“If you can’t feed a hundred people, then feed just one.” Mother Teresa

A couple of weeks ago I had one of those experiences that was both deeply touching and yet a bit mind-bending. I am a part of a small group of ministry leaders from across North America who meet together two times a year to share, encourage, challenge and learn from each other. Our most recent gathering was in Seattle where one of our group, Jeff Lilley, is the President of Seattle’s Union Gospel Mission (UGM).

Jeff arranged for us to spend an evening on a “search and rescue” where UGM loads up a van with food, clothing, blankets and hot chocolate and drives around Seattle “searching” for homeless people to serve.

The staff of UGM has a good idea where to find people. So we drove to those spots, got out of the van and “searched” for people in need. Most were sleeping on a benches, laying on the ground under overpasses or in door ways. The most uncomfortable part of the evening was waking these folks up from their sleep.

Once awake we invited them to the van to partake in our goods. Sometimes, like waiters, we carried whatever they needed to where they were. We also invited them to come and stay at UGM and then prayed for them. Over the few hours I would estimate we served 50 to 75 people.

So what was so deeply touching and mind-bending for me about this experience?

First, these people were very grateful. They were some of the kindest and most thankful people I’ve ever meet. At least two prayed for us.

Secondly, they all have a story. There is a reason they are homeless and not all the reasons make sense (we asked them their stories when we could and listened when they would tell us).

Thirdly, I didn’t meet one victim, or at least one person who expressed that they were victims. I’m sure they were out there; I just didn’t meet any with that attitude. Considering their situations that is quite remarkable.

Fourth, there is help available to these people but for whatever reason they have chosen not, can’t or don’t know how to pursue this help.

Finally, even in light of the fourth point, I am more convinced than ever we need “to feed the poor, cloth the naked and shelter the homeless.” We need to do this even if we can’t grasp how they got to this place and why they haven’t moved beyond it.

In those few hours I kept thinking of Jesus. Maybe it’s because I was seeing Him in the faces of these people. His words kept coming back to me “I tell you the truth, whatever you did for the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me” Matthew 25:40.

As I said in my last post I spent a week in Canada fishing at the end of September.  The first half of the week  was with my college friends and my brother. The second half was with another group of great friends of mine and of SpringHill.

Like being at a SpringHill Camp this group is firmly committed to  a few things done very well.  The first is to fishing. It’s our camp major.  We take advantage of every minute to fish.  The result is always lots of fish and a great fish dinner on Saturday night.

Secondly, this group is committed to good food.  We eat well on this trip. Breakfast and dinner are highlights of each day as it is for our campers. At breakfast we plan where everyone will fish and at dinner we share all our fish stories and adventures we experienced that day. 

Thirdly, we’re committed to fellowship.  There is nothing like spending a day in a boat or canoe with a friend in an incredibly beautiful place to create the perfect conditions for life discussions.  Many theological, spiritual, personal and practical conversations take place with the clarity  of thought that comes from “being away from it all” (just like camp).

Finally, we commit to studying and discussing what it is that God has for our lives.  We do this at breakfast each morning. This year the focus was on the SpringHill “Way of Life” called “V.I.S.I.O.N.” (which I shared in my posts of June 6 and June 7th).  As in every good SpringHill experience, this small group time provides the basis for great discussions in the boat during the day.  These talks in the boats enrich the campfire like discussions we have at dinner.

This trip is one of the highlights of my SpringHill year.  I love the guys and what we do when we are together fishing and the friendships we  now have outside of fishing.  Just writing about it has me already looking forward to our trip together next year.

These guys are my longest (nearly 30 years) and closest friends. Our fishing trip is a chance to catch up and be together. The Canadian wilderness provides a great place to be and fishing a fun activity to do while we spend 5 days together.

Our college careers (we all worked together as RA’s and RHD’s at Central Michigan University)

Being in and at each of our weddings and supporting each other through the marriages that followed (Praise God we are all still married to these same women – praise these women as well).    

