Wow! What a week we had at Mount Hermon this year. Spent time at Family Camp where Bill Butterworth and Chip Ingram were the main speakers. You can "Yahoo" or "Google" the names.
Had a super time, even thought this was not the "Homeschoolers Family Camp", there were many of us present. This turned out to be the largest camp Mount Hermon had all summer. What thrills and excitement awaited us!
There were two new rope/climbing courses on the grounds. The Canopy Course lets you traverse the redwoods on zip lines high above the ground – like through the tops of the redwoods. the Canyon Course was kinda just that – zip lines across the canyon. Due to the rains during the winter, the previous rope course had been damaged, and so they rebuilt. We did not go on either this year, but people who did had words of praise for Mount Hermon.
In addition to the great food, fantastic music Jack Pearson and Jesse Butterworth, there were just a multitude of things to do and see. Time to sit and share – build friendships and discover people from your past.
It happened to me on "Train Day". There we were sitting at a table on the Boardwalk in Santa Cruz. This guy from the next table (white hair like me) came over and set with us and we started talking. He was from Sun City, AZ. I asked him if he happened to know someone (a retired pastor) who had moved there, and got a negative response (OK, so it was not someone like Billy Graham that everybody knows). We kept talking, and he said he grew up in San Francisco. After looking at his name (Gordon Bostrom), my brain put two and two together – asked some questions…turns out his dad had been Prayer Chairman for the first (1958) Billy Graham Crusade in San Francisco. I was heavily involved in a youth organization (Christian Endeavor) that was active in many Northern California churches.
What a connection…across all these miles and years. What an encouragement he was to me about things that had happened in my life. Needless to say, we exchanged email addresses, but Gordon said later "I'm a phone kind of guy, could I have your phone number so I can call you?"
I'm thankful for the week we spent – thankful for the ministry of Bill and Chip (check out their podcasts or talk to us) and ever grateful for Gordon's words.