Wood Weekend

This weekend was such a blessing for Jesse and I.  On Friday night his whole family came to help us cut firewood for the winter.  Bright and early Saturday morning everyone got up and headed out to the woods to get some wood.  Two days and five truck and trailer loads later and we definitely have enough fire wood to last us the winter.  Thank you so much everyone for helping make a “chore” a lot of fun.  We love you all and greatly appreciate every one of you!

This picture was taken before two more loads came in so there is even MORE wood in our yard than you see here!

Katelyn always looks so cute even when she is splitting wood!

This is Levi after he cut a huge hole in our foundation.  Boy we must really trust him.  This will help tremendously giving us a shoot to throw the wood down into the basement.

Thought this was funny.  Joleigh and Levi brought one of their great dane puppies.  She is only 9 months old and is already 100 pounds!  For those of you that know Asher (the middle dog) he is already a middle sized dog weighing about 45 pounds, but Yuna (the great dane) makes Asher look tiny! 

To Sum it Up

To sum up the past eight weeks into one post is going to be a considerable challenge!  God has done many wonderful things in our lives and through the ministry of Camp Forest Springs.  I would like to try and tell you about some of the highlights.

The summer began with a bang as we celebrated Camp’s 50th Anniversary during our Memorial Day Family Weekend.  We enjoyed reflecting on how God has brought us through many difficult times, given fruit to our efforts, and taught us more about Himself.

Soon after the celebration, Camp filled up with summer staff, for their time of training, as well as a whole lot of short, squatty wrestlers for Camp of Champs!  (no offense intended regarding their physical stature )

Then, in the middle of June, our 26 counselors greeted nearly 200 children for the first of five Summer Youth Camps.  I was privileged to be able to follow these campers closely throughout the weeks as I put together their follow up DVD’s.  Many kids made significant decisions regarding their relationship with Jesus Christ.  When all was said and done, the Gospel was preached to nearly 1000 campers, and over 90 of them placed their faith in Christ!

Four years ago this camper learned that we shared the same name.  Each year when Jesse returns as a youth camper, we make it a priority to get our picture taken together. 

At the end of each camp, I set aside some time to do video interviews with several campers about their experience at Camp Forest Springs.  It was great to hear how many kids said that CFS was the place that they heard about Jesus and trusted in Him for their salvation.  One camper shared how he placed his trust in Jesus while at camp and that when he went back home, he told his family about Jesus and they all trusted in Jesus together! What an awesome thing to be a part of!

Youth Camps is by far my busiest time of the entire year.  At certain times during the seven weeks, I almost forget that there is life outside of camp!  Many thanks to April for holding down the fort at home, and to Lauren for being patient with her daddy being gone so much.  Now that we are into Family Camps, my schedule will level out a bit.  I will be transitioning into more office work while at the same time being available to help out with the Family Camp program schedule.  Pictures and video still need to be taken for general camp promotion, so I won’t totally be an office hermit! 

My little sister Katelyn was able to be a counselor

Danielle (Another of my wonderful sisters!) was the Senior Counselor along with Andrew Kling

I hope to post some of the videos from the summer as well as some of the testimonies that we gathered over the past several weeks.  So please check back if you’d like to see them.

Here are some more links of interest from Summer Youth Camps 2008!

Westboro Days

We were able to come back from vacation just in time to experience Westboro Days.  Yes that is right our small little dinky town had its own parade and activities throughout the day.  It sure was fun to be a part of.  The parade had over 40 floats and I think there might have even been more people in the parade then there was watching the parade! 

The start of the parade which lasted about 30 minutes. 

This is Lauren’s second parade now but the first one that she was actually able to enjoy a few pieces of the flying candy.  Here she is with her first experience with a sucker.  She loved it but man did she drool.

After the parade was over Jesse was able to participate in the softball tournament.  Camp entered a team for Westboro days and although they didn’t win they sure had a fun time.

Lauren and I were able to cheer the team on for a little while during their first of three games that they played.

To add more excitement to an already fun filled day, we ended up heading over the the Huffman’s so Lauren could attend her first birthday party.  Her friend Simon turns 2 on Monday and we went to help celebrate!

And the party couldn’t have been complete without a sweet bubble maker.  Lauren thought that was good fun!