Greetings Everyone
This last weekend I had the pleasure of heading down to Good Earth Village with our confirmation students. Along with me was Pastor John and Becky Glaser. The three of us along with 12 students were greeted with some fantastic weather and a great time of fellowship as we prepared for the affirmation of faith service as well as talked about this coming school year.
Good Earth Village is a very special place to me as it is where I spent three summers working as a camp counselor and a couple years working year round as their retreat hose. I am always excited to take groups there to experience just a little bit, of what I got to in the early 2000's. Although many things at camp has changed, there are many familiar sights for me there like three crosses. Pictured above I got there just in time to see the sun starting to peak up over the bluff.
This last Friday we headed out to GEV and got there in time to enjoy a campfire together. We talked about what it means to have a covenant with each other and had a chance to make some s'mores. Before heading to bed, we put out the fire by spreading it out in the fire ring and all the logs burnt out (more about that to come).
The next day we got going on breakfast before heading over to the same fire right we were at the night before. We got to the fire right to find the wood from the previous night and stopped burning but were still there. We talked to the kids about fellowship. What it means to be in community with each other and all of us have a spark inside of us. We talked about how that spark in each of us can grow into a fire, a fire that when joined with others can grow bigger and bigger. With all that fire burning together, we can accomplish so many things. Then I reminded them of the logs sitting in the fire pit by themselves. Lifeless and cold they had gone out without the other logs around them. We used this metaphor as a lesson about how it is so hard to start a blaze just by yourself. When joined with others the fire burns so much better. You can even take a fire from one group and when joined with another fire start a new one.
We are capable of so much and when joined with others we are capable of accomplishing so much more. My prayer for the kids that got to affirm their faith this past Sunday that they see that and are inspired to go out into the world now with that fire burning inside them to do some amazing things. The wildfire that can start can be good. At the bottom of this newsletter is one of my favorite songs that explains this great also and I encourage you to check it out.
Have a great week everyone.
Ben