to connect with your faith is to connect with nature. God can be found everywhere in nature. I have always, at every point of development, found that camp matches what I need. Asbury has shown that they will support me wherever I am.”
Recently Maren embarked on a voyage back to Camp Asbury, and it was an emotional reunion coming home. “A lot of life has happened between when I was last there. I knew it was going to be emotional, but it was a well-rounded experience for me. It was everything. I connected with my younger self again; it was so important to find her and meet her again.” Maren’s expedition was a day filled with experiences that unlocked core sense memories that helped her begin to rediscover the roots that she knew were always planted at Asbury. She went on a hike on the Red Trail, and a storm rolled in. She recounts looking up at the trees, watching them move and seeing the wind whip around them, and feeling the awe of creation in that moment. Describing it as a “Total sensory experience. Can’t recommend it enough.” On her return she wanted to go back into a cabin, one of her safe spaces, and revive the sense memory of the smell of it.
Maren left Camp Asbury that day feeling reconnected with a part of herself. Part of her experience was a nostalgic walk down memory lane, but another portion was her getting back in touch with a place that had been a rock for her most of her life. It has been an actual home and a spiritual home. It’s a place where she had made lifelong friends and discovered her own social and spiritual independence, and it’s still embracing her to this day. “I loved seeing what’s the same and what has changed, because the changes are signs of moving forward to what camp can be, and that is evident. And that’s really cool. But i’s also powerful to see what will always be the same, which is to make connections and to grow in and to love your faith.”