Calvin
Crest sponsored a couple of their regular junior, junior high and senior high
school camps that first year. Richard
and I would go up on the weekends and I would be the registrar for the
camps. The junior camps were held in the
Apple Orchard in the wooden framed tents.
On the very
first day of camp we discovered that the cows had come onto the camp grounds to
graze and left their trade marks all over the apple orchard area. Dorothy Lyons, Ted’s wife, and I joined the
others in shoveling out droppings and putting them in wheelbarrows to be dumped
somewhere else. We decided that year
that a barbed wire fence needed to be put up around the camp boundaries to keep
the cows out. Wasn’t expecting to serve
this way.
The Lyons
family had a little dog called Cha Cha.
Every time she saw a cow she would start chasing it while barking and
barking. It would go up close to the
cows. When the cow stopped to see what
was with the barking, the cow would turn its head and “Moo”. The dog would turn around and run away at top
speed. It was a kick to watch. These human (and animal) interest stories
brought a humorous perspective to the ministry.
It was, and
still is sometimes, a challenge to communicate with people in the different
churches, Presbyteries and Synods the complexity of running a camp and
conference facility. It became apparent
that as long as we were able to operate our camps with minimal financial
support from higher judicatories the better our relationships were with
them. Some would say what do you do all
year in the camping ministry. That’s
next.
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