The Stump of Jesse
Upward Bound Camp
Fir Sprout
12/5/2025
A shoot will come out from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from its roots will bear fruit.
Isaiah 1:11
On the morning of Friday December 5th, I noticed this sprout, this shoot from the burned stump of what was once a big, beautiful fir tree. A tree like so many others that once graced the property of the Old Gates School, which became the home of Upward Bound Camp for Persons with Special Needs in 2019.
When I caught sight of this sprout, I felt a small, sweet sense of hope for the future of Upward Bound Camp.
It has been more than five years since we lost more than a forest of trees tucked into the eastern edge of the camp property. The Santiam Canyon Fires, in September of 2020, consumed our bunkhouses, our indoor activity spaces, a beautiful gymnasium built in the 1940s, as well as the bulk of our storage buildings and everything in them. In the ensuing years our, or maybe just my own, hope for rebuilding and restoring the camp has been quietly dying.
But there was something about that tiny fir sprout that made me think that maybe there is still hope for the restoration of Upward Bound Camp.
On the Sunday following my fir sprout discovery, the second Sunday of Advent, LaVonne Alexander, our pastor at Mill City Presbyterian Church shared the Isaiah 1:11 verse and it made me think of the small, eye-catching fir sprout. So, I decided to look further into this stump of Jesse, and found the following passage from the Message:
“A green shoot will sprout from Jesse’s stump, from his roots a budding branch. The life-giving Spirit of God will hover over him, the Spirit that brings wisdom and understanding, he Spirit that gives direction and builds strength, the Spirit that instills knowledge. He won’t judge by appearances, won’t decide on the basis of hearsay. He’ll judge the needy by what is right, render decisions on earth’s poor with justice. His words will bring everyone to awed attention…Each morning he’ll pull on sturdy work clothes and boots and build righteousness and faithfulness in the land.”
This passage shined a light not on my loss of hope but also on my loss of faith. I had to ask myself “who am I to question God’s timing?”
I often find myself responding to the questions and concerns of community members and friends regarding the lack of progress on the rebuilding of the bunkhouses, activity spaces and the gymnasium with an air of confidence that I haven’t actually felt of late. I am quite good at concealing my real feelings of despair at the amount of time it has taken to see actual progress towards restoring our full, year-round services for the benefit of our campers with diverse abilities. I can use the expected words and phrases of faith and assurance; things are moving forward—slowly but surely, it’s all in God’s hands, it will all happen when the timing is right, but the truth is, I have had a very difficult time believing in any of these platitudes over the course of the last couple of years.
All I can say right now is, praise the Lord for the gift of forgiveness and, thank you God, for the reminder that faith has the power to get us through the most difficult of times. I know that the tiny glimmer of hope and faith I am feeling at the sight of a small green sprout is my reminder that God has great plans for Upward Bound Camp and I pray that all of us at UBC will seek and find “the life-giving Spirit of God that hovers over us, brings us wisdom and understanding, and gives us direction and builds strength and instills knowledge.”
Amen