Fri., Sat., & Sun. Oct. 5-7

Sorry, no pictures. I tried. I'll try again tomorrow.

Friday night was actually pretty bad. The Fall Teens' Retreat at Camp Christian Echoes was supposed to start at 9pm, scheduled to go late into the night because the teenagers would be up late anyway, so why not schedule their awake-time? It makes sense, but I was happy not to have to stick to their schedule. First, we forgot Natasha's entire bag for the weekend. So she had no clothes except what she had on, including no jacket.

Then we decided to switch cabins so we could have a more private situation (Originally we were set to have our own room in the cabin, but there weren't enough beds in the other room so two 13yo girls had decided to move in with us); everyone agreed it would be nicer for us to have our own room/cabin because of our younger children and because we had Jabba. But ... the cabin we were going to move in to turned out to be FiLtHy (a roof leak means water in the cabin, so all the bugs and mice go there to drink). I hunted down some cleaning supplies and began cleaning so we could move in. Meanwhile, Justus was having diarrhea attacks, so while I cleaned, Natasha and Justus would go back and forth to the showerhouse/bathroom where N was 'sitting' Justus during his (a-hem) 'difficulty'. In between diarrhea attacks we were also trying to move our stuff from one cabin to the next, and all of this in the dark woods in a location neither the children nor the dog (nor I!) were comfortable in yet, having not seen it in the daylight in a month and having never been inside those specific buildings. Then, when I had about 20 minutes of cleaning left to do, the children both saw a mouse run across the cabin; that did NOT go across well with them (nor me!).

So at that point had been working hard, cleaning, moving, and silently stressing for about 45 minutes; Justus's stomach cramps weren't improving, Jabba had yet to have his second meal of the day (Malteses have such small stomachs that hypoglycemia is a major danger; they're actually supposed to eat 3x/day to keep their blood sugar levels, well, 'level'.), and now there was a mouse in our cabin. I was really proud of how I kept my brain together; my behavior and my voice were calm and deliberate. However, both children were crying (It was after 11pm!!), saying, "I think we need to just go home." I agreed. We were set to go home when Jessica Knapp said, "I have something for Justus's digestive system in my medical kit." Phew! Then she said, "Not all of the girls' rooms can be full!" (She'd just arrived and was trying to get everything figured out.) It turned out that the other girls' cabin (20 beds, 10 in each room) was completely cleaned, in preparation for the weekend, and completely empty! (sigh) So we agreed N could wear J's second set of p.j.s, J could take the medicine, we'd move (AGAIN) into the clean, empty cabin, and we'd go back to Tucson in the morning instead of in the middle of the night. We didn't want to afford the gas for a second trip to camp, however. It was arranged that Jeremy and Chris (the one teenager we took) could come home with the Mountain Avenue group. This-all meant that the children and I wouldn't be able to spend the weekend at camp as we had planned for and so looked forward to doing. Sad. Well, since we had worked so hard in such a nasty environment that last hour, we took showers before bed, and it was 12:30 a.m. by the time both children were tucked into their sleeping bags on bottom bunks as close to Mom as possible. (In our first cabin/room they had adventurously chosen top bunks on the far side of the room! lol) It had been a hard, hard 2 1/2 hours!!

Saturday morning dawned beautiful, Justus's stomach was back to great, we were well-rested, and the children were thrilled to have some swinging time. (Remember the AWESOME swings there! lol) Then we were told that there's a washing machine at the camp, so it was decided that we could let N wear someone's back-up clothes for the time it would take to wash and line-dry her clothes, which she could then wear again on Sunday! Hooray! We got to stay all weekend after all! :) :) :) We had a great time. The shower situation (only 2 minutes of warm water) was bad for me, very bad (...the whole 'keratosis pilaris'/shaving/shower issue I endure daily). I gnashed my teeth and endured it, and within an hour I was back to feeling human. After speaking with the wife of the man who is basically the caretaker, there is now a plan in place that will make it better next time I'm there.

