While directing Baptist Park, a summer camp in northern Maine, Saturday is typically our day off each week.  Last Saturday was an exception, as we had our first annual family fun day.  My wife, sue, was assigned the task of organizing this event, and I am so proud of her.  It was an amazing day.  We had 60 guests, as well as staff and board members.  There were probably 75 people in attendance.

It was a great mix of four generations, and we had people who are camp regulars, old timers who hadn't been out here in years, and some who were at camp for the first time ever.  I spoke with one older gentleman who had been raised in a very abusive church.  He showed me permanent damage that his father inflicted on his left eye from a severe beating.  He hated God for decades, was married and divorced four times, and just a few years ago met Jesus as the Prince of Peace, not an angry father.  His life is changed forever, and he kept coming back to God not being a God of violence.  Amen to that!

The morning consisted of activities such as rock wall, canvas painting, mountain biking, archery and low ropes course.  Then there was a cook out for all in attendance.  The afternoon was supposed to include zipline, swimming and giant slip and slide, but right after lunch the storm began.  It may have been the worst storm I have seen in Mapleton, Maine.  There was a nonstop downpour, including an extended period of hail, lightning and howling winds.  Sue and I conferred, and we decided to have the closing program early.

All the guests moved quickly into our camp's tabernacle (a converted sawmill) for a show by the Supreme Court Jester.  I had to really hurry to be ready early; the show was originally scheduled for 3:30 PM.  This didn't effect the performance, though, and we had fun in spite of the storm outside.  We had a lot of laughs and moments to reflect.  Several families expressed an interest in enrolling their kids in camp in the near future.