Mapleton, Maine is a tiny town in Maine's northernmost county.  This agricultural town is nestled between the somewhat larger towns of Presque Isle and Caribou- walking distance from the Canadian border.  From 2005 through 2019, my wife, daughters and I made Mapleton our summer home as I directed Baptist Park summer camp.  My wife, Sue, eventually ended up directing the day camps for younger kids, and all three of our daughters served as cabin councelors when they were old enough to do so.  This summer, we were invited back for me to serve as speaker for their middle school week, and Sue lead the week of day camps that followed.  

There have been a lot of physical improvements to the 320 acre wooded summer camp, not the least of which was the "Preacher's Cabin", our lodging for the two weeks.  This cabin is now ar conditioned (yes, even northern Maine needs AC sometimes), has hard wood laminate floor, and completely refurbished bed rooms and bath room.  What a treat!

While the counselors who worked for us back in the day are no longer there, a lot of the adult staff were familiar faces: Sue the nurse, Scott the new director, Kelly the life guard, and of course Mary and Kathy the cooks, are all people have known for years or even decades. It was fun catching up with everybody.  The person I most wanted to see was Pastor Ray, our former maintenace guy who got saved while working at camp, and got the call to ministry.  He stopped by a couple evenings, and we had great times of fellowship.  We even went into Presque Isle to have dinner at the Maple Pig.  Trust me, don't let the name turn you off.  It was great food.

Of course, the camp didn't bring us up just to catch up with old friends.  For the first week, I did my show for their evening services.  Being a middle school teacher, I felt very much at home with these 11 to 14 year old campers.  Although enrollment was small, they were an enthusiastic group, and open to the Gospel message that was shared.  I was also pleased to be asked to led an evening of Minute to Win It games, a standard activity when I was director.

As in the past, Saturday and Sunday were days off.  Our daughter, Naomi and her husband, Mike, came up to visit us.  We enjoyed swimming in the pool, playing board games and relaxing.   On Saturday, we went to Fort Kent to see our friends the Davis's.  Their daughter, Verity, was celebrating her sixth birthday.  Then, on Sunday morning we went into Caribou to do two shows at First Baptist Church.This beautiful old church used to be packed, we're told, when Caribou had a strong military population.  Since then it has always seemed way too much building for the attendance.  This was not the case this summer, as the old church was close to full.  Although I was privileged to share the message in both services, the real highlight may have been the eleven year old girl who played piano:  and she played all the songs by ear!

The second week of camp was made up of a two day, one overnight camp for six to eight year olds, two day camps for four to six year olds, and a day for both groups combined.  Sue took the lead on these camps, but I did routines for her various lesson times with the kids.  It was especially exciting to see how the young kids were able to quote their memory verses by the end.

So, after two weeks, and many shows, camp came to an end on Friday evening, and we headed back home to southern Maine, with yet more fond memories of time spent in the little town of Mapleton, Maine.