Hillbrook Christian Camp

I just finished what I believe is my 30th. year to work camp at Hillbrook Christian Camp.  This past week went really well.  We had wonderful weather and a great staff.  When you have that combination, things go so much better.  We only had about 65 children this year, perhaps because of the 4th of July being in our week.  We also had two baptisms our week.  Luke and Bianca were baptized this past week. Billy and Karen went to cook for us again this year.  Everyone enjoys them coming because they do such a good job.  Kerri also worked with us as a counselor.  Zac, Kristin and Olivia also came to work with us as well.  Olivia was our nurse this year. One young lady from the congregation came for the first time and two boys came.  We had a really good week.

We had just completed a Gospel Meeting before we left for camp.  Gary Hampton did a wonderful job.

This week we have Vacation Bible School each night (Monday – Friday), beginning at 6:30.  When that is finished, we have a week before we head off to camp again at Taylor Christian Camp.  I enjoy summer, but I sure am glad to see all the weekly activities finish up.  I am not sure if working camps helps keep you young or shows you how old you are getting.  I think the latter is more accurate.  Anyway, it is time to get ready for Sunday and begin a new week.  Have a great 4th of July.

Preparing for Gospel Meeting

Our Gospel Meeting will begin in a little over a week.  We always have a Gospel Meeting that goes from Sunday morning to Friday night, starting on Father’s Day.  As I mentioned some weeks back, we ran into difficulty with the speaker.  There was a conflict in his schedule (he evidently did not write it down), and he was scheduled to be out of the country that week.  Gary Hampton, director of the East Tennessee School of Preaching and Missions in Knoxville TN and formerly the preacher at Jefferson Ave. in Cookeville Tennessee agreed to come.  We are very much looking forward to hearing the lessons he presents.  Wally Kirby will be leading the singing and everyone enjoys that period of time together.  We mailed out  1,081 House to House/Heart to Heart this week. I received a recent update of mailing addresses, so I added them to the list that I already had.  Unfortunately, I got 50 of those back.  I had a net gain of 45-50.  I am hoping that individuals will also invite people to come to the meeting.  We begin at 9:00 AM on Sunday morning.  Sunday evening through Friday evening is at 7:30 PM CDT.  We begin singing each night at 7:00 PM.  If you are in the area of Montrose church of Christ, come visit us.  We are at 53 Lakeside Dr., Carthage TN.  The community is Defeated.

It has been a good week to walk early in the morning.  Each morning I have gone for a walk around 6:30 AM.  I always enjoy walking in the Defeated Park Campground.  This weekend there is a Bluegrass Festival at the marina.  We enjoy going to that and it gives an opportunity to support our local volunteer fire department.

A young lady from the community passed away this week.  I had heard about her numerous times, but never had the opportunity to meet her.  She became sick when she was just a few months old.  As a result of various complications, she was never able to walk or speak.  Christie was just a few weeks short of her 37th birthday when she passed away Sunday evening.  I know her mother and father and brother are going to have a big void in their lives.  Remember the Thompson family in your prayers.

Memorial Day Weekend

We have had a good weekend.  Saturday we went to Granville to a Festival.  That was an enjoyable way to spend the morning.  That afternoon we went to eat with a family from church, as well as meet the family of a young man (little Zach) who attend here now and is getting married in November. [Little Zach is probably 6ft. 1in and 300+ lbs.  He is smaller than our Zac, who is 6ft. 5in. 300 lbs] Sunday was a good day.  I thought we would have more visitors from the campground, but we still had good attendance.  That afternoon I went to Bagdad church of Christ (TN not Iraq), to help with distributing camp applications.  We received 36 applications for girls and 15 for the boys.  Hopefully the boys will pick up in the next three weeks.  Then we had a meal at church building and 4th. Sunday singing.  We had 95 present Sunday night which was a really good crowd.  Today I worked on the bulletin, then took the afternoon to help work on the garage some and cook hamburgers and hot-dogs.  I had to take time to go for a walk at the campground.  I managed to get four days of walking in last week, so I wanted to get started this week.  Finished my bulletins a few minutes ago, and now it is time to relax and get ready for bed.

Work Day

Today was a day set aside for the men of the Montrose church of Christ to work on trimming trees and pressure washing around the building.  We had about ten people to show up and we accomplished a lot of work.  We trimmed trees and bushes, which needed it very much.  Glen did a lot of pressure washing, which helped a great deal.  Some may be unhappy with the way we trimmed, but we got it done.  While we were working on the back of the house, one of the men noticed how much a big pine was damaging the roof.  We decided to remove the tree, so down it went.  It looks rather bare in that spot now, but we will get used to it. Men with chain saws and trimming equipment without female supervision is a dangerous thing.   We had a good work day.

I also took Riley to the airport this afternoon.  He was scheduled to fly to Brazil today for three weeks in the mission field.  He was excited, but nervous about flying.  It stormed all the way to Nashville, so that did not help matters any.  When we arrived at the airport, we got there at the same time another group from Freed-Hardeman University that he was traveling with  arrived. We could not have timed it any better.  Remember Riley and this group as they travel to Brazil and do the mission work they have planned.

Our Gospel Meeting

This has been an interesting few days for me.  Sunday night in the business meeting, I was asked to contact the speaker for our Gospel Meeting (which is June 21-26) to make sure everything was on schedule.  He has been scheduled for five years. When I made the call Monday morning, I found out that he was going to be out of the country at that time.  His words were, “I messed up” to which I agreed. I have tried to get several speakers over the past three days.  Bro. Gary Hampton, director of the East Tennessee School of Preaching told me today that he will come.  You do not know how relieved I am.  He is a wonderful speaker, and I think will be an excellent choice for our meeting.  I sure am glad to have that problem solved.

