We didn't have much time, but we decided to make a trip to Hope Campmeeting to say goodbye to family moving to Northern Alberta. It's a good 5 hour trip to Hope from here, but it was well worth our time. Wish we could have stayed longer. We're not big fans of campmeeting... at least not while our kids are in this age bracket... Campmeeting can be good: wonderful meetings, a spiritual refreshing, a place to fellowship and a place to meet up with old friends. It can also be quite another story altogether for other people: a fashion show, a place to hang out and be wild, and place where guys meet girls....And I have a serious issue with most of the music provided for the young people's meetings. It was pouring when we arrived and we had not really thought about the right clothes for the climate. . . It's always dry and warm here . We survived and it got better the longer we stayed.
Uncle Peter, cousin Michael and cousin Ben saying goodbye to the girls.
We found Grandma and Peter and Vickie and all the kids and spent a little time with them and wished them well in their new life in Alberta. Ben mournfully calls it Alberia. He's not looking forward to the cold! We also found a few friends from YD camp. YEAH for the girls! And even one girl away at academy from our church . We heard some interesting speakers and a favorite of which for the girls was Pastor McComb. He does chalk drawings while he tells stories and then he turns on a black light and reveals a totally different picture altogether underneath. He's been doing this since I was a kid, but I have to say his art and storytelling has improved over all the years. He tells nature stories that reveal spiritual lessons that are quite impressive. We'll have to have him down to our church sometime. For my sister's benefit, we saw your pastor and wife from the Yukon, too.
The very best thing we saw at campmeeting was Messiah's Mansion! It was incredible! We went through the hour and fifteen minute program twice in one day. The program leaders were young people who have a passion for what they are doing and they do a great job. The whole sanctuary service is an amazing spiritual journey. The whole purpose of the tabernacle sacrificial service was pointing to Jesus and the plan of salvation. What can be shown through the sanctuary service is vital to understanding God's plan of Salvation.
Their presentation is good. I have studied the sanctuary message. In fact last year I wrote an hour long script for our children's choir on the topic of the sanctuary. We presented that program many times. But seeing and walking through the sanctuary full scale model, was a really neat experience. When the priest drops the censer on the day of atonement the implications of what that means to us today who live in the anti-typical day of antonement surely hits home.
We discussed what we learned off and on all the way home. I read the end of Exodus, all of Leviticus and most of Numbers in the car until I could not see anymore. I am now reading Hebrews and Revelation and I am facinated by the whole subject of the sanctuary.There were some things brought out in the program I had not really thought through before. They pointed out details I had missed and it is fun to actually find them in the Bible and understand them.
The border guy tried to give me a hard time going back into the States. "Angela, tell me what Canadian holiday is on Monday?"
Brother! How would I know it's BC Day? I'm a native of Ontario (but please don't ask me what day is Ontario Day -if there is even such a thing!!!) He was obviously having a little fun on the job
Campmeeting...
Posted by mulberrylane on Sunday, August 3, 2008 at 11:22 - Link
I totally understand the highs and lows of campmeeting. Yet, through it all, God has blessed our family with attending. The girls have seen the highs and lows that other kids seem to experience, but it hasn't affected their faith. I have prayed hard through some campmeetings...There have been many complaints over the youth department over the last few years and this year was a total change... wonderful changes!
A couple years ago we had the full sized sanctuary at campmeeting... we loved it as well. Although I didn't go, everytime I headed over there, they were on break, but I had gone through one at the camporee for pathfinders a few years back. My kids went through on their own and with their Dad (I was with Paige). I've found that there are things that can be awful at campmeeting, but my girls have weathered them well. Probably because we have family that give us many experiences beforehand so that these are small in comparison. We've discussed not going, or not attending meetings, and yet my girls love campmeeting, they have grown each year. I agree that it is an individual thing about choice, yet I see blessins when we go. Just having Dh come along is a huge blessing, considering he can't make it to church but about 1/9 of the time due to his job interferring with sleep or getting an offshift for emergency transfers or fires.
Anyways, I could go on, but I really need to get to bed! LOL! I totally understand your thoughts, wasn't trying to argue. I've seen the issues you've talked of, yet for some reason, God has seen fit to bless us regardless of the whoopsies that we have seen. I've prayed for campmeeting and I was pleased to see many changes over the years and they happened without my review of campmeeting (which I always made comments, but never turned it in). Not sure what to expect from year to year, but I've always been blessed... we find that it touches each of us in different ways...
Glad you had a good visit! Your kids look like they enjoyed it.
Warmly, ~Melissa
Edited by mulberrylane on Monday, August 4, 2008 at 01:23
. We survived and it got better the longer we stayed.
. We heard some interesting speakers and a favorite of which for the girls was Pastor McComb. He does chalk drawings while he tells stories and then he turns on a black light and reveals a totally different picture altogether underneath. He's been doing this since I was a kid, but I have to say his art and storytelling has improved over all the years. He tells nature stories that reveal spiritual lessons that are quite impressive. We'll have to have him down to our church sometime. For my sister's benefit, we saw your pastor and wife from the Yukon, too.
The program leaders were young people who have a passion for what they are doing and they do a great job. The whole sanctuary service is an amazing spiritual journey. The whole purpose of the tabernacle sacrificial service was pointing to Jesus and the plan of salvation. What can be shown through the sanctuary service is vital to understanding God's plan of Salvation. 
There were some things brought out in the program I had not really thought through before. They pointed out details I had missed and it is fun to actually find them in the Bible and understand them. 
