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Camp Campbell '08

We had a great time at Campbell’s Cabin this summer!! The weather was beautiful and the water was chilly but that didn’t stop us from swimming!. We ate lots of food! Loved the rocky road bars from Melinda Crouch!

The surprise guest was Paula Toney! She came with us and shared in our devotion times! She challenged the girls to stay “plugged into the power source”. We studied how we can have the power of influence and exchange in people’s lives. She also encouraged us to recharge by taking time alone with God! Great things to think about as school is right around the corner.

Usually we see lots of deer behind the cabin but this year we had a surprise! A black bear decided she liked deer corn and gave us quite a show! She (we named her Faith) ate all the deer corn Rachel and Hayley put out. After the initial scare, she was a lot of fun to watch! God has such a creative touch to create so many different animals! We were just glad to be on the glassed in porch and not by the campfire when she showed up!

Thanks girls for the great time!!

The Youth Group spent a week in New Orleans...

... and now we can't understand a thing they say! Here's Sandy's report on how it went:

I did not know what to expect when we reached New Orleans. I thought there would be a lot of people down-hearted and angry, but that wasn’t the case.

In the French quarter you couldn’t tell that anything had happened. It was when we headed out for our work projects that it was hard to take. In the neighborhoods there were houses that were fixed up right next to a house that had not been touched since the storm three years ago. To think that Calvin (the owner of the first house we gutted) still lived in a camper in front of his house because he could not afford to get his house gutted was heartbreaking.

The second house we worked on was in worse shape. It had been flooded up to the roof and had not been touched for three years!! When we started cleaning it out I was so heartbroken for the people that had to leave their home-literally their life- and start over. My heart broke and I took some time to cry and pray for the owners that they would be found and could be given their home back to start over. I prayed that they were safe, we didn’t know if they had survived or not, and that they knew that God loved them.

The verse that we looked at during the week in our chapel time was Micah 6:8, “He has showed you, O man, what is good and what does the Lord require of you? To act justly, and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.” God really touched my heart to walk humbly during this week.

We would be in Walmart, at a coffeehouse or on the street and people would ask us if we were here with the Christian groups that were helping their city. When we said yes we were gutting houses they would thank us for coming to their city and helping them. Complete strangers thanked us for working.

It was very humbling and I was touched deeply and know that God was pleased with the work we did for Him in New Orleans!

Pastor Scott's Spot

"We have this short time on earth -- what are we going to do with it?" That is a great question. I recently heard a man ask that very same thing. It wasn’t my pastor. It wasn’t one of the guys who keeps me accountable. It wasn’t Rick Warren. It wasn’t even the Holy Spirit during my devotions. It was Dale Webster. Ever heard of him? Nor many people outside of the surfing world have. I am not a surfer. However, his story appeared in my Sports Illustrated recently and it caught my attention. You see, this guy devoted his life to a single pursuit. Surfing.

On Sep. 3, 1975 a storm along the coast of California kicked up some serious waves, and Webster decided to go catch some. He surfed again the next day, and the next, and the next. He set the record when he surfed on his 10,000^th straight day. Now, for over 32 years, he hasn’t missed a day. Several times recently, Webster said he would quit when he reach a milestone (like 12,000 consecutive days) but he can’t seem to do it. He has gone through over 35 wet suits, put off getting married for 10 years (because his streak would not be recognized if witnessed by a relative), surfed with kidney stones, gone through a series on menial jobs, not traveled outside the county he lives in, and scraped off over 45 pounds of surf wax into a pile in his back yard.

Webster’s streak is amazing (You can read about it at: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2008/writers/chris_ballard/04/23/webster/index.html). There are certainly a lot of positive lessons to be learned from his life. Commitment, faithfulness, perseverance, devotion. Can you imagine if this guy were a Christian? What if he could apply the same passion and energy to eternal pursuits. What if we could? I have thought about this a lot since I read his story. If I had even a fraction of his single-mindedness my life would be so different. I would serve God with fervor. I would pray daily. I would share the gospel often and freely. I Would never, never, never miss a day in The Word. I would join Kevin at the soup kitchen (and not just talk about it). I would spend more money on God’s work around the world and less on me.

What would you do How would your walk with Jesus Christ change if you had a little Dale Webster in you? As the man said: "We have this short time on earth -- what are we going to do with it?" [Posted 8/12/08]