Saying for the day:Let your religion be less of a theory and more of a love affair. ~G.K. Chesterton

I saw this meme on Proclaiming Softly's blog. It seemed just right for Sunday so I copied it.

1. Did you go to sleep away camp, or day camp, as a child? Wish you could? Or sometimes wish you hadn't?
I went to the Lutheran Bible Camp at Lake Nesbit run by the Suomi Synod. It changed my life forever. I went as an atheist for the sole purpose of chasing girls and having a good time. According to my friend in our age group there were many more girls than boys. He was right. For the first few days I ignored the lectures. I thought they were stupid. But there was one old Pastor who was different. He didn’t talk about God as an idea to be proved. He talked about the a God so real that he had breakfast with Him that morning. You could see he had something special. As the week went on I began to desire to have what he had.. Then by some miracle I did. Somehow the Holy Spirit called me through he Gospel lived out in that pastor’s life. I went home walking with God. Everything changed.

2. How about camping out? Dream vacation, nightmare, or somewhere in between?
Betty and I did a lot of camping. First with a tent and then with a camper trailer. We took a group of Luther Leaguers to the World’s Fair in Canada with tents. But what I remember from that trip was a late night camping by a little lake. We went for a swim and the water was so cold I shook all night.
I took my kids to Washington DC and stayed in a tent. The rain came down so fast and so hard we were soaked to the skin. By the time we got back to the tent it had puddled in and there was nothing dry left. We spent the night in a motel.
A number of summers we camped near Minneapolis so my family could attend the Charismatic conference there. Those were great summers.

3. Have you ever worked as a camp counselor, or been to a camp for your denomination for either work or pleasure?
I spent two summers as a counselor at the Suomi Synod Camp near Manistique., Michigan. Those were good years. I interacted a lot with the camp at Fortune Lake since I was the Pastor in the closest Church. I also got to run the camp when they were between Pastors.

4. Most dramatic memory of camp, or camping out?
The summer we were on our way to Cedar Point amusement park. Nothing was going right. There were too many people in the trailer. My mother was with us. The door kept popping open on the trailer the first night and I kept pushing Betty to get up and close it. The next day we were hardly speaking.; Then as we were going along a tire blew on the pop up trailer. We jacked up only to find the spare was flat. At that point both Betty and I started to laugh. Somehow it was either that or cry. I told the boys God would take care of us. We left my Mother and Betty with the trailer and drove to the nearest garage. They had one trailer tire and it was just the right size. It was like a little miracle. God had been good to us.


5. What is your favorite camp song or songs? Bonus points if you link to a recording or video.
Lots and lots of camp songs but my favorite still goes like this:
Thank you Lord for saving my soul.
Thank you Lord for making me whole.
Thank you Lord for giving to me
Your great salvation so rich and free.

I often find myself singing that in the morning. It just sort of pops into my head.

News from Pigeon Falls-The little town in my basement where the trains still run, dragons fly, and life is back to normal .The Tommy Club met yesterday out at their official club house . Tommy UK and Tammy were both there. After about twenty minutes the FBI agent showed up and demanded that Tommy UK give him the passport. Tommy UK asked for the warrant that would entitle him to take it. He proclaimed rather loudly that he was FBI and didn’t need a warrant. Tammy broke in to say that even the FBI needed a warrant. If he didn’t know that it’s possible he wasn’t FBI. That’s when he pulled the gun and explained that it would do in place of a warrant. If Tommy UK didn’t want any of his friends to die he had better hand over the passport. Tommy UK smiled and said “ Now we have a real problem. I don’t have it here. You can hardly march me down the main street to where I’ve left. You can’t send me out to get it because I would come back with the state police or worse with some local guys with shotguns. If I were you I would put the gun away and go get a proper warrant. If you can.”
The man hesitated for a moment, then holstered his gun and left. At that point Tammy screamed at Tommy UK “ You could have gotten us all killed, you idiot.”
Tommy UK responded “ It was a bluff. If he hadn’t back down I would have gone and gotten the passport for him.”
Tammy calmed down enough to say that she didn’t think he was really an FBI agent. If the government really wanted the passport he would have had a warrant.
Tommy UK said, “ Unless they didn’t want a paper trail. I guess they thought that we would just give it if the word FBI was mentioned.”
******
The varifable fact for yesterday which so many of you got right was 8. Parts of the Bible have been translated into Klingon.

Today's Link-More of Him -Less of Me
Another wonderful day. we went to St. Mark's in the morning. The new Pastor is better than the last if that's possible. He did a great children's sermon with a puppet. His regular sermon was right to the center of the text for the day. I think I am going to enjoy him. Then we went to Perkins for lunch. After that I brought the St. Mark's Website up to date and Pennie gor Betty set up for E-mail on her new computer. Then we had our canasta game. Betty and I against Pennie and Bree. Betty and I won. Then Betty and I together did the meme for tomorrow. Now I need a breathing treatment.
GBYA
The falls near Norway, Michigan