This week was a rental group instead of a Camas run camp. Actually two rental groups. For the first camp, the staff came on Sunday and then on Monday the campers arrived. This camp left at 12:30 on Friday and the next camp arrived at 1:30 that same Friday. This makes for a tight turnover, trying to get the camp ready for the next group. Nonetheless, after a month of Camas run camps it felt like a little break. Instead of being in charge of every little thing from stocking TP to shopping for lettuce to camper discipline, Scruffy gets to cater to the needs of these rental groups, helping them do the ministry they have come up into the mountains to accomplish. This second rental group finishes up on Sunday, Scruffy will do cabin assignments and other last minute details for Jr. High 2 on Sunday night, and then the staff and campers arrive on Monday for Jr. High 2 our last Camas run summer camp of the season.
Actually, there is a story about that second rental group, the Egyptian Orthodox Church. They have been coming up for several years now and we just love them. They even invited the boys and I to come and do crafts with them one year, so cool. But this year their leader called, they didn’t have enough campers to meet the 40 person minimum. Scruff thought about it and told them that he would facilitate their ministry this year anyway, even without the minimum number of campers. He just felt it was what God wanted him to do. So the leaders prayed about it and struggled, should they go through the expense themselves with such a small number of kids? Finally they called back, they felt that God wanted them to come as well. And you know what? Last week Scruff got a call from their leader. So many last minute campers had come out of the woodwork that not only did they meet the minimum, but she was forced to go and buy new craft supplies four different times!
One of those beautiful, quiet, miracles that God is such an expert at accomplishing. He is good when the campers are few. He is good when the campers are abundant. God is good to His word, accomplishing great things among everyday people.
Boo Boo
During the retreat, their coordinator shared a line from the movie “Facing the Giants” that she felt was appropriate for the week: ““There were two farmers that desperately needed rain and both of them prayed for it. However, only one went out and prepared his fields to receive it.” In essence our mutual decision to go ahead with the retreat was equivalent to preparing our fields and it was awesome to see God send the rain!