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Garner State Park Camping Trip - April 22-24, 2005 |
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If you're interested in seeing the church campout pictures from Garner State Park, I'll bet we could call you "friend". We probably have things in common: a love for God and the Scriptures, a desire to be out in nature away from the usual hassel of the big city, and a need for belonging in fellowship with the Body of Christ. It's amazing the different people who show up, with or without their entire family and what a bonding experience it turns out to be. This year's campers included fourteen families for a total of 47people including kids of all ages. Fiesta weekend, April 22-24, 2005, turned out to be a great time of year and an easy weekend for everyone to get themselves together to drive out to the Frio River for a day or two. And what a blessing that we never got rained on despite the weather forecast! We did some things very well this year, as an improvement over our initial trial last year. We all camped together in the Riverside Crossing screened-in shelter area where tents can be set up right next to the shelters. Becky and Mike Lucci brought their trailer and they found a place very near the rest of us tent campers. We assigned the meals out into teams, so each person only had to work to plan, prepare and serve one big meal and is subsequently served all other meals. We had everything we needed, but next year we might remember to put trail mix on the list for afternoon snack because Keith Lemmon's contribution disappeared in a hurry. Bob Kerr remembered the firewood, and Jill Clark brought marshmallows, graham crackers and chocolate for two successful campfires. We were blessed with Brian Worden and David Hinds who brought their guitars and chose some very happy praise tunes for us to sing. And we didn't even have to sing Kum Ba Ya! We ended up with a big open area between our cabins which was great for ultimate frisbee. We had lots of fantastic athletes there with so many energetic youth and playful adults. The river was a big attraction too. The older youth enjoyed the rope swing downstream, while the moms and younger ones were content in the shallow running water right behind our camping spot. After our well attended hike up to the top of the mountain to look down on the river and the campground, everyone was ready to cool off in the water again. Even the little kids succeeded at hiking, and I'm talking strenuous hiking, like STRAIGHT UP. Cindy Kerr preferred to nap in her tent after having to cook the big egg taco breakfast for us, so she missed it, but that's OK. Choosing your own fun when it's free time is what it's all about. That afternoon, Brian and his daughter, Abby, went fishing while most everyone else went into the river or sat in the shade and talked. Saturday night we found out they were indeed holding a dance at the Pavillion in Old Garner. Steve and Linda Moore loaded up their pickup truck with all the willing youth and drove the happy crew very slowly over the hill to the dance. Rebecca Walthall and her mother (that's me) took the boys out one at a time to teach them a little rudimentary two-step. We had a lot of boys with eight of the nine boys with us from the Presbyterian Boys Home. Wesley Walthall (7) and Katherine Von Aschen (5) were really cute out there slow dancing together. I'm sorry we have no pictures of that fun for you, but Tom Eisenhut, our primary photographer, decided to stay with the others who preferred visiting and relaxing around the warm campfire to dancing. We didn’t stay long at the dance though. We all came back for some more s'mores before ten. Sunday morning we held a worship service planned and executed with our own campers in the group shelter, complete with kitchen and electricity. Although you can clearly see that this campout qualifies as fellowship, our mission was actually evangelism. We were blessed with our very own camp pastor, Steve Moore, father at of the Presbyterian Boys Home, to deliver a devinely inspired sermon on freedom in Christ. Brian Worden led us in praise music and Bob Kerr, as well as Steve offered prayer. Next year we'll know better what to put on our fliers inviting the other campers to come join us, but we had a few visitors come. Steve says he's praying for a big motorcycle convention to come attend next year. In fact, maybe we'll invite our own bikers to join us next year. Joe Fielder rode his Triumph motorcycle out which attracted a lot of attention and interest. In fact, we took a picture. Our own preacher, Steve Moore is in the driver's seat, with me, the author, there behind him. You don't have to wait until next Fiesta to join the fellowship of believers who love to get away and do the outdoor thing. We meet together every Sunday morning, for worship, and for Sunday School. Steve Moore and Melissa Douglas are leading the Koinonia Class in the Brides room every Sunday. Most of our class went camping! And another big part of our campout came from the Men's Class meeting just down the hall in the Groom's room. See? You have friends there already! Come join the living! We're waiting for you. -Karen Walthall
Click thumbnails to view larger images.
Saturday, April 23
Sunday, April 24
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