interfaith

Readers from each LD, please meet Tr. TC at Dining Hall at 8:15am

Interfaith

Time: 08:45-09:15 AM

Date: April 27, 2025

Location: Amphitheater on the Cub Scout side

MC: Dillon Huynh (LD Potomac)

08:45

Dillon: Hello everyone! My name is Dillon Huynh and I am your master of ceremony for our TKT 2025 Interfaith Program. Please take a moment to adjust your uniform, check your neighbors’ uniforms and extend greetings to your neighbors to share the wonderful scouting spirit that brings us all here this morning. To follow along, you can find the readings on TKT's website at: http://bit.ly/tkt2025

As we go through this interfaith program, representatives from each Lien Doan will deliver their vision of the scouting spirit and how they would want each of us to experience that scouting spirit as they would in their Lien Doan. Each LD is as different and unique as each of our scouts, leaders, and families.  Here, at TKT, we want to celebrate our differences under the same reverence to the powers that be and to each other, for one another.

Please prepare yourself in accordance with your religion or preferred customs.

08:50

LD Phong Chau & Phu Xuan 

Nonsectarian Reflection:

In this moment, I pause to reflect on the wonders of existence, Grateful for the vastness of the universe and its mysteries.

I cherish the beauty of nature, its diversity, and intricate designs. Thankful for the marvels that science unveils before us.

I express gratitude for the connections we forge with fellow beings, The bonds of love, friendship, and empathy we share.

I appreciate the power of reason and critical thinking.  That guides us towards knowledge and understanding.

I'm thankful for the capacity to grow, learn, and evolve. May my actions reflect my gratitude, shaping a better world for all.

08:55

LD Potomac

Let us have a few moments of silence to ourselves and reflect on what we have gained, learned, and experienced from this Trai Ket Than. Be it that you have acquired additional scouting skills, making new friends, having fun and laughter with a stranger whom you just met for the very first time.  I hope that you treasure those moments and make them part of your long life memory.   But most important of all, I hope that you have acquired the capacity and compassion to overlook and forgive those whose actions may have caused you some pain.  After all, a scout is friendly and kind to all.  It is also fitting within the meaning of Ket Than.  It means friendship, making friends with a stranger, a stronger bonding with your fellow scouts.  To be human is to make mistakes.  But to be a better human being is to have compassion, empathy and ability to overlook others’ short- comings.   To each one of you, I thank you for your TKT attendance.  Your present made this TKT more enjoyable and brought out the best of all of those whom you have interacted with.  Have a safe trip home and don’t forget to participate and help out the next TKT.  Thank you and God bless. 

09:00

LD Hung Vuong

We gather together now from all the busyness and activity of the day for a time apart from the material and temporary to consider that we are also bound to the spiritual and timeless. We gather together now to remember that we have duties not only to ourselves and to those with whom we share this world, but duties to the Divine Source of all that is. We gather together to reflect on the obligation we have taken. Either rushed or relaxed, through tranquil or calamity we've all gathered today for this event. Now, I would like for everyone to repeat after me.

Great Spirit —-

 "Great spirit, whose tepee is the sky and whose hunting ground is the earth, 

Mighty and fearful are you called. 

Ruler over storms, over men and birds and beasts, 

Have your way over all, 

Over earth ways as over skyways. 

Find us this day our meat and corn, 

That we may be strong and brave. 

And put aside from us our wicked ways as we put aside the bad 

Works of them who do us wrong. 

And let us not have such troubles as lead us into crooked roads,

But keep us from all evil, 

For yours is all that is the earth and the sky; 

The streams, the hills and the valleys, the stars, the moon, 

And the sun, and all that live and breathe. 

Wonderful, shining, mighty spirit." 

Campers Prayer —-

God of the mountains and hills, make me tall and strong; 

Tall enough and strong enough to right some wrong. 

God of the stars, make me steadfast and sure; 

God of every lake and stream, flow through my life & make it clean; 

Let me do nothing base or mean. 

God of the trees and woods, keep me fresh and pure; 

God of the rain, wash from my life all dirt and stain;

Pure and strong let me remain. 

God of the seed and soil, plant in my heart thy love; 

God of the darkness and day, through shadows or light, be my stay. 

Guide thou my way. 

God of the radiant sun, light thou my life;

God of the glorious dawn, make each day a fresh start. 

God of the evening peace and quiet, keep me free from fear & strife. 

God of free birds, sing in my heart.

God of the surging waves and sea, wide horizons give to me; 

Help me to see the world as thou would have it be; 

God of the lovely rose, make me lovely, too; 

God of the morning dew, each day my faith renew. 

God of all growing things, keep me growing, too. 

09:05

LD Gia Dinh

Hello everyone, for my part I will tell a short story that is pretty popular in Bhuddhist culture that many people have probably heard.

Once upon a time in a place called Seri, there were two salesmen of pots and pans and handmade trinkets. They agreed to divide the town between them. They also said that after one had gone through his area, it was all right for the other to try and sell where the first had already been.