Last Friday evening we made the trip to London KY to help sister-in-law with chores in and around her house.  I believe it was a productive trip.  We made some progress, even if it did rain on us just about the entire time.  Enjoyed getting to see family members that I have not seen in a while.

I attended a Gospel Meeting last night at Pippin Church of Christ in Putnam County.  Ben Flatt was the speaker and did a very good job.  Zac was going and wanted me to go with him, so I made the trip.  Enjoyed visiting with Randy and his family (local preacher), Charlie West, Ben Flatt and others I met at the congregation.  Another busy week-end coming up, so I better get back to work.

Gospel Meetings

The past two nights, Ted Russell and I have attended gospel meetings.  Last night we went to Corinth church of Christ near Portland, TN for a gospel meeting.  The preacher was Jeff Archey.  He had an outstanding lesson on the “valley of decision.”  Ted and Jeff worked together some years ago, so I decided we would try to go.  The lady who sat next to me was the sister of a family we knew when we were in Oneida.  She told me her dad preached at Bagdad some years ago. Her dad was Ralph Kidd.  Small world.

Tonight, Ted and I went to Zion church of Christ where Don Chaffin and John Anderson preach.  The speaker was Jimmy Cook who also did an excellent job.  He spoke about the perseverance of Jacob and the fact that we need to re-dig some wells that have been stopped up by others.  (Bible study, morals, etc..). We were able to visit with some folks that we had not seen in a year.  It has been a good week.

Wonderful Day

The weather today was absolutely wonderful.  Yesterday it was cold and possibility of snow flurries.  Today was in the upper 60’s or low 70’s.  I worked in the office for a while this morning, then went inside to help the workers who are putting new flooring down.  I helped put the hardwood floor down.  They use a pneumatic nailer to nail the wood, and I was given that thing to operate.  As far as I know, we did OK.  Since it is powered by a compressor, you do not have to hit the piston hard to make it drive the nail.  I enjoyed doing it.  When we got the floor finished, I decided it was time for me to mow the yard.  I worked on that for several hours with weed-eater, push mower and riding mower.  I went for a walk about 5:30 PM and really enjoyed that.  The park (where I walk) will probably be full of campers this week-end. It is close to full now. When I got home, Vic was here with supper.  We still have no access to a stove.  We had barbecue, white beans, and potatoes for supper.  Now it is time to work some more on my material for Sunday and rest some in this chair.  I may fall asleep, so I best get on with what I need to get done tonight.  Have a good week-end.

House Progress

The workers are making good progress on the house.  Most of the painting has been done with at least one coat of paint.  The tile in the kitchen was laid today.  They will work on the bathroom tomorrow and do more painting. Next week the hardwood floors will be put down.  So far, we have been able to sleep upstairs.  We go out to my office, which is attached to the house, for showers and bathroom. We go down in the basement for meals.  It has not been that bad of an inconvenience.  I think about others who would love to have those “inconveniences.” Maybe by next weekend we will be back in the house.  If not, we can deal with it.

Tonite we are suppose to have storms.  Some in our area have already had some damage as a result.  Hopefully it will not get too bad.  I went for my walk and made it only a short distance before it start raining.  The caretaker for the campground came and got me and took me back to my vehicle.  I had already decided I could not make the entire loop, but I also knew I was going to get wet.  Thanks George for helping me out.

Friday Night Singing

I wanted to touch briefly on our Friday Night Singing.  We have 148 people present and the singing was wonderful.  The ladies (and some of the men) fixed enough food to feed twice the number we had, so we enjoyed a wonderful meal before the singing.  We sang for an hour and a half and thoroughly enjoyed this period of praising God and teaching and admonishing one another.  Thanks to all who came and all who had a part in making it such a wonderful evening.

Today we have worked on our house, trying to get it ready for new tile and hardwood floors.  That means everything has to be moved out of the living room and kitchen.  We also had to strip wallpaper off the walls in the kitchen.  They are going to paint as well.  The best we can figure, some years ago, they painted the walls, then put wallpaper on them, then painted later and after that put wallpaper again on the walls.  It was a mess, but we finally got it all off.  Thanks to Zac, Kristin and Kerri coming to help Vic and myself.  We are exhausted from all the work today.  It will be ready for the workers to start at 7:00 AM Monday morning.  We think it will really look nice when they get finished.  Must go for now. Storms on the way.

Funeral visitations and car salesman

Vickie and I just got home from going to a visitation/memorial for a family that we knew in Nashville. I mentioned the Reel family in my blog yesterday.  We were able to visit with Clifford and Jean, Lisa and Tom, Lori and Bill, and their children while we were there.  We met some of George Reel Jr.’s family.  There were also several people there from Oneida that we knew. Continue to remember the Reel family in your prayers.

Earlier in the day I had gone to a visitation for a man in Gainesboro.  We knew his daughter and son-in-law well.  After that visit I went on to Cookeville to have Vic’s car serviced.  She plans on a trip to go visit her family tomorrow, so it needed the 15,000 mile service.  While I was there, the salesman at the Toyota dealership tried to sell me another car.  He was trying really hard because he offered to take my old car for a trade-in and offered we what I told him I wanted for it. I am not interested, but our daughter is, so I am looking for her.  Anyway, it has been a busy day, so hopefully tomorrow i will be able to get more done in my office.