Good evening brethren and Happy Sabbath!  We are glad to be back home and look forward to seeing you all soon!

A long journey

Our adventure to the Boundary Waters of Minnesota and Canada was a long one - over 3,000 miles in fact!  And that's just the driving. I estimate we canoed around 20-25 miles and had several miles of portaging the canoes.  It was a long and arduous journey, but well worth the trip!

A trip down memory lane

After we completed our trip, we were able to take a short detour to the old S.E.P. campground in Orr, MN on Pelican lake.  Being there brought back many memories of a beautiful campus and good times. Sadly, the campus has been abandoned for nearly 20 years and much of the property has been sold off.  While some have built beautiful lake homes, many of the old building have become overgrown and dilapidated and most of the campus is unrecognizable. You can find some photos - new and old - here (Disclaimer: This is not a UCG website).  If you look carefully, you can find a few pictures of my wife!

While the times we had there were wonderful, and many learned valuable life and spiritual lessons, like all manmade things, they do not last.  The once solid gymnasium there lies ready to collapse. The beautiful dining hall is gone completely. Truly sad to think about. I couldn't think about Matthew 6:19-21 (NKJV), where we're reminded, "Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."  

Future focus

As you well know, my wife and I are strong proponents of United's Youth Camp efforts.  While the campgrounds we use today may someday lie in ruins, the things taught there now go well beyond the physical.  Camp today is designed to bring the focus of our young people on God, their personal faith and having a Godly relationship with others inside the body of Christ.

The trip down memory lane was fun.  It brought back things my wife and I had both forgotten, and it gave us a chance to share some of our memories and pictures with our children when we returned home.  May we all use our life experiences - camp or otherwise - to help build treasure in heaven as we seek first the kingdom of God!