Week 4 Update

It seems that this summer of ministry has been shaped by The Flood (see previous updates). But finally, it looks like the affects of the deluge are subsiding. After many phone messages, pounding away with a hammer at a stuck fire-door, and lots of praying, our fire inspector came by on Wednesday and certified our church site for camp occupancy.

Then, Friday, in the middle of a field trip (Project Destiny Olympics at the Joe Moakley Park in South Boston), while I was wondering whether or not we'd have a camp site for our final week of camp, our building inspector arrived and gave us the go ahead. Later in the afternoon, the health department called and OK'ed us to move back to 249 Harrison Avenue!

Thus, after a long absence from the church building, our day-camp will return back to its original site for the final week. When we made the announcement at dismissal time that day, there was much cheering--from both campers and counselors alike.

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Last night, we had a joint fellowship night with PD and our regular middle-school youth group. We had about 60 kids filling the church basement for "Bill the Builder Night". Their task was to engineer houses that could fit as many people as possible, out of only rolled up newspapers and two pizza cartons. Here's a picture:

They had a lot of fun and a few new-comers to youth group said they would be attending more often. Praise God!

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Please pray for our final week. One devotional this week we had was from 1 Peter 5:8-- Be sober-minded and watchful, since our enemy prowls around like a lion waiting to devour somebody. When we are tired and weary, it's easy to be pounced upon by his lies. Pray that our mindset would be right and that Christ would be honored in our work and love for one another and the campers.

Open...Shut... Open...

I'm sure it's frustrating for parents that we are open and shut and open again, but for the time being, camp is open again! We passed all three inspections: building, fire, and health; and we got our camp permit yesterday-- praise God!

So we opened camp yesterday in the Josiah Quincy Upper School. Students gathered into the cafeteria and we had a re-cap trivia quiz for chapel time. The kids had fun with it. Then we got on buses and shipped off to Providence, RI to visit the Roger Williams Park Zoo. It was nice to see counselors hanging out with the kids again, reading signs to them and admiring God's creatures together.

For the present, we are open and will be open on Monday. We still need to secure a long term solution for camp site-- either by repairing the church quickly or staying longer at a temporary site. JQUS is a costly facility for us to rent, and it may not be sustainable to remain there for more than a few days. Please pray for God to provide a solution.

Shut Down Again

We got shut down this morning by the city, 30 minutes before we were going to open up camp again. I was so ready with a sermon for chapel and with plans to move all operations into the Quincy Upper School. We had gotten a verbal understanding and ok from the city and the Boston Public Schools. Then I took the phone call from Inspection Services which gave the order to shut down. After the discouraging call, I entered the sanctuary to deliver the news to the team, which had been praying about the phone call. I could sense a lot of disappointment and frustration. The staff spent the morning welcoming campers into a room and keeping them there until we could contact their parents to send them home. 

I spent the day at 1010 Mass. Ave. with Emily shuttling from office to office, trying to get camp opened up again. They would like us to start over again, as if we were planning a brand new day camp-- a process that took us a month or so to do for our original site. 

I went through many different emotions throughout this day. I was really psyched to get back to serving campers and having counselors work with kids, as well as delivering my sermon. Then I felt frustrated and stung by my unfulfilled expectations and the inconsistency of the authorities I had spoken to. After that, I was energized by the task of getting campers safely home. At some point, when I was at the ISD, I was hopeful we could have camp tomorrow. Then as the hours passed and inspectors started ending the work day, I was deflated to know that we'd have no camp the next day.

I'm still confident that God is in control and that my disappointments are only because I don't see things the way that God sees them in the grand scheme of eternity. But right now, I'm pretty tired out by the roller coaster ride. We've been a camp without campers for almost a week. I covet and appreciate your prayers. 

Back in Business (Lord willing)

Camp is on for tomorrow! Praise God! More details to follow later, but after many conversations, much prayer and waiting, we've been given permission to use Quincy Upper School, my old haunt. Pray for a smooth transition to our new site tomorrow morning.

BTW-- it is pretty ironic that I am back at JQUS, where I used to be a teacher. I left JQUS to go into church ministry , but God has used old connections to open doors. 

Camp Shut Down! Please pray!

Camp is closed! Saturday afternoon, as I was in the emergency room investigating a possible contagious disease (I’m ok and not sick), I got the call from our operations manager that the church had flooded! We spent that night moving furniture, sucking up water, sanitizing toys, and washing out contaminants from the basement. The basement is now dry, but because of hazardous health conditions, we had to call all the campers and close for at least today (Monday).

Currently, I’m investigating ways to open camp as soon as possible. Since we are licensed by the city, our responsibilities are numerous and we need to be approved by Boston’s health and building inspectional services before opening up. A demolition crew is slated to come in and take apart the basement within the next few days; but this would leave us without the most important floor in our camp. One possibility is that we move to a new site, which is slightly disappointing because we love getting campers comfortable enough so that attending youth group won’t be such a stretch for them. Another possibility is that we remain closed for an extended period of time. It is possible that the city will just shut us down for good; but we are hoping and praying. 

If you can, would you pray that God would be glorified during this time—that we would learn to trust him in new ways and that we would see his provision. Also, pray for all the families that will not have a place for their kids to go during this time. Finally, pray for the Gospel to be preached and shared no matter what the circumstances. I’m reminded again of Romans, where Paul writes that “for those who love God all things work together for those who are called according to his purpose.” We have a purpose this summer from the Lord and we are clinging to him. We are looking forward to him working all things out as He promised.

First Week Update

It’s been a great first week! On Friday, we wrapped up the week by going to George’s Island in Boston Harbor, where we played group games and explored the fort. We had a few unexpected things come up: since the island was under major construction, the only way to our camp site was to lead the entire group along with our equipment through a narrow pitch-black tunnel. Also, our assistant directors, Emily and Kam Ho, had to wait at church for the camp lunches to be delivered to us; and as a result, they missed two ferries and we had to go without both assistant directors for the entire morning.

More importantly, though, a lot of good bonding between counselors and campers occurred this week; and it looks like kids are having fun. For chapel, we’ve been following the faith-story of Gideon and the Israelites in the time of the judges. Through two fun skits and one slightly long sermon, we studied the theme that bad things aren’t evidence that God doesn’t exist, but rather God’s way of getting our attention.

Training is Over! (pre-dated to July 4)

Finally, camp starts tomorrow! All month, we’ve been gearing up for this day. Project Destiny training is now done. The team of 25 staff has been working hard and training hard. We’ve started our bonding, we’ve prayed, we’ve prepped lessons, and now we’re looking forward to campers coming! I can’t wait for the first awkward moments when campers come through the door and counselors match faces to the names they’ve been praying over.

Right now, I’m sitting in Panera, doing some of the last-minute work. It’s July 4^th, but for me, it’s a big work day. I’ve accompanied some of the female counselors to do their day-before-camp shopping. I’m excited about tomorrow and meeting our 54 campers!