Faith in Action

Greetings! “Through the Spirit we are Forgiven!”

Wednesday June 20…I just left our noon meal and our boys and their cabin were singing for broccoli from other tables. Brian Wendt rounded up 5 extra plates of the vegetable for their consumption – to say the least they have broccoli coming out of their ears. They have amazing voices to gather that much food from the other tables!

Yesterday the water was great and I think everyone of our kids (all 21) were either in the water or canoeing. Sam, Brian, Matt, Jack, Cade
and I were the Stoughton boys jumping off the raft with perfect canon balls! It was a hoot.

This morning as I returned from a walk around 7 am I heard the boys yelling from their polar bear plunge – it was so loud it woke several of the counselors out of a dead sleep.

Today we gather around the theme “Forgiveness” and how the Holy Spirit brings us new life in Jesus Christ. The spirit intercedes for us with sighs too deep for words to express…oh! Sin creates distance between us and God. Luckily we have a bridge that was created through Jesus’ death and resurrection to bridge the gap between the two. In order to connect us with God once again, the Holy Spirit intercedes and carries
us back from our sin so that we may be forgiven. This is the wonderful gift that we get from the Spirit who chose us! There is nothing we can do and no choice we can make to prevent ourselves from being carried over the bridge by the Holy Spirit. We are forgiven by our Triune God no matter what! I had a little fun with them talking about “mind the gap” words you hear before entering the subway in London! “Mind the gap” of the sin that separates us from each other and God! One of the initiatives was a difficult challenge to move all the participants off their dots and it revealed the fact that we have a lot of very good leaders in this confirmation group. I was impressed…it took a while and with the challenges before them at sometimes widened the gap between each participant. Yet, when they figured it out on their own and made it through the process you heard a huge cheer! Our guides do a great job integrating each initiative into the bible study. At the end of our study we played resurrection tag and I was caught between Payton and Retta only to catch my foot in the root of a tree to fall in the soft needles of a pine tree. It brought a roar of laughter. It has been a while since I played tag – but resurrection tag has a renewing side to it! The young people loved the activity.

This afternoon all of the girls were excited about making tie-dyed t-shirts; that are very colorful. Tonight three of our cabins are out on “Camp Out” cooking their meals outside, roasting marshmallows and enjoying the beautiful grounds of Pine Lake. I will stop out at each site for a visit and a few pictures so that we can capture the memories.

As I mentioned to the kids, I remind each of you “mind the gap” and enjoy the wonderful gift of forgiveness that bridges the space between God and one another - That is enough for Wednesday…I will be back tomorrow; thanks for sharing your wonderful children with me and Pine Lake Camp. 

 

Precious God, thank you for the gift of the cross and resurrection that bridges the gap and reminds us that nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord! Amen