One day, while one of them was coming down a street, a poor little girl saw him and asked her grandmother to buy her a bracelet. The old grandmother replied, “How can we poor people buy bracelets?” The little girl said, “Since we don’t have any money, we can give our black sooty old plate.” The old woman agreed to give it a try, so she invited the dealer inside.

The salesman saw that these people were very poor and innocent, so he didn’t want to waste his time with them. Even though the old woman pleaded with him, he said he had no bracelet that she could afford to buy. Then she asked, “We have an old plate that is useless to us, can we trade it for a bracelet?” The man took it and, while examining it, happened to scratch the bottom of it. To his surprise, he saw that underneath the black soot, it was a golden plate! But he didn’t let on that he had noticed it. Instead he decided to deceive these poor people so he could get the plate for next to nothing. He said, “This is not worth even one bracelet. There’s no value in this. I don’t want it!” He left, thinking he would return later when they would accept even less for the plate.

Meanwhile the other salesman, after finishing in his part of town, followed after the first as they had agreed. He ended up at the same house. Again the poor little girl begged her grandmother to trade the old plate for a bracelet. The woman saw that this was a nice tender looking merchant and thought, “He’s a good man, not like the rough-talking first salesman.” So she invited him in and offered to trade the same black sooty old plate for one bracelet. When he examined it, he too saw that it was pure gold under the grime. He said to the old woman, “All my goods and all my money together are not worth as much as this rich golden plate!”

Of course the woman was shocked at this discovery, but now she knew that he was indeed a good and honest fellow. So she said she would be glad to accept whatever he could trade for it. The salesman said, “I’ll give you all my pots and pans and trinkets, plus all my money, if you will let me keep just eight coins and my balancing scale, with its cover to put the golden plate in.” They made the trade. He went down to the river, where he paid the eight coins to the ferry man to take him across.

By then the greedy salesman had returned, already adding up huge imaginary profits in his head. When he met the little girl and her grandmother again, he said he had changed his mind and was willing to offer a few cents, but not one of his bracelets, for the useless black sooty old plate. The old woman then calmly told him of the trade she had just made with the honest salesman, and said, “Sir, you lied to us.”

The greedy salesman was not ashamed of his lies, but he was saddened as he thought, “I’ve lost the golden plate that must be worth a hundred thousand.” So he asked the woman, “Which way did he go?” She told him the direction. He left all his things right there at her door and ran down to the river, thinking, “He robbed me! He robbed me! He won’t make a fool out of me!”

From the riverside he saw the honest salesman still crossing over on the ferry boat. He shouted to the ferry man, “Come back!” But the good merchant told him to keep on going to the other side, and that’s what he did.

Seeing that he could do nothing, the greedy salesman exploded with rage. He jumped up and down, beating his chest. He became so filled with hatred towards the honest man, who had won the golden plate, that he made himself cough up blood. He had a heart attack and died on the spot!

09:10

LDTL  

Ooga-Chaka Ooga-Ooga…

I can’t stop this feeling — and neither can any of us here at Trai Ket Than!

Scouts, parents, leaders, family — this TKT wasn’t just a camp. It was a journey. A journey where the spirit of adventure was awakened in each of us — like a young trainer setting out for the first time. Along the way, we rediscovered more than just fun and games. We reconnected with our roots, our culture, our community — and most importantly, with one another.

Lien Doan Thang Long is deeply honored to have hosted this year’s Trai Ket Than, bringing together Scouts and families from our Northern VA region. And as we prepare to close this special weekend, let’s pause… and reflect on what we’ve shared.

This theme — “Pokemon in the Heartland of Vietnam” — reminded us that we are all seekers. Seekers of joy, of challenge, of meaning. No matter our background or belief, each of us walked a path here that led to friendship, growth, and unforgettable memories.

Like the song says:
“You let me know everything’s alright.”


Because when we’re hand in hand, heart to heart — 

there is peace. 

There is unity. 

There is strength.

So let us give thanks:


For the gift of community.
For the laughter that echoed through the trees.


For the songs we sang, the bonds we built, and the warmth we carry home.

May we walk forward from this camp with kindness in our steps, 

and gratitude in our hearts.


And may every path we take — in faith, in family, in Scouting — 

lead us back to connection with out Vietnamese root, 

back to courage, back to love.

Ooga-Chaka Ooga-Ooga… 

May this camp be blessed.


May it live on in our memories, and in the way we live out the Scout Law every day.

You brought the joy, the rhythm, the energy. 

You’ve got that TKT feeling — 

and we’re all high on believing… because we’ve scouted together.

So let’s go forward — a little braver, a little kinder, and a whole lot stronger.
Because when we’re together, there’s no challenge too great, no Pokémon too rare, and no heart too far from home.

Keep it up, Scouts — we’ve got each other. And we’ve got that TKT magic.

Dillon: Thank you for your time, our interfaith program has now concluded. Please make your way to the flags field to prepare for the closing ceremony. Give the Rovers a high five on your way out.