Week 2

We have been having a fun time at Camp Berea but I will admit that I am ready to sleep in my own bed:). John has been busy with working with the maintance team.  He does anything from fixing sinks to mopping the dinning hall and filling vending machines.  He comes back to the cabin everyday super tired...the camp is extremely hilly and they don't drive their cars into camp so therefore you hike up and down hills all day.  

A few things that John and I are taking away from this time so far is how thankful we are for our community and how everyone at the ranch is willing to jump in and help clean the dinning hall, move beds or anything else that is needed:). I think sometimes we take that for granted until you are at a place where that does not happen.  Also after spending time at other camps John and I are going to pay extra attention to our volunteers at the ranch.  John and I have felt a bit lonely at times and miss our community at the ranch.

The kiddos are doing great and enjoying getting to explore new things and places:). We have seen Bailey a few times and she is doing great!  You would have never known she came not knowing anyone...but that should not surprise anyone:)  We got to see her at the beach today:)

The boys and I have had fun this week riding scooters, hiking, swimming and many more things!  Here is Benny boy running through the woods being the Turtle man!

After running all through the woods being turtle man Ben got a nasty bug bite that resulted in us having to make a trip to the  Doctor but he is doing great now!  It did not slow him down at all!

Bradley has finally decided he likes the water:). The lake is SO cold and I don't see how the kids swim in it but they love it!  The highs have only been around 70 so I spend my time at the beach by the fire while I watch them swim:). Seems very strange in June to be cold but it is also nice!  The lake the camp sits on is one of the cleansest lakes in New Hampsire and is so very pretty.

The Orbit (big water trampoline). Is Ben's favorite!  He thinks the Ranch needs one:)

  It will be fun having Bailey back with us next week.  We have some things planned to go visit in and around the community.  Will post again soon!

Week 1

We have had a great week and have made lots of memories:). We left last Monday morning and had a very long day of driving, the kids did great but were so glad to get out of the car and swim!  We had the chance to visit a few camps on our way to Camp Berea.  The first camp was right outside of Cleveland.  We were able to visit with a couple who ran the camp all by themselves. They were tired and very discouraged, it was good to visit with them and encourage them in what they are doing!  We also got to see the Angels play in Cleveland, which was a lot if fun!

This was the view from our house at NEO Retreat center:)

The next night we drove to Bufflo to stay at Lighthouse Christian Camp.  We were able to sit down with their staff and share about the Ranch and what we do.  They had several Sower volunteers who asked a lot of questions, it would be fun to see them come to New Life to volunteer:). This was a beautiful camp that mainly has family camps.  Here was our little cabin:)

This camp sat right on Lake Ontario and on a clear day you could see Canada.

While we were there we were able to go see Niagara Falls.  The kids had so much fun!  Their favorite thing was The Cave of the Winds.  We were able to go right up to the falls and we all got soaked!

Our last stop before making it to Camp Berea was Pathfinder Lodge in Cooperstown.  We had a great time touring and learning about what they do. When we got there they were hosting an Adult Special Ed retreat.  The kids thought that was fun to see another camp have special needs retreats.  This camp too was very beautiful and sat right on a lake.  The kids had a fun time fishing!  The wanted to swim but so far on our trip it has been very cool.  The lows at night get down in the 40's and the cabins don't have heat.  Very thankful we brought sweatshirts and pants!

A big Hit in Cooperatown of course was all the baseball fun:). We had a fun time at the museum and at the batting cages!

Finally on Saturday we made it to Camp Berea.  It reminds us a lot of the Ranch. And the kiddos are having fun meeting all of the staff.  Today was John's first day as a volunteer. He will be working on their maintance team for the next 2 weeks.  Bailey started camp today.  She seemed really nervous and was unsure about being in the cabin with no one she knew and taking the big swim test.  They have different levels of swim tests here and you can earn different color swim bands.  She passed the blue test...which she was very excited about so she can jump on the big trampoline in the water and water ski/tube:). We will post more pics of Camp Berea in another post but for now here is our view for the next 3 weeks from our cabin and Bailey girl in her cabin:)

Will update more soon!  Please pray for the staff here this week and for the campers...this is their largest week of camp yet:)

Sabatical

Hi family and friends!  It has been a long while since we have used our blog:)  It has been fun to go back and read over the blogs we wrote years ago!

Most of you know that John and I live and serve at a Christian Camp in eastern Oklahoma.  We have been here for 9 years and still feel very strongly that this is where the Lord has called us.  After being on Staff for 7 years you are able to take a sabbatical. When that time came for us we decided to wait a few years until Bradley was older.  So, this summer we are taking our sabbatical and heading to New Hampshire to volunteer at Camp Berea. We will be gone for a total of six weeks.  We will take a week to travel up there and a week to travel home and use that to sight see and spend time together as a family.  John will volunteer at Camp Berea for 3 weeks and then we visit 2 additional camps in Massachusetts for about a week.  We will be staying at different camps along the way and get to take camp tours and see how they do things.  The kids are very excited to get to see some new camps and explore some new places!  Bailey will get to go for a week of camp at Camp Berea which will be a great opportunity for her.

We will be updating the blog every few days if you want to follow along our our journey!