Have you ever heard of CEF? Child Evangelism Fellowship? It’s a wonderful international ministry that reaches pre-teen children with the Gospel of Christ on their level in their environment. They have the Good News Clubs (after-school programs) and Backyard Clubs (aka 5 Day Clubs) which take place over the summer in (you guessed it) backyards. CEF also has seven Camp Good News all across the country. One of them is here in Hawthorne, FL, and we are blessed to be able serve here this month. Want to see what’s it all about?
This is the main building/dining hall/activity room –
I believe the murals on the wall were done by SOWER ladies in years past. They represent some of the activities that are available at the camp.
This is our parking area –
Very cozy, don’t you think?
There’s basketball
and campfire pits
bike/hike trails
rock walls
rope swings
tire mazes
and the Good News Gulch. –
There’s a nice “waterfront”, with it’s own water slide!
and a small selection of boats for the campers to use.
There’s lots more to the camp, but this I hope gives you a feel for Camp Good News, here in Florida. The camp is quiet now, just waiting for the first batch of pre-teens to come for spring break day camp. Our jobs this month will mostly focus on helping to wake up the camp from its winter sleep and get it ready for a new batch of youngun’s to come and learn about Jesus.
Should be a great month!
Tag Archives: SOWER Projects
One more thing before we go
Can you spot something unusual in this picture of trees?
Can you see where a branch from the tree on the right has actually reached out and grafted onto the tree on the left.
Here’s a little helper-picture –
Isn’t that crazy? I don’t think I’ve ever seen one tree naturally graft onto another like that before.
We pull out tomorrow morning (Thursday). In fact, the truck is already hooked up and except for actually disconnecting from the power and water and pulling in the slides, we’re just about ready to go. But before we left Florida Baptist Encampment to move to our March project (Camp Good News, north of here near Gainesville) I wanted to share just a bit more about our time here.
What a FUN group! We had a pretty good-sized crowd – 8 couples in all. For two couples, this was their first SOWER project! For others it was their 60th. We were youngish and oldish, from the north and from the south and in our previous lives we were everything from farmers to post masters. And by the end of the project we were all good friends.
We worked hard, played very well together, and were blessed to serve our Lord at this camp.
Camp Good News – Here we come!
“Take it to the Mattresses”
Does that quote remind you of “The Godfather” movie? Or maybe “You’ve Got Mail”? From this day forward, that quote will always remind me of our SOWER project here at Florida Baptist Encampment.
Oh, yeah, we took it to the mattresses. All 400+ of them!
The assignment was simple – clean the 4 dorms (50 beds each), wipe down the mattresses, clean the bathrooms.
What we didn’t realize was that each bed had at least two mattresses, which meant to really wipe them down they had to come off the bunks. (Besides which, having a bunch of Gramma’s climbing up on top bunks to wipe down mattresses isn’t really a great plan.) We set up a couple of work stations outside the dorms and got to work.
(Hey look, that’s me WORKING!)
(Just letting them dry before we put them back on the bunks.)
And while some of us were working on mattresses, others were cleaning the bunks.
When we finally got the bunks and mattresses done (a MUCH bigger job than originally anticipated) we washed the windows and hung nice freshly laundered curtains. And fortunately for us, when it came to mopping those dorm floors, we got one of the guys (with deck-swabbing experience) to do the job. He did a great job – and has the blisters to prove it!
When all was said and done, everything looked (and smelled) great! Don’t you just love the smell of “clean”?
We got done just in time. This weekend about 150 young girls are here for a weekend retreat.
And that’s called job security for NEXT month’s SOWER ladies!
It’s quiet tonight
We’ve pulled out of our cozy little parking spot and are parking overnight in the school parking lot, ready for an early start tomorrow. I know I say this every time we wrap up a project, but WHERE DID THE MONTH GO! Not only was this a very worthwhile project, it was also located (as I am sure you’ve noticed from previous posts) in a very beautiful spot – the Florida Keys. Plus we were working with a great crew. There were four SOWER couples, two independent couples, a SOA couple (SOWERs who sign up for a longer period of time and usually work a specific job), and a retired SOWER couple who are now on staff at the school and live here full time. We worked hard, and we played hard too!
Here are some of the “work hard” highlights –
We ladies started in the elementary school kitchen. They currently don’t serve lunches here, so the kitchen is used for lots of odds and ends. Which basically means that no one is in charge and it only gets a lick and a promise in the cleaning department. Well, when a group of SOWER ladies descend on a kitchen that is in need of cleaning and organizing, it doesn’t take too long before this
looks like this –
While two of the ladies worked in the school (tutoring and handling recess to give the teachers a break), the rest of us worked on landscaping chores
Painting the youth pastor’s office
Before-
and after –
cleaning and painting the bathroom in the shop (no pictures of this, but trust me, there was scrubbing involved), painting the floor in the concession stand,
and more landscaping.