The children and I, then, had a day at a great facility to do whatever. we. wanted., meals provided! :) How often does an opportunity like that come around?? The children swung and swung all morning, and climbed on the monkey bars a bit - even during the teenagers' lesson, with Jeremy supervising. (I was showering.) Jeremy's job title this weekend was "disciplinarian", which - of course - isn't needed unless someone is misbehaving, which ... kids don't when Jeremy's around because he looks scary! lol [Travis (Ina Road's youth minister, becoming a good, good friend of our family) told Jeremy, "You're my insurance policy." LOL!!] So basically Jeremy worked as a 'bouncer', except it was a godly setting! :) Well, that and he has a personal, spiritual relationship with every person there (from the week at camp on Mount Graham in July)! lol

In the afternoon the children ssssssssslept. I did that laundry. It has been YEARS since I've hung clothes on a line!! I MISS that! Then I chatted with the other chaperones/'sponsors', greatly enjoying getting to know them beter. I had an especially interesting conversation with Jessica who is a professor of mathematics at UA; she has homeschooling in-laws, so you can imagine the topics covered. :)

When the children awoke they swung some more, and actually began getting to know some of the teenagers a bit. N, J, and I had previously agreed that we would go on a nature walk after naps. We did, and it became a special memory for me, tho' we were out of the 'immediate camp' probably only 20 minutes! lol Justus had made friends with a girl named Stacy; they were practically inseperable Saturday late afternoon and evening! lol It got so chilly when the sun went down that we all went running for our sweatshirts! It could have been in the 40s by this (Sunday) morning! Whooo!! Brr! It was kind-of shocking to the systems, but it was fun/funny to hear all the teenagers' prayers include, "Thank you for this cool weather." NO JOKE!!

We all slept GREAT Saturday night, and then Sunday morning after a cold cereal breakfast (last day of camp tradition, or something??) we worshiped together, which was another pleasant experience. Then we cleaned cabins and everyone drove home! We arrived home around 1pm, ate a quick lunch, and tucked in the children and Jeremy for naps. I unpacked and started laundry (predictable), and then the phone rang.

It was Mr. Ugly, who asked for Jeremy. When I told him Jeremy was napping, after sleeping only a handful of hours all weekend, Mr. Ugly asked me to schedule a meeting for him with Jeremy for BEFORE the evening service. I explained why that wasn't possible, but that it could probably happen after the service. It has been no secret that Mr. Ugly doesn't agree with the interpretation of Revelation that currently makes more Biblical sense to Jeremy than any others. Since we are in the process of completing the schedule we started last September of "read the New Testament in a year," we're now in Revelation, and Jeremy is teaching an interpretation of Revelation that, although it is perfectly logical and perfectly in line with everything else in scripture, it's an interpretation we'd never heard of before and the congregation hasn't either. Everyone else is taking it in stride. It's being taught during the Bible class hour. It's Bible "study" and this interpretation uses more scripture than any other we have ever heard! Everyone else seems to understand that no one is ever going to agree with everything someone else believes or teaches. Everyone seems to know and understand these things ... EXCEPT Mr. Ugly, with his absolutely sinful attitude and loud mouth. He told me to let Jeremy know he had "talked to a few people, and they don't agree with what Jeremy is teaching" (Of course they don't agree. They couldn't agree - yet : it's the first time they have heard the material and Jeremy's maybe 1/4 of the way through!), so Mr. Ugly was "going to talk to Jeremy and ask him to stop teaching what he's teacing about Revelation."

[Now, on how many levels does that not. make. sense.??]

After my shower when it was getting toward time to go, I had to awaken Jeremy from his nap to face this 'glitch'. gr After we tossed around the situation a little bit he agreed with my suggestion that a decision like what Mr. Ugly was asking for isn't a decision any one man should make on his own, but needed to be brought before the leadership. The short version is that in his presentation Mr. Ugly ended up actually tossing out there this comment: "I mean, is Revelation even necessary for the church today?" [Actually this seems to be a very common opinion which is understandable when sense can't be made of the book; however, that doesn't line up with what 2 Tim. 3:16 tells us, which is that ALL scripture is inspired and is useful for four things: teaching, reproof, correction, and training in righteousness. "All scripture" would include Revelation!] All the way around the table during the meeting, the comments were like this: "YES, Revelation is necessary for the church today!" "Revelation is part of God's Word, and I want to know ALL of God's Word." "I have appreciated the way Jeremy is teaching Revelation in Sunday class." "No one could teach Revelation to please everyone; the book has too many interpretations." "We can't decide not to teach part of the Word just because we're uncomfortable with it." And one man even said, "I think Revelation is THE MOST IMPORTANT book of the Bible." Poor Mr. Ugly realized he didn't have the support he thought he had drummed up with his gossip, and judging by his behavior at and after the end of the meeting, we are going to be surprised if we see him much more, if at all. (sigh) Hearts can't be changed that are not willing to be molded by the Word. Pruning of the tree is