Árdís - 01.01.1949, Side 14

12
ÁRDÍ S
A Visit to Nawakwa
By Thjóðbjörg Henrickson
It is my pleasure and duty to bring to you a report of my visit
to the Lutheran Leadership Training Camp in Pennsylvania, near
Gettysburg.
As you already know, I was asked, at our last convention, to
go to this camp to observe methods, especially of administration.
This was done in answer to an invitation sent through the president
of our Synod to the executive of Sunrise Lutheran Leadership
Camp from the U.L.C.A. Parish and Church Schoolboard in
Philadelphia.
Early in July of last summer I left Winnipeg by train for
Philadelphia. Thinking this camp was only a stone’s throw from
that city, I found, when I reached Philadelphia, that I had gone
a hundred miles farther than I should have done. I was not sorry
about that as it gave me an opportunity to meet some of the members
of the Lutheran Parish and Church School Board at their head-
quarters.
The following day I retraced my steps and travelled by bus
to Gettysburg. As you know, Gettysburg is a very historical spot—
where some of the last decisive battles were fiercly fought between
the northern and southern states—where families were so divided
on the subject of slaves and their rights to freedom that brother
met brother in battle. These skirmishes and battle lasted for three
days on these grounds—July 1, 2, and 3 in 1863.
In a visit I made that same week to this place, I walked across
a wide strip of green that had at that time been a wheat field,
where 1,200 men were mown down by those that hid behind
boulders on the opposite hillside.
It is interesting to know that the Gettysburg Lutheran Semi-
nary, established years before this—in 1826— served as a hospital
and housed over a thousand dying and wounded soldiers of both
sides, in those last days of the American Civil War.
Every state represented at that battle ground, has erected
memorial monuments and statues, depicting the story of this tragic
battle as it was so grimly fought to its bitter end. These monu-
ments are works of art and scattered over the huge area, dedicated
as sacred ground and beautifully kept.