25th Wedding Anniversary!!

Rene' and I actually celebrated the actual day of our 25th Wedding Anniversary while we were up north camping with our family (what a great place to be).  We are planning a special trip for sometime in the winter to actually have a get-away celebration trip for the two of us.  But, while we were down in Greenville taking Em down to begin her second year at G.C., we were surprised by my parents to have several of our friends be at Mario's Pizza when we showed up there.   It was fun to see them there...and the pizza was good too!

A tiny crack...a day-long project

At 7:00 on this particular Thursday morning, I realize by a puddle and bubbling water out of the ground at the dump station, that it is going to be "one of those days"...but I did not expect it would take ALL day to fix it.  Actually, it took almost half the day just to find the crack...which ended up being 5 and half feet deep, when I expected it to be maybe 2 feet deep, since this is a seasonal dump station.  Rain also made this little project a little crazy, as if the ground was not already saturated enough from the leakage all night, but now it was super saturated with rain.  It made cave-ins and some serious mud to work in.  But, I do need to count my blessings because the timing was actually a good thing.  There were hardly any campers needing to use the dump station on this day, and had it been one day later, it would have been REALLY BAD...like lots of RV's rolling into the campground, as in the Friday of Labor Day Weekend.  So, I am very thankful for the timing.

Young State Park & Emily to GC

Our end-of-the-summer family vacation was once again at our ole stand-by campground up north, Young State Park, in Boyne City, MI, where we have been going for the last 12 or so years.  We love it up there, and this year was once again, very relaxing and a great time with my family.  Check out the video my kids made if you want to see the boys in action out on the hiking trail
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2JnrsndjzpU
As soon as we got home, we unpacked the camper and then immediately re-packed and left the next morning to take Emily down to GC for the start of her sophmore year.  We arrived in Greenville expecting to have Mario's pizza with Mom and Dad...and ended up having a surprise 25th Wedding Anniversary party for Rene' and I, with friends gathered to help celebrate.

West-Side Missions, Family and Family Camp, Kids in Honduras, and Septic Field Problems

The past few weeks have been the busiest of the summer.  Getting ready for Family Camp here at SBC is always a very busy time...and then getting through it is almost equally busy, although, it went fairly well, with only a couple glitches (one of which I will give a few details here soon).  But, at the same time, I was getting ready for Family Camp, Rene' and Zack were involved in a West-side of Michigan Missions experience at our very own Bangor Free Methodist Church.  This trip was primarily for those teens that were not able to be part of the Honduras trip, and it was a huge shot in the arm for the Bangor church, and a great way for our teens to be able to serve.  Rene' and Zack got home just in time for Family Camp to begin and my Mom and Dad, sister Cyndi, nephew Benton, neice Kayce, and her friend Shelby to come up from Greenville and Nashville to be with us for Family Camp!   It was great having all of them join us for an extended stay and made Family Camp even more special!  As soon as Family Camp was over, both Emily and Caleb took off with our JFM Youth Group to Honduras for their missions trip that was cancelled last year due to political unrest in Honduras...but which is currently happening as I write this and is going very well and God is working in hearts and lives in many ways! (I look forward to giving more updates on this when they get back with pics and stories to share).  And then the most recent happening on a more personal level, is our failing septic field here at the North Bath House, which Marv Fisher (an awesome volunteer) has been helping me try to fix.  We have put a couple days into the project, and feel we are making some progress, but still have a way to go yet.

Latest personal mishap

Thanks to an overworked guardian angel and parents that pray for my safety daily, I have been very fortunate to not have many serious mishaps.  But, they do occasionally still happen.   On this occasion, it happened very quickly while installing a new roof vent above the camp kitchen.  I was positioning the vent and all of a sudden the sheet metal cover for the vent sliced my hand like a knife.  I watched my blood actually gush out in a stream that was probably over 2 feet long (like in the movies)...and I knew it was time to get off the roof.   Rene' drove me into Jackson's Med Plus After Hours Clinic.  The slice was only about 1 and a half inches long, but it was deep, and after the Doctor cleaned it and numbed it (and also proceeded to spill an entire bottle of Betadine all over the floor too), I was able to watch my own tendon healthily sliding back and forth with no damage...for which I was extremely grateful...and also very entertained by. (it is not every day you get to watch your own tendon working as it makes your finger move back and forth...really rather amazing)  Nevertheless, the doctor got my hand put back together with 5 staples...and it has not given me any pain at all.   I can indeed praise the Lord, and have much to be thankful for!

Father's Day

Father's Day was a great time of being with family and relaxing.  With our first day of summer camps coming up on Monday, I made the most of this Sunday...especially after being up til 3:00 AM Saturday morning (Friday night), dealing with the storm power outage and hooking up generators.  I was also blessed by being able to hear 3 of the guys from our Men's Fraternity group share in the JFM Sunday services...and attributing Men's Fraternity as being a major contributor to their personal growth of becoming a better  father, husband or son!  That made my day...well, that and the Father's Day cards I got....

Storm Damage at SBC

This storm took us by surprise...80 mph winds, hail, and heavy rain.    Fortunately, thank the Lord, all the damage was only to "stuff" that was insured, and nobody was hurt...although, two of our SBC staff were sitting in a vehicle outside of their staff trailer and actually watched the large limb fall onto their trailer...only a few feet in front of them.  The storm happened Friday evening, June 18, and by mid day Saturday, almost all of the storm damage was cleaned up by staff and volunteers.   Lots of people pitched in and helped us clean up...it was awesome!   The mobile home in the picture, that we have called "The Palace"...although only being used for storage for the past couple of years, was the most extensive damage.  A large tree top fell on it and basically split the trailer in half.  We now have to figure out a way to scrap it out.
Another real "God Thing" was the fact that Dave had only 2 days before this storm, gone out and purchased a new generator that was big enough to provide enough power for the A-Frame and Trading Post electrical, which had refrigerators and freezers that were very full.  We would have had a very hard time keeping all of this food in good shape, without this new generator. 

My kids thought this storm was reason enough to have many of the staff over for a slumber party...so it was basically fun for them!  Just like snow days in the winter... fun for the kids... work for the dads.