The births of 23 kids.

The loss of parents and other significant people in our lives.

Watching sports together, including our kids playing together and against each other.

Coaching, encouraging and supporting each other in our careers.

Praying and supporting each other and our families through life threatening health issues.

Keeping each other out of real trouble while sometimes finding ourselves together in not so real trouble.

And of course fishing in Canada together. 

As you can see we not only  “see the same truth” but we have lived and shared our lives together as well. As a result these guys are a true a gift to me.

Jonathan and I learned a lot on our canoe trip.  The following are some additional lessons we took away from our adventure down the Manistee River.  No doubt these lessons will stick with us, not only when we canoe again, but throughout the rest of our lives. See part 1 for the first half of the list.

7. Teams, even two people teams, are more likely to do great things than individuals.

8. Everyone has a role on the team, some steer from the back others scout the water from the front.

9. You can do better than you expected when you focus together on both the goal and the obstacles in front of you.

10. Don’t be too selective about where you will camp. Better to grab the first acceptable place instead of waiting for the perfect spot. Otherwise you may canoe a lot longer than you planned.  Your back will get really sore and you will discover that you haven’t found a better spot than the first one you saw an hour earlier.

11. Inside a bend the water is shallow, slower and there are fewer obstacles but you have to fight the current to get to it. On the outside of a bend the water is deeper, faster and full of trouble and the current takes you there unless you are diligent.

12. Don’t camp at campsites next to highways unless you like to hear traffic all night (and parties across the way).

13. Be nice to fly fishermen even if they are not nice to you.

14. Set your tent fly up correctly, no short cuts, because it may just rain like crazy and flood out your tent on the first night.

15. Always take adventures when you can because you will learn something new, grow as a person and have lots of stories to tell for years to come.

When each of our three boys turned 13 I took them on a one on one adventure.  It was my way to create an experience that facilitates a discussion about the significance and meaning of them becoming men.

At the end of this past summer our youngest child Jonathan, who turned 13 this year, and I took a 4 day canoe and camping trip down the Manistee River.  We started near the head waters just west of Grayling, MI and finished northeast of Lake City, MI. We had an incredible time. The river was beautiful, Jonathan caught some trout, we had some great discussions and some exciting adventure along the way.

The vast majority of our canoeing experience has been on lakes not rivers which created some of the adventure we had and taught us many lessons.  As we talked about these lessons each evening we began to see how they also applied to our lives in general. So we thought we would share some of our “canoe” lessons with you.

1. Do all you can to avoid obstacles that are in your path (like fallen logs).

2. If you can’t avoid obstacles (and we learned you can’t always avoid them) then you need to hit them straight-on.

3. By all means do not hit obstacles side ways because you might sink (which we nearly did).

4. Fast water is fun but you have to be 100% focused otherwise it will send you into trouble.

5. If you want to catch fish you must have your line in the water.

6. The more you do something the better you get at it even if you learn by trial and error (we floated 96 miles on our trip).

To be continued…

Every Labor Day weekend we have 20 to 25 people living in our home, people sleeping where ever there is a bed, couch, or floor space.  We have more great food than all of us can eat in a week.  There are card games, ziplines, horseback rides, tubing down the Muskegon River and great discussions about life and faith.  So what’s the occasion?

This is the annual SpringHill Labor Day Family Camp.  One of the first programs SpringHill began and after 41 years it’s bigger and more impactful than ever.  We continue to see families who want this kind of experience together leading us to continue to grow the program with nearly 4000 people attending 4 family camps in Michigan and Indiana in 2010.

But our little corner of this fabulous weekend are the 3 families who come and make our house their camp site and together we experience SpringHill’s Family Camp. Over the years and over the course of the weekend we have had other families join us for meals, for a warm and dry place to sleep or just to catch a college football game on Saturday afternoon.

It is one of my favorite SpringHill experiences and one of my favorite weekends of the year.  The three families, the Wagner’s from Plymouth, Michigan, the VanderKolk’s and the Blanchards from East Grand Rapids, Michigan, and of course our family have all become dear friends because of this annual shared experience.

The friendships have extended to our kids and our kid’s friends.  Late on Saturday night some of our summer staff (friends of our kids) joined us after the session for a discussion prompted by the weekend’s speaker Duffy Robbins. The focus was on God’s intentions of bringing His Kingdom to bear on His earth.  Included were great questions, a bit of debate and a moving story of how the power of Christ’s Kingdom came this past week to someone from our group.

The evening was Family Camp at it’s best.  It’s what happens at SpringHill every evening during the summer as well as during family camps.  Small communities of people sit around a campfire (or a fire-place) and share, discuss and pray together. It’s also why I love these weekends.  You see  I not only have a hand in this incredible ministry but also have the opportunity to be a SpringHill camper for a weekend.

A group of us were sitting at “the Island” having burgers as we do each Sunday after Opening Day.  Except this Sunday was a bit different, as my son MD said, it was “retro staff night.”  In other words we had a small, informal resident staff reunion with folks who were on staff in the late 90’s and early 2000’s.

We have many former staff who return to camp, dropping off kids, bringing youth groups to a retreat, volunteering in some way or just wanting to see “all the changes at camp.”

What makes this group so special to me is that these people were on staff when I came to SpringHill in 1998.  As some of them would say, these are my “peeps”.  They are dear friends whom, over the years,  we have been in each other’s weddings, experienced births (future campers as we like to call them), suffered through illness together, mourned the loss of friends and celebrated the sovereignty of God which brought us together for a season of ministry.

Every time we see each other I’m reminded how blessed I’ve been to serve with, and more importantly, become friends with these great people.

I tell folks there are two questions you need to answer in deciding if an organization is the kind of place you want to work.  The first “Does the mission of the organization aligned with your calling?”  (this question requires a future post to cover in detail)

The second criteria is simply “Can you love and enjoy the people you will work with?” We spend most of our waking hours working at our jobs and it doesn’t make sense to do it with people you don’t enjoy, respect and love.

In my 12 years at SpringHill I have been blessed to work with people that I love, starting with this “retro staff”.  It has made being a part of a great ministry with a great mission, a true blessing.

Each summer our sons, MD, Mitch, Jonathan and I have an annual get away to northern Ontario. Last week was the 2010 version and our 11th trip together. We all agreed it was our best one yet.

Now I’ll admit that at the end of each trip the boys will say it was our best one.  There is something about getting away together, stepping back from the normal activity of life and being in God’s creation that builds deep relationships. It’s true of camps, it can be true for family outings.

We go to Camp Anjigami – http://campanjigami.com/ – and stay at one of their fantastic locations. Our friends Craig and Linda Williams, owners of Camp Anjigami, always treat us like family (they even brought me a birthday cake via float plane).

This year we stayed on a long, deep lake called Ogas.  It is the third lake south of the main lodge requiring us to boat and walk 2 hours to reach it.  The cabin is on a rock island in the middle of the lake.  It was our first time staying in this particular place and we agreed it is now our favorite.

We follow a few simple guidelines for our trip.

First, we do what we want to do when we want to do it.  No agenda’s, schedules or expectations beyond being together.

Second, the boys drive the decisions of what we will do when.

Third, the boys do all the cooking, cleaning (we really don’t do much of this till the end) and setting up camp.

Fourth, we are going to have fun.

Finally, we have no electronics (no electricity helps).

We always have great discussions about life.  We talk about those important issues – faith, relationships, future plans, etc..

The boys said this is their best week of the year. They look forward, with anticipation, to our adventure together. More importantly they committed to making this an annual tradition for the rest of our lives plus adding their own trips with their own kids when the time comes.

As a Dad, it doesn’t get any better than this.