Sunday, July 20, 2008

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

  • 11 Comments:

    Blogger Janets Planet said...

    I would say he wasnt an FBI agent cause he pulled a gun on kids. So how come Tommy hasnt had Eino send it to a "secret lab" already?

    5:12 AM  
    Blogger Melli said...

    I always knew I wanted to go to Norway!

    Seeeeeeeeems like an FBI guy wouldn't travel allllll the way to Pigeon Falls without all his bases covered... IF he really IS an FBI guy! Hm. We'll see...

    I LOVED that meme... by you! If I were to do that meme it would be VERY boring. I never attended any camp ever in my life. I did camp out a few times though - not as a kid - but as an adult.

    5:45 AM  
    Blogger Dragonstar said...

    Hmmm. Things are getting serious in Pigeon Falls!

    7:07 AM  
    Anonymous Anonymous said...

    I never went to camp, probably missed out, but growing up I spent most of summer in Europe..that's what my parent's were in to. Overall, I had a great time, but I did just want to be like the other kids and go to camp. Oh well.

    8:49 AM  
    Blogger juliana said...

    that was a wonderful response to the meme.
    love the falls slideshow too.

    10:43 AM  
    Anonymous Anonymous said...

    If Pigeon Falls really is in your basement, I am beginning to think your house is somewhere inside Area 54, or on the Island of Dr. Moreau -- maybe both!

    12:07 PM  
    Blogger Stacy said...

    My favorite camp song was always 'You Can't Get to Heaven' as in:

    Oh you can't get to heaven on a potato chip.
    Oh you can't get to heaven on a potatooooo chip.
    No, you can't get to heaven on a potato chip 'cause God don't got no onion dip.

    Verses limited only by what campers can come up with.

    1:53 PM  
    Anonymous Anonymous said...

    I went to a few Christian camps when I was young then started taking up various leadership roles within the camps.

    For several years the campsite was my second home. I was there for most of the camps that our denomination ran for young people.

    Last summer, 20 or so years later, I returned to a camp with my family. This time it was the first camp for our kids and my wife and I were there as 'Camp Parents'. It almost fet like I'd never left.

    3:58 PM  
    Blogger SaffronSaris said...

    Hi John,

    Thanks for dropping by SaffronSaris.
    All that I remembered about camps was the incessant singing by the campfire and teachers chasing us off to bed!

    5:51 PM  
    Anonymous Anonymous said...

    How special for a new Pastor to earn special praise ... esp. from a former Pastor!

    9:33 PM  
    Blogger tsduff said...

    I am working on your camping questions.

    My question to you is - By whom was that translation of the bible into Klingon translated, and verified? Not Whycliff, that's for sure.

    4:48 PM  

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