July 2025 - Volume 57 - Number 7
It’s Church Camp Time
This week two of our students are at camp—Leah Eidson and Vendacee Herron. However, they will be home on Wednesday, before some of you receive this newsletter. Next week Grace Llewellyn will be at camp, from July 6-11. Then Grace comes home on Friday and Declan Llewellyn goes for an overnighter. Finally, Adley Llewellyn goes to camp on July 19 for the day. If anyone else from the church is going, I apologize, but I do not have their names to mention them. There are also a few of their friends going.
Camp can make you excited and nervous at the same time. It is a time to meet new friends, renew friendships from previous years of camp, learn about Jesus, and have a good time. Some of you who have been to camp can remember the great times there.
Through the years I have spent many weeks at camp. I started as a camp rat (child of faculty but not old enough to be a camper). Then I worked my way through the various weeks—junior (grades 4-6), intermediate (grades 7-9), and senior (grades 10-12). It’s interesting how one’s perspective can change through the years. As a junior camper you are more interested in the sports competition (at least the boys were). We played volleyball and softball every day. Some of the girls were better athletes than the boys, so we competed extra hard against them. Each week the teams competed in stunt night, talent night, and Bible drama night. At the closing campfire and prayer circle, boys did everything possible not to have to sit next to a girl or hold her hand in the prayer circle.
Things changed a bit during intermediate week. We still had morning classes, chapel, afternoon sports competition, and the evening competitions. But some of the boys began to discover that some of the girls weren’t so bad after all. It was mostly talk about them in the dorm, but to admit that girls were human, without cooties, was a major breakthrough for some.
Senior week was much the same in terms of classes, chapel, sports, and evening competitions. But the campfires and closing prayer circles were quite different. Girls actually had soft hands, and they were nice to hold by the campfire and in the prayer circle. Some of our prayers were longer than in other years, not so much because we were more spiritual, but longer prayers provided longer time to hold hands.
Church camp can make positive changes in people’s lives. I made a commitment to become a preacher during a senior week of camp. I met my wife at camp (although she wasn’t my wife when I met her). I was the missionary from New York, and she was a recent high school graduate. I did not know it at the time, but there was some outside pressure to get us together. A little over a year later we were married. (If you want more details of how that year transpired, talk with Jan. She has a wild story about it.) We met a little over 53 years ago, and next month we will celebrate our 52nd anniversary.
I owe a lot of my life to church camp. To paraphrase an old character from Saturday Night Live, “Church camp has been very, very good to me.” I am so glad we have a church that is willing to pay camp tuition for our students and their friends. We never know how a week of camp may influence them and their lives for the Kingdom.
Help Wanted. We plan to move into the parsonage on July 12. If you are able to help, we would love to have your assistance. The good news—there are no pianos or hide-a-beds to move. But there are some heavy items that are too much for a couple of seventy-year-olds to handle. And there are a lot of lighter items as well. Something for everyone. Who knows, we might even be giving away some items. Thank you in advance for your help. Pray for a sunny, not too hot or humid, day.
Thanks for reading,
Rick
This week two of our students are at camp—Leah Eidson and Vendacee Herron. However, they will be home on Wednesday, before some of you receive this newsletter. Next week Grace Llewellyn will be at camp, from July 6-11. Then Grace comes home on Friday and Declan Llewellyn goes for an overnighter. Finally, Adley Llewellyn goes to camp on July 19 for the day. If anyone else from the church is going, I apologize, but I do not have their names to mention them. There are also a few of their friends going.
Camp can make you excited and nervous at the same time. It is a time to meet new friends, renew friendships from previous years of camp, learn about Jesus, and have a good time. Some of you who have been to camp can remember the great times there.
Through the years I have spent many weeks at camp. I started as a camp rat (child of faculty but not old enough to be a camper). Then I worked my way through the various weeks—junior (grades 4-6), intermediate (grades 7-9), and senior (grades 10-12). It’s interesting how one’s perspective can change through the years. As a junior camper you are more interested in the sports competition (at least the boys were). We played volleyball and softball every day. Some of the girls were better athletes than the boys, so we competed extra hard against them. Each week the teams competed in stunt night, talent night, and Bible drama night. At the closing campfire and prayer circle, boys did everything possible not to have to sit next to a girl or hold her hand in the prayer circle.
Things changed a bit during intermediate week. We still had morning classes, chapel, afternoon sports competition, and the evening competitions. But some of the boys began to discover that some of the girls weren’t so bad after all. It was mostly talk about them in the dorm, but to admit that girls were human, without cooties, was a major breakthrough for some.
Senior week was much the same in terms of classes, chapel, sports, and evening competitions. But the campfires and closing prayer circles were quite different. Girls actually had soft hands, and they were nice to hold by the campfire and in the prayer circle. Some of our prayers were longer than in other years, not so much because we were more spiritual, but longer prayers provided longer time to hold hands.
Church camp can make positive changes in people’s lives. I made a commitment to become a preacher during a senior week of camp. I met my wife at camp (although she wasn’t my wife when I met her). I was the missionary from New York, and she was a recent high school graduate. I did not know it at the time, but there was some outside pressure to get us together. A little over a year later we were married. (If you want more details of how that year transpired, talk with Jan. She has a wild story about it.) We met a little over 53 years ago, and next month we will celebrate our 52nd anniversary.
I owe a lot of my life to church camp. To paraphrase an old character from Saturday Night Live, “Church camp has been very, very good to me.” I am so glad we have a church that is willing to pay camp tuition for our students and their friends. We never know how a week of camp may influence them and their lives for the Kingdom.
Help Wanted. We plan to move into the parsonage on July 12. If you are able to help, we would love to have your assistance. The good news—there are no pianos or hide-a-beds to move. But there are some heavy items that are too much for a couple of seventy-year-olds to handle. And there are a lot of lighter items as well. Something for everyone. Who knows, we might even be giving away some items. Thank you in advance for your help. Pray for a sunny, not too hot or humid, day.
Thanks for reading,
Rick
