A Methodist pilgrimage

I’m headed back to Lake Junaluska. Do not ask me to get in an innertube.

In 2016 — although I refuse to believe it was that long ago — the youth from First United Methodist Church in Shelbyville, Tenn., traveled to Lake Junaluska, North Carolina, and I was one of the chaperones.

Lake Junaluska, at North Carolina’s western perimeter, is a community centered around several United Methodist facilities. There is a retreat and conference center, a World Methodist Museum, and a number of privately-owned homes, B&Bs, and what have you. A number of United Methodist clergy retire to Lake Junaluska. There is, of course, a lake, and other recreational facilities.

In 2016, Alden Procopio (now Alden Fowkes) was First UMC’s youth director. She had been a youth at a Methodist church in Georgia, and the Junaluska trip was a tradition for that church. Alden arranged for FUMC’s group to join the much-larger Georgia group on one of its trips. The Georgia folks were universally gracious and welcoming, and the trip probably wouldn’t have happened without the partnership, but it occasionally felt like we were passengers in someone else’s vehicle.

Although we stayed at the Lagoalinda Inn, within the Lake Junaluska compound, we spent much of each day off-campus. We drove back into East Tennessee to go…