It was difficult to tell who received the most—our Fairmont friends or us. However, the Covenant team agreed that we received more than could have given.
Nature camp continued on Friday with its almost 30 campers. The team planned a great last day for them. Ranger Ragland talked about survival skills in the woods. He had a backpack full of all sorts of things and invited the kids to one by one come and choose something from the pack. Then the group talked about how that item could be used for survival in the woods. The kids had some really fun ideas about how to use some of the items!
The theme of the day, though, focused on a rainbow of five colors—black, red, white, green, and gold. The craft time and the group sharing time included these colors.
* Black represents the fact that we all are imperfect, separated from God by the sin
in our lives. The Bible tells us that we all are sinners. No one of us is perfect or holy.
* Red represents the blood that Christ shed on the cross. Because God is holy and cannot tolerate sin, and since we are sinful, God requires that a sacrifice be made for our sins. He began this with the Israelites and directed them to use the blood of animals as that payment. However, those sacrifices had to be made over and over. Jesus came to earth and lived a sinless life so that He could be offered as the perfect sacrifice. It was a sacrifice that was made one time and was offered for us all.
* White represents us after we ask Jesus to allow His sacrifice to cover our sins. The Bible promises that when God looks on us, what He sees is a life that is washed white as snow. We are forgiven for all time, and once we become His, we will be His forever.
* Green represents the new life we experience as we grow in our lives as His followers.
* Yellow represents the eternal life that we are promised. We will all, once we accept Jesus’ sacrifice for our own lives, enjoy life with Him in Heaven for eternity—walking streets of gold.
Each person made a leather bracelet with beads of these colors. What they won’t forget for a long time, though, was seeing Ranger Ragland wear those colors! As he shared the story of his own life and how he accepted Jesus as His Saviour, Meg Anderson (armed with pudding of each color) helped him demonstrate by “sliming” him. The kids loved it! Best of all, each counselor got to spend time with the campers in small groups to talk about what they had heard.
Nature camp ended with a cookout—hot dogs and s’mores for all. Once again, Chef Cindy pulled off a great meal for the crowd with seemingly little effort!Good-byes were said to all our new friends.
The last day of ballet camp was filled with high energy. The numbers of dancers grew each day. By the last day, considering the dancers and guests watching, the pavailion was a busy place. Mary Ann and Katy followed the same format each day—a welcome activity, stretching exercises, a performance (which was always very emotionally moving), dance instruction, snack time, Bible lesson, and craft time. As the week progressed, the girls, and guys!, made the pieces of a ballet costume—shoes out of socks and ribbon, crowns and wands (or swords), and on the last day—tutus (or armor)!
As ballet camp came to an end, there were numerous exchanges of email addresses, cell phone numbers, and autographs. (Note: the little girls from camp have called somebody on our team each day since we’ve returned!) Yesterday, one dancer called and wanted all the verses from the Bible lessons. We have the privilege of sharing those again! Join us in praying for continued interest in spiritual things by these dancers and their mothers. We were able to connect some of the children and mothers with a local church. Pray that this relationship grows.
Construction was really ramped up at Mrs. Ann and Mr. Robert’s house on Friday. As the hours ticked away, it was all hands on “the deck,” literally. The siding project on one end of the house was completed, along with all the wood replacement that was necessary. Mrs. Ann’s flower garden across the front of her house was completed. And, finally, at day’s end, the deck was completed. The guys moved Mrs. Ann’s porch furniture to the deck. Lynn and Sherry added planters full of beautiful flowers to the deck. Everyone celebrated!
Mrs. Ann and Mr. Robert, to show their appreciation, hosted the construction team at lunch with grilled hot dogs and hamburgers and watermelon. The team reciprocated with the presentation of one of the painted hammers and a “As for Me and My House” painting that had been created for the team fund-raising project. There were lots of tears.
Greg Hartley, the construction team leader, put it well that night when he said, “We gave nothing and Mrs. Ann and Mr. Robert gave everything.” If you recall, Mr. Robert is a bivocational pastor of a small church in Fairmont. The relationship forged with him was special, but somewhat limited because he had to work each day the team was there. However, Mrs. Ann sat on the porch with the team each day, sharing stories of her life and Christian walk. She encouraged, led singing, and just flat told some of the teenagers “how it is.” They all walked away with a very special friend in Fairmont, West Virginia, and great encouragement to be faithful to their Christian walks.
Camp Dayspring hosted a celebration on Friday night for all the teams there and the families on whose houses we’d worked. We enjoyed dinner together and then a closing worship service. Mrs. Ann honored us by singing “Amazing Grace” a capella. It was a special moment.
We loaded the cars with lots of “stuff” to return home, but we did all leave bits of ourselves in Fairmont. Looking back, each of the team, I believe, would say that the group dynamics of the team couldn’t have been better. Friendships were deepened in ways that would have taken years in Birmingham. The projects couldn’t have been better. They allowed us to depend on God in ways we never do at home. Rediscovering that God’s way is better than any way we plan was, perhaps, the most valuable lesson taken home by each of us.
Thank you to all our friends who prayed for our time in Fairmont. Your prayers encouraged and strengthened us. They made a difference.
Note: We plan to add to this blog, within the next few weeks, snippets by team members sharing how they saw God work in the day-to-day life in Fairmont. You will not want to miss those! They are amazing! And, we keep promising photos. They will be added soon. We promise!
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