Jul

8

Camp Meeting

Filed Under News, Pictures 

It rained this week! Ok, it lasted about 15 minutes and barely got the ground wet, but it was nice. There were a few thunderstorms in the area, and hopefully they didn’t start any fires. This was the first precipitation we’ve had since the day we drove up to camp in the snow at the beginning of the summer.

See new pictures in the gallery.

This week has been busy. On Monday we went whitewater rafting in Jackson on the Snake River. It was fun, but it wasn’t as wild as I thought it could be. We had the dinner trip, so about halfway down the river we stopped for supper. The food was very good. It was a nice day, but we were all exhausted afterwards.

At the same time, a couple of staff members were getting sick. Through the first few days of the week, 2 staff members and one of the Loftus kids were very ill. The SALT counselor that was sick could barely get out of bed for a while. Whatever was wrong with them seemed to go away fairly quickly. Everyone was back to health for the beginning of Camp Meeting.

Camp Meeting began on Wednesday afternoon. All of us had different jobs for the weekend, and Mel and I were in charge of the Pavilion (where the services are), the greenhouses (outhouses), and the trash. For us, it was almost a break from the hectic pace of previous weeks.

We had planned for 200 to 250 people to come. Our high number was Friday night with 165. The cooks prepared a lot of extra food for the first few meals, so there are a lot of leftovers in the refrigerator now. People stay all over the campground. Several brought campers and a few brought tents. The cabins filled up pretty quickly, and I guess there are already requests for cabins for next year.

The speakers for the weekend were Dr. Bob Jones III, Evangelist Chuck Crabtree, and Evangelist Dan Hadik. The Hadiks are staying to minister during the next two weeks of teen camps. Dr. Bob was the “keynote” speaker, so he had two sermons each day. In the mornings and on Thursday night we had two services in a row, so one of the other men took the other service.

There was also junior church and nursery, which we were required to work. Junior church was fine, but nursery was a lot of fun. The kids were cute and reasonably well-behaved. A couple of the boys were flirting with Melanie (and all the other girls). We mentioned it to their mom and she said that they flirt with all the girls. The older one is 3 and the younger is 1.

Camp Meeting is also a kind of family camp, so there were people at camp who usually wouldn’t come. We got to meet several people that we otherwise probably wouldn’t see. We had lunch with Dr. Bob and his wife on Thursday along with the other BJU students. We met Todd Wood and his wife (and kids). Todd is up at camp a lot, but the rest of his family doesn’t come up so much. Jason Janz and his family were also at camp (at the Woods’ invitation). He is the founder of SharperIron and is getting ready to plant a church in downtown Denver. I got to talk to him for over an hour on Thursday night. Ron Ehmann came later in the weekend and we talked to him at supper on Friday. He is coordinating the pulpit ministry at the church in Lander where the Hartman’s were serving until a few weeks ago. We also got to meet several staff members’ families.

During camp meeting services there are two pianists, so Mel got to play for nearly every service. The Pavilion is a very live room acoustically, so with all the people singing at the top of their lungs all the time, you can’t really hear either piano. I got to lead singing for two of the evening services and it is a whole lot louder up in the front than in the congregation.

This next week is Upper Teens (high-schoolers). In a way, it will be nice to get back a “regular” schedule. As of yesterday, there are just under 40 campers registered. There are always last-minute additions, so we might have a fairly full camp. This week’s SALT sessions will be busy too. We missed one last week, so we’ll make it up on Monday. Then on Wednesday I am planning to talk about music (at the kids’ request). Pray that goes well. I wouldn’t be surprised if all of them need to re-evaluate their positions and align them with the Bible.

Next Sunday we will be in Lander with the SALT kids, so I’m not sure about the availability of Internet. We are ministering in the Hartman’s former church for the entire day. Pray as we prepare the lessons, sermons, music, etc.

Comments

One Response to “Camp Meeting”

  1. Abby on July 9th, 2007 8:26 am

    I like the photos for this week!

Leave a Reply