A note from Alan McDaniel (about camp)!

Hello out there! Speaking to you from Pines Springs Camp near Sacramento New Mexico. We have escaped the Texas heat! Well ... actually it's not exactly cool here, but we can't complain.

As we drove into camp, I began to have "Oh yeah!" flashbacks from last year. The camp excitement came back to me when I saw the familiar cabins appearing from behind the trees. There is a great feeling that comes with returning to a place you have not seen for a year, especially when you had a great experience at that place. I wanted to yell "Hello, old friend! What have you been doing all year?".

So, we didn't hesitate to get settled in, and while doing so, we began to see other campers roll in ... smiling and waving. It felt like one big happy family arriving for a reunion.

In what seemed like no time at all, we were lined-up waiting to eat dinner at the dinning hall and getting reacquainted, and acquainted. There are a lot of new faces this year ..... the more the merrier. Meal time is fun and is a great opportunity to get to know one another.

Then we gathered in the open-air chapel. What a great place to worship. One of my best memories of last year was of a night that it began to rain while we worshiped. The sound of rain all around us, as we sang, was awesome! I told a zillion people about it. I thought that was a one time experience that I would just have to carry with me as a memory. Well folks, it has rained during worship two nights in a row now (I'm writing this on the second night). What an experience! I loved it! It rained so hard that, a couple of times, we just stopped and listened. We prayed and listened to God's sounds around us.

Among many daily activities is our morning class session. Our study for the week of the Ten Commandments takes a look at God's rules as a confirmation of his unconditional love. We will also be discussing idols in the form of temptations in the world that pull us away from God. I hope the kids learn as much at camp as I do.

We have a new friend this year that is keeping us entertained. Bear, the puppy dog, roams the camp, making us laugh. I think he has quite a business going. He puts on a show for us and we feed him food.

And that's the news .... from Pine Springs Camp.

-Alan McDaniel