Shepherd's Haven

Shepherds Haven Camp 2012 

     This year’s camp was held at The Grove at Red Oak Lake.  We

had 35 campers and 18 counselors attending. Everybody arrived

Tuesday afternoon and were ready to get started. We had our first

meal together that night and it, like all our meals that week, was

very good. 

      A special time every day is when we have our Praise Worship.

Music is always a mainstay of camp. It brings all of our campers

and counselors together at one time to sing and praise the Lord.

This year we had Todd, Cindy and Tim Few to greet us when we

returned from dinner on Tuesday night. Todd plays the trumpet

and Tim the guitar. Todd started by playing Reveille. That got

everybody pumped. Todd, Cindy and Tim led us all in singing some

 of our favorites. This year David Huggins had prepared a camp

booklet with the words to over 20 Worship songs. Along with

 David’s accompaniment, we used the booklet throughout the

week and it was greatly appreciated. What would we do without

David?

     We had a number of other guest come to entertain and enrich

 us in our Worship time. Darrell Clark brought us his illusions and

reminded us, as always, “don’t call it magic”. Loved it! I sat

where I could see behind Darrell’s back and I still don’t know

how he does some of those things. We had the Clowns and

balloons, who doesn’t love clowns and balloons? Oh I forgot,

 Lauren, says that clowns scare her.

 We had the BBC Drama Group who put on a skit and also let us

try on some crazy wigs and hats. Skip Parvin brought a message

 on God’s treasures. He also brought a chest containing some of

 his own treasures. One was a rubber ducky. Come on Skip, really?

Derek Ewalt brought a special message every day. We love Derek,

but last year he brought a sword with him to camp. This year he

brought a machete. Maybe he’s scared of clowns too. Go sit with

Lauren.

So that brings me to our last guest. She always amazes me. How

can someone who is so quiet, so reserved, so …..I’m joking of course.

 It’s our Pam. I would not want her any other way, and neither would our

 campers. They should have called that old TV show Sanford and Son

 and Pam. We are talking; one man’s junk is another camper’s treasure.

     

      We have GREAT campers. This year we had some new ones.

Joy Smothers came with Beverly and the Jackson group. Glad to have Joy

and I still miss William.

We also had Angelica Allsup, Brian Ammons, Monte Meeker, Martez Wilson,

Hugh Cambell, and Keith Key from Memphis. A super group!

We have GREAT counselors. We had two new ones this year, Frank

and Julie Smith. Thanks for your involvement with Shepherds Haven.

We also have Frank Speidel with us this year. Frank has been involved

with our group in the past, but this is the first year he has served as a

Shepherds Haven counselor. 

      This year’s camp was a little different than what we  had 

experienced in the past.  We had to walk a little farther to get to eat

 and swim. I said a little farther, but that’s all relative to how old you

happen to be. Oh, and it was up and down hills. And it was HOT.

VERY HOT. The Lord did bless us with dry weather and that was very good.

My legs hurt when I got up Wednesday morning.  I thought that I would try

 something different and see if it would help. I drove my car. It was better.

      We all stayed in the same building, rather than separate cabins. That

wasn’t bad. It made doing some things easier. The showers were not one

of those things. There were just a few for such a large number of people

 and they were designed for really, really small people. We only had

a couple of really, really small people. So “Everybody in the pool”!

     Did I say the food was good?  It was, and we didn’t need to have people

come and serve us. It was worth the longer walk, or drive.

     The swimming was a welcomed treat, given the HOT weather. There

were canoes and paddleboats that were great fun. The counselors had

a canoe race with a proper amount of encouragement from the campers.

One young pair , who will go unnamed, finished last and it was a very sad.

thing to witness.  Maybe we should have had some clowns behind them.

     All kidding aside.

     We had prayed that all would be safe and none would be in distress.

The Lord blessed us abundantly. It was a great camp.