Yesterday we began tapping maple trees, officially opening maple syrup making season at Camp Deerpark! Last year, the transition kept us from producing syrup, so it feels great to be back to it. Starting off, however, has been a bit of a challenge since things are pretty arctic around here. The entire ground is covered in at least a quarter-inch layer of ice on top of compacted snow. Walking on the surface doesn’t leave a single foot print, and any slope at all means you’ll soon by traveling on your back or bottom. To get around, we’re wearing spikes on our boots like mountain climbers!
As things slow down during a few months here at Camp, it gives me a chance to meditate on what I’m tapped into. Sometimes, it’s not the easiest thing to “abide in the vine” like Jesus instructed in John 15. Just like our arctic struggle to get tapped into our maple trees, tapping into God can come with long delays and sometimes — when we’re trying our hardest to get there — we find ourselves slipping and falling all over the place.
But like the spikes on our boots, Jesus provides an anchor for our souls because he has already done the work to enter “behind the curtain” and connect us to God (Hebrews 6:19-20). When we realize this, we find that the problem is not that God is far away or inaccessible. Rather, we need our eyes and ears to open in faith to see what He’s been doing and hear what He’s been saying all along. If we start from this point of anchor in knowing Him, we can move with confidence in any landscape of life.
Please join us in prayer as we seek to make Camp a place where people can find or renew their connection to Jesus, the hope and anchor of their souls. Ask the Lord to break through the noise of our times that many find confusing and disillusioning. Pray that the Lord will send us many slipping and sliding and give us the grace to help them tap in to the one who has already finished the work of their redemption.
Join us in special prayer as we re-develop our Summer Camp ministry to help young adults and children tap into their Father in life transforming ways that will spread from life to life both at Camp and when they go home.
Praise God With Us:
- Thanks for our new board members who volunteered to join Camp’s leadership: Anita Castle, Brian Murray, and Lowell Jantzi.
- Praise God for the timely completion of our Twin Birch 5&6 remodel by our Facilities staff: Gino and Eivy Rodriguez and Michael Zahaykevich.
- Our hard working office staff just sent our Winter Newsletter to the printers (or by email) — if you don’t see your copy, please let us know.
Please Pray For:
- Inter-generational connection and reconciliation — our theme for Peace Camp this year.
- Camp’s re-development of our ministry, training, and discipleship model and methods and our work with NYC Leaders and LMC Leaders on every-member missions, church multiplication, and movement dynamics.
- Recruitment for next year’s Summer Camp staff, especially Camp Pastor and Head Counselors.
Upcoming Guests:
- Garifuna Manhattan Youth
- Garifuna Bronx Leadership
- Kingdom Life Global (Uniondale, NY)
- St .Catherine CYO (Glen Rock, NJ)
- College of the Holy Cross (Worcester, MA)
- Messiah University Track Team (Mechanicsburg, PA)
- Iglesia Mundial (Spring Valley, NY)
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