(gentle music)
- My name's Kendra Grimes,
I'm the Chaplain here at Randolph-Macon,
and I'm one of the
co-directors for Convergence.
I love being a part of a camp
where high school students can come
and explore science deeply
and their faith deeply,
and a chance to just
grow and what they know
and what they can do together,
it's really exciting.
- I think that this is something
that's really important
for 21st Century Christians
to think about and talk about,
and kind of learn about how
science and Christianity
really can go hand in hand.
And then we get to come
out here to the creek
and we get to really live out the message
that we're working on.
- I think that Randolph-Macon's setting
as a residential college, our
students are getting to live
in a freshman dorm, which
is a neat experience,
while still having the comforts of a camp.
- It's all hands-on, like
there's a few lectures
that get you in the zone
for what you're gonna do,
and even if you don't
learn in the lectures
by audio or visual, you learn
when you're out and doing.
- We're going to York River State Park
to do an archeological dig
and to be on our water.
Yesterday, our students learned
about sustainable farming at Shalom Farms.
Later today, we're going
to clean up Mechumps Creek,
a local creek in Ashland.
Those are opportunities where
they get to be in creation,
appreciate everything
that God has given us,
and have an opportunity
to think deeply about
how they can make an impact
on their environment.
- So they're gaining experience
in writing liturgy, writing sermons,
being able to speak up for what it is
they've seen and experienced and believed.
We hope that that's something
they'll take back to their church,
back to their school and
back to their community.
A chance for them to think about ways
they can get involved in public
policy or volunteer work.
- This camp has been influential in like,
meeting people and
helping me to realize that
I like helping people a lot.
- That's one thing that
I hope to do one day
is to be able to be a
representative for people
in places where they feel
like they're underrepresented.
- I feel like I've learned
things from the students
and I've also learned
things from the lectures.
They ask a lot of questions
and they're very curious.
- They are very much looking for
and appreciative of an
opportunity to think,
to ask questions without being told
you can't ask those questions
or it's wrong to ask
those questions and also,
understanding that we
aren't gonna have answers
to all their questions.
- One girl, one camper mentioned that,
"I love this, I love that we get
to have such difficult conversations"
and that just brings joy, not only to me,
but I know to other counselors
and the head counselors
because that's what the
purpose of Convergence is,
to challenge students and to
have them think differently
than they would have thought before.
- We always tell them,
we're not here to tell you what to think,
we're giving you
opportunities to ask questions
and we're showing you a variety of ways
that people see the relationship
between religion and science.
- Ever since I was young,
I've loved science,
and I grew up Christian
in a Methodist church.
I just try and match up the two,
to try and make sense of,
like my faith and science
because I love both so I
can't just get rid of one.
- So as a person of faith,
who also trust in the
principles of science,
I find hope in learning more
about how the world works,
and I believe God's the
one that knit it together,
and even has a plan for it all,
but that doesn't mean we
can't ask hard questions
and we can't explore
really difficult topics
because when we explore those
things together, we grow,
and maybe God opens a new
window and a new door,
maybe something we discover
in another solar system
teaches us something about
the God who created it.
- And another way to understand those
is that religion and
science inherently deal
with questions of truth about
ourselves and the world,
and so they relate in one way or another,
and that could be
understood as convergence,
that's where we took the name of the camp.
- I had never really
considered faith and science
as being connected, and
I have learned so much
from our excellent
faculty, our presenters,
the people that we work
with out in the field,
our program partners but I've learned
even more from our students.
They are just exceptional human beings
and really are our generation of leaders
that we need to foster and care for.
(gentle music)
