Upcoming Reading

We had a cold and wet weekend here for our Men's Retreat this weekend.  That doesn't slow us down too much here at camp though.  We still saw Bain, a German Shepherd in with the Michigan State Police K9 unit.  His partner performs a demonstration of the dogs tracking ability as well as his ability to aid in apprehending a suspect.  The men really enjoy seeing the dog run at full speed, grab a mans well padded hand, and drag him to the ground.  We also enjoyed a good game of flag football in the Saturday afternoon drizzle.  The weather turned out great today and the sun even came out in the afternoon.

As we wrap up the fall retreat season I've been looking at my reading habits and considering how they'll change in the next couple months. I'm working on an Old Testament reading plan that includes a Psalm and a couple chapters from the rest of the books.  It's spread out over the year, so it will wrap up in December.  In January I'll be starting over and this time including the New Testament readings.  Otherwise I've not been reading much consistently and I plan to change that.



These are the books that I plan to read over the next 6 months:

Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy by Timothy Keller:  My dad suggested this book and I can go either way on biographies.  I'm hoping this will fill in some of the pre-WWII details from a new perspective. 

Chronicles of Narnia by CS Lewis:  I've read these many times and the allegory is great in them.  They add up to a lot of pages, but I can usually scoot through them pretty quick when I get into the stories.

Peter Pan by JM Berrie:  One of my favorite fairy tales and one that I can relate to in many ways.  I love the picture of the boy refusing to give up his youth.

The Civil War by Shelby Foote:  A set of 3 ridiculously large books.  My friend Rob McAdams owns them and I've gone through them once before.  The narrative covers the war from a very neutral perspective while keeping me interested in the people that fought in it. 

It'll be a long shot to complete them all, especially with the Civil War series.  I also have a bunch of other books I might get into over that time. 

Next to the book shelf I have what Rob calls my "Pop Tarts Shrine".  It's not quite that, but I do love to eat pop tarts.  I need the energy anyways with all the work we've been doing and that we plan to complete this fall. Last week we spent time fixing some ceiling paneling in the great room of Crosscut Lodge.  We also moved in 3000 pounds of tile and we'll be moving more in over the next weeks.  We're also looking for any chances that the weather will give us to shingle another corner of the East Side Dining Hall roof. 

We're staying busy up here at camp in the Fall.  Please pray for guidance and safety as we attack a long list of projects this Fall.



Letters

At the end of each week of summer camp each counselor is given a list of their campers with mailing addresses.  It's a great tradition that encourages us to keep in touch with our campers.  Even with the list it's still hard to write all the letters.  Hard for me at least.  To help motivate me I've decided to break it up a little and send to 2 campers per tribe until I finish everyone.  With 4 tribes that adds up to about 32 letters before the new year.  I've found that 8 letters is manageable in about an hour.  Then I just need to stock up on stamps.  All that said, I've sent out 10 letters so far, and have heard no responses.  I think it's good for me to learn to pray over a letter and just trust God to handle the rest.  I'm sure some letters won't reach campers, and that if they are read the camper still may not respond.  I'm praying that God will use the letters with the kids that may need to refresh their memory of what they experienced over the summer. 

This process also reminds me of the different needs of my campers.  Most of them claimed a relationship with Jesus when I spoke to them about it, but some had some unique situations.  Writing these letters reminds me to pray for their relationship with God.  Several of my campers didn't come from homes that attend church, and some didn't even know the emphasis we put on establishing and growing a relationship with God when they sent their children here.  One particular 5th grade boy found us on the internet and chose our camp because we offer 2 chapels a day.  He comes from a family that has never been to church, yet chose us mainly because we have so much teaching.  Another camper invited his unsaved step brother and asked his family to pray for his salvation.  After talking on the bus ride this 5th grader had his step brother prepped and ready to talk to me about accepting the Gospel on the second night of camp. 

Glory to God for working in the lives of these kids!  After the effort some of them put into spreading the Gospel at their schools and with their families I feel it's an important part to try to encourage them through letters. 

Whatever season it is, we're always trying to proclaim the Gospel here at Camp Barakel.  We had about 350 men up here this weekend.    Many of our campers invited their friends to camp so that they could be exposed to the Gospel and Tom Harmon carries that task very well.  It's amazing to see so many men singing and worshipping in one room.  Their excitement is contagious and you can see it spread to many of the staff that just love having such a big group of men gathered in the name of Jesus.

Fun in Fairview

As Seasonal Staff at Camp Barakel I stay very busy all day, then I try to figure out ways to fill my evenings.  It's not hard!  I spend a lot of that time driving kids to town, and watching local sporting events.  In the Spring I helped to coach the under 18 AYSO soccer team and now I help to run the clock at the Varsity games this Fall.  Basketball is kind of the main sport around here and I've watched staff kids play.  There is also a pick up group that plays basketball on Friday mornings.  It's great to get out and run around for an hour, even if it's at 6:30 in the morning.  Having grown up in Athens, it's a blast to be involved in this community that comes together around their kids at the local sporting events.

As for Camp, we've been working on the roof of the East Side Dining Hall.  It's one of the largest roofs on camp so we only do a quarter of it at a time.  A summer work crew finished a quarter of the the roof and had leaking problems that led to a big mess in part of the dining hall.  Well this week we were able to finish and clean up a whole quarter of the roof so that campers wouldn't have to deal with the construction in progress.  I was able to strike back at the bees in the progress too as we found 3 nests in some of the venting. 

We were planning to start the roof last week, but with the fire we were hopping for the whole week.  We were thankful for all the help we received from programers, a staff kid, and even a part time staff volunteer that got here early on Friday.  God chipped in with some beautiful weather, I even got a little bit of a sunburn.  Now we'll take a week away from the roof to catch up on wood cutting before trying to find another week to try and roof another quarter of the roof. 

We said goodbye to our last women's retreat this weekend and we'll now welcome two completely packed men's retreats.  We'll be spending time trying to finish outdoor projects and preparing for the winter.  Join me in continuing to pray that God would work in the lives of our campers.  Thanks for reading!

Ghost Camp

The Fall retreat season is quite a change of pace from Summer.  We go from having campers 7 days a week, to 3 days a week.  Over the summer a day off is a misnomer, it’s really about half a day off.  Now in the retreat season we get a full day off on Mondays.  In these down times I find myself walking around camp and thinking of the summer.  I can almost see camp humming along around me, even when no one is here.  I see campers playing horseshoes, buses pulling around to drop kids off, and benches where I was able to have sweet conversations with campers.

It reminds me that the summer is the focus around here.  Programers are already working on all the events and activities of the summer, leadership is preparing to staff the camp with an army of volunteers that will work here for a week or even the whole summer like many of the college aged summer staff.  Most importantly the staff and many supporters are praying that God will provide the workers that will proclaim His Gospel next summer.

You also might have heard we had a fire this week.  There was a small fire in one of the bathrooms in the cabin I clean.  God came through as the fire never really got started because there was a fire retardant spray that was used throughout the cabin.  We were able to put it out and quickly clean and remodel the area so it was ready for retreats about 48 hours after it started.  Almost every family was represented in the cleanup and repair.  There are a lot of things to be thankful for, but thank God especially for safety and for providing the workers to clean and fix everything so quickly.

It’s getting cold up here and I’ve been replacing the screens in the trailer with another layer of glass to keep my trailer a little warmer.  Retreats are getting colder too, and you can tell because the coffee mugs are flooding in during snacks and at every meal.  We’re happy to welcome retreats for the rest of the month.  It was quite an exciting week here at Camp Barakel, thanks for following!