Life Teen Camp Cana kicks off first summer of retreats on new property near Ste. Genevieve
The rolling hills of Camp Cana are mostly quiet at 7 a.m. on a summer morning, save for the chirps of birds and the crunch of gravel under the shoes of a few young adults climbing the path to the small white chapel.
By 7:30 a.m., the camp’s summer missionaries were all in the pews to start their day with a holy half hour in front of the Blessed Sacrament. Outside, two priests sat in chairs at a distance, ready to hear confessions.
Missouri humidity thickened the air. The lake sparkled under the sun. A breeze blew through the grape vines that remain in the center of the camp, and someone’s sins were forgiven.
The main gathering space down the path gradually populated with teens, walking up from their villas and grabbing a table to chat with friends or sitting in one of the plentiful porch chairs with a Bible and journal. At 8:30, it was time for the first large group activity of the day: “first fruits,” a guided lectio divina with a Scripture passage.
Missionary Gabe White read aloud from Matthew 3:13-17, the baptism of Jesus. Listen for a word or phrase that sticks out to you, he advised. Then, ask the Lord about those words and listen with an open heart for His response.
“Just because you don’t hear a loud, audible voice doesn’t mean He isn’t speaking to you,” White said.
In the back of the room, Camp Cana director Molly McLaughlin watched the teens pray. McLaughlin was hired last fall and has been working ever since to transform the former Chaumette Vineyards and Winery into Life Teen’s newest summer camp. Where they gathered now was previously part of a large ballroom event space, she explained.
“This room used to be a place where people partied and celebrated weddings. Now it’s a place where a teen’s life is about to change,” McLaughlin said. “Having that thought makes everything worth it. It’s so life-giving to see this place full of people.”
The fruits of the labor
On Aug. 15, Life Teen International closed on the sale of Chaumette Vineyards and Winery near Ste. Genevieve. The purchase came after actively looking for property in the area for the past five years, Life Teen chief advancement officer Steve Allgeyer said.
Life Teen is an independent Catholic organization that primarily offers youth ministry programming for middle- and high school-aged youths. In addition to Camp Cana, the organization has two camp sites in Georgia, Covecrest and Hidden Lake, as well as summer camp programs in Texas and California.
The name Camp Cana comes from the wedding feast at Cana, where Jesus performed His first public miracle of turning water into wine — as well as a nod to the camp property’s origin. A quote from the Scripture story in John 2:5, “Do whatever He tells you,” is painted prominently on the dining hall wall next to the camp logo.
McLaughlin moved onto the property soon after the sale closed in August and spent the next nine — and counting — months transforming the space with a team of contractors and volunteers. The ballroom became a gathering space; the adjoining restaurant is now the dining hall; the villas are outfitted with bunk beds. A tabernacle was installed in the formerly Episcopal chapel, which was then was consecrated as a Catholic space, taking the freshly canonized millennial-teen St. Carlo Acutis as its patron (and housing a first-class relic of St. Carlo’s hair).
Life Teen also built a high ropes course, a low ropes course and a paintball area on the grounds, with plans for more outdoor gathering spaces in the works. All the buildings have been renamed with Catholic themes: The main gathering space is Assumption Hall, in thanksgiving for the closing of the property deal on that feast day. The camp office is in the Bishop Hermann Welcome Center, named in honor of retired Auxiliary Bishop Robert Hermann, who was instrumental in bringing Life Teen to St. Louis when he was pastor of Incarnate Word in the 1990s. Other buildings are named for saints or the Blessed Mother.
Camp Cana started hosting retreats this spring, for both youth and adults, before kicking off a full summer of weeklong high school and middle school camps. A team of about 25 summer missionaries plus a visiting host, musician and priests lead teens through the week of adventurous activities, discussions, prayer, sacraments and hang out time.
This summer, the camp will welcome 41 parish groups, 12 of which are from Missouri. Most of the others come from other Midwest states including Iowa, Kansas, Illinois and Wisconsin.
In the fall, full-time Life Teen missionaries will be assigned to Camp Cana to serve people who come to the camp year-round.
Anne Makowski, a summer missionary and parishioner at St. Margaret Mary Alacoque Parish in Mehlville, recently finished her freshman year at Murray State University and had heard about Life Teen camps from a friend. When she learned that a new camp was being established close to home, she decided to apply.
“I know I’m exactly where the Lord wants me. Even when we’re doing the hard work, I’m so content here and have so much peace,” she said. “Just connecting with the (teens) one-on-one and getting to know their own spiritual journeys, and leading them through that and seeing them grow — I’m excited to walk through it with them more personally.”
Incarnate Word parishioner Andrew Siemer is in his fourth summer as a Life Teen missionary, previously serving at Hidden Lake in Georgia and Golden State in California. He’s excited this summer to be able to serve the teens of his home archdiocese and see the impact the camp will have on the area.
“Having this camp here and already seeing the fruits it’s producing is amazing,” he said. “(There’s) joy and authenticity, both with missionaries and with the campers. The campers come in and maybe haven’t experienced a Life Teen camp before, but then within the first two days of going to first fruits and doing lectio divina, they’re opening up and sharing insights in front of the whole group.”
As he finished his senior year at Saint Louis University, Siemer frequently came down to Camp Cana to help with projects on the property in the fall and spring. “This camp is just truly special, especially with the name, it being a winery and being called Camp Cana — you can just see the fruits of the labor here,” he said.
A spiritual home
Matthew Wineman stood on a platform, high in the air, looking dubiously at the spaced-out wooden beams strung on ropes that stretched out before him. He’d already made it through about half of the high ropes course, securely clipped into a harness, but he wasn’t sure he could conquer the rest.
Below, his fellow young men from Assumption Parish in O’Fallon encouraged him forward. “Yeah, Matt!” “Let’s go!” “You’ve got this!” they yelled up.
Matthew took a careful step onto the rope, then another onto the first wooden beam. Step by step, he progressed across, reaching the next platform to raucous cheers.
Not feeling his best, he ended up coming down from the course before reaching the end. But as he sat down in the shade to recover and drink some water in the 90-degree heat, he was already reflecting on what lesson he could take away from the challenge.
“My faith life also started off really easy, and then I hit some rough points where I was scared to keep moving forward but I had to keep persevering,” he said. In those times, “my community, my youth group, they all build me up — like when I was up there struggling, they all cheered me on. They love me, and I appreciate them for that.”
Life Teen camp fosters those authentic friendships, said Kaiden Hoff, another Assumption O’Fallon teen. Kaiden recently graduated from St. Dominic High School and attended Camp Covecrest for the past three summers before coming to Camp Cana this year.
“Every year I’ve grown in my relationship with the Lord, but I think there’s really a true sense of community you get here,” he said. “I mean, yesterday we shaved (a friend’s) head, and the amount of laughter and joy that came from our cabin is honestly the greatest part of my life, because I’ve not laughed that hard in a long time…there’s beauty in brotherhood and community and friendship, and camp is a great demonstration of that.”
Across camp, teens from Assumption Parish in Mattese faced a series of team challenges on the low ropes course. This was the first time youth minister Dani LaRose has taken a group to a Life Teen camp — the distance and cost were prohibitive before, she said, so having a camp an hour from the parish makes a huge difference.
During the week, the teens’ cell phones were locked in LaRose’s office back at the parish, giving them the gift and the challenge of disconnecting and focusing solely on the camp experience. Without outside distractions, Marissa Blackford has been enjoying getting up earlier and starting her days at camp with quiet and prayer time, a practice she plans to take back with her after the week is over.
“Going into it, I had so much FOMO (fear of missing out), like, I can’t see what other people are doing back at home,” Marissa said. “But by the second day I really just let go of everything and let my worries drift away. I’m building memories here, and I think these memories are going to last longer than ones I’d be making scrolling social media.”
Matthew Belleville, another Assumption Mattese parishioner, was inspired by the men’s talk the previous evening on identity in Christ, which was followed by an hour of silent prayer — something he’d rarely if ever do back at home.
“Last night was definitely something special,” Matthew said. “And with the silent hour, it was a time to slow down, just us and God, and talk to Him. I was laying out in the field, just looking up at the sky.”
Assumption O’Fallon youth minister Nick Bone has seen how holy places can become spiritual hubs where people experience the Lord and want to return again and again. For Bone, it was the Marianist Retreat Center in Eureka, then Benedictine College.
“Now we have this super epic place right here in Missouri where we can call our spiritual home, somewhere we can flee to when maybe we need a break, or maybe we really need that retreat,” said Bone, who also teaches theology at St. Dominic High School. “We’re coming here for our fall retreat, so it’s a goal of our parish to make this like a second home, where you hear ‘Camp Cana’ and you get that feeling in your heart: ‘Oh, this is home for us.’ I think the kids are starting to feel that.”
