I should have brought my long pants!

When the temperature at home barely drops into the 80's at night and is staying consistently in triple digits in the daytime, it is easy to forget that it is not the same everywhere. So, when we took a group of 4 from HBA to help with Bay Lakes Baptist Association's summer youth camp in Wisconsin, I packed the way I have for 20 plus years of youth camp in Texas--a week's worth of shorts and t-shirts. With daytime temperatures in the 60's and night time in the 40's, that now appears to be a case of poor planning. Other than that, it was a wonderful experience. This association, made up of 22 churches stretching across 26 counties, has been conducting this camp for several years and has been stretched incredibly thin in the area of adult volunteers--especially cabin counselors, who are responsible for a group of 8 or so kids 24/7. They have never been able to have 2 adult counselors in the cabins. Because we brought our group of 4 (Scott & Kattie Penick--pastor and wife from Valley View Baptist Church, and my daughter Tova and myself) and another group of 2 came from Minnesota to help, they were able to have 2 adults with each group of kids. We led their Bible studies, played with them in recreation, ate our meals with them, worshiped with them each morning and evening, and built friendships over the course of the week. We answered their questions and prayed with them. When we got ready to leave, they hugged us, thanked us, and asked us to please consider coming back next year. We did not see many public decisions for Christ, but we know there were some in small group settings, and we know that we encouraged them in the name of Jesus. Because of the great support of our HBA Churches and because the Baptist General Convention of Texas paid for our plane tickets, we were able to go and minister in the cold north. God is great!