I worked mostly with Marlene, and we had a grand time! It’s such a special delight when God surprises you with a kindred spirit on the project. But I digress…..
The men also kept busy. There was a major remodeling going on down at the church that the two independents and SOA were focused on, leaving the four “regular” SOWERs with quite a variety of jobs.
Like getting the baseball field ready –
(let me tell you, this was a little outside of Gary’s comfort zone!)
Hauling stuff from the school to the church or vice versa….
or helping out with the renovations over at the church –
The guys accomplished a long list of maintenance chores but since none of them carry a camera, it’s hard to document what they actually do! But I did catch this shot –
Not sure just what they are doing, but it sure does seem to take a bunch of ’em to get it done! (Please note that Gary is NOT on that ladder!)
But as you know, it’s not all work.
And this project did seem to have an extra measure of “play”.
There was the pool across the street –
We didn’t get there all that often, but when we did it was a delight. And if it was too cold to swim, we just enjoyed watching the kite surfers or the birds or the boats.
There was the kayaking
the bike rides
meals eaten with friends
and the general joy at exploring all of the interesting areas nearby.
But I haven’t even told you about our deep sea fishing adventure – where Gary never even got off the bench (despite several doses of dramamine), and I (despite feeding the fish a couple of times) even caught a couple of grunts.
Gary stayed on that bench most of the trip. He would occasionally get up to bait my hook, bless his heart.
And we DID make it all the way to Key West and the “Southernmost Point in the Continental USA” –
It was a spectacular day – beautiful weather, great friends, and interesting things to see and do.
The streets –
The sights
The houses
The Disney Cruise Ship
Gary kissing Marilyn Monroe
🙂
Like I said, it was a grand day with a grand finish –
Tonight, as a grand finale, all 18 of us (well, the 16 of us and the host and his wife) went to a dockside restaurant for dinner. And while I don’t have any pictures us fellowshipping with one another, I do have a couple of shots of Gordon feeding the HUGE tarpon that congregate under the dock (waiting for folks like Gordon to buy a bucket of fish to feed them…..)
(What you can’t see in these pictures is Gary chasing off the pelicans with a big pole. They were pretty darn interested in those little fish,too!)
Let me say it again – THIS WAS A GREAT PROJECT! The folks we worked with are such good sports that they even let me take a kissing group picture!
We will certainly be taking both the ministry here and the folks that have become dear friends with us in our hearts and prayers.
PS – As you can imagine, I have a couple more pictures than I posted here. (Shocking, I know) Click on the links if you’d like to see more of our adventures – both at work and play!
Islamorada SOWER Stuff (like working and eating together!)
Deep Sea Fishing
Feeding the Hungry Tarpon
Our Key West Day Trip
And of course, the WHOLE SET of Pictures of our time in the Keys can be found HERE.
Thanks for sticking with this extra long post! It’s way past my bedtime, but we’re heading to the Everglades tomorrow on our way to Ft. Myers and I knew I needed to get this “wrap up” post done. Just warning that there may be alligator pictures in your future! I know there will be some in mine.
Sweet dreams!
I must admit
that gardening is not one of my favorite things. I don’t especially like the prickly, itchy sweat that usually happens, I don’t really like getting my hands dirty, and I’ve never felt like I really knew what I was doing. On my SOWER skill sheet (we fill them in every year), I give “landscaping” a 1. Which in Sower-speak means I “Do not have experience in this area, but am will to help someone doing a project including these skills”. (They don’t have a skill level for – “I just plain don’t like to do this”. That’s a good thing, I’m sure!) So of course, in God’s providence, there has been plenty of “landscaping” (weeding, trimming, clean-up) to do here at Island Christian School. 🙂 My trusty partner in gardening crime, Marlene, and I have been tackling some of the front gardens this week, and I confess that while I’ve gotten hot and sweaty and even a little rashy at times, it’s been fun. Today was especially a treat.
First of all I got to drive a golf cart.
Always fun.
Even though neither Marlene or I had any experience with this particular type of shrub, we jumped right in, snipping away and trying to make the whole bed just a little more manageable.
But this hedge of whatever it was held a very special treat –
Can you see it? I had just climbed out from back by the fence when I turned around and saw that this little fellow had been keeping me company.
His tail reaches to the bottom of the picture!
“Do you like my ruffles? It’s the latest in Iguana Wear.”
“Will you be finished soon? You’re kind of in my space.”
“Well??????”
We left him/her to dump our load of debris and take our morning break, but when we returned he/she was still there. Just trying to be one with the tree, it seems.
Looks like next year I might have to “up” my skill rating on Landscaping to a “2” – “Have done this type of job in the past but will need supervision and/or instruction.”
Who says you can’t teach an old dog a new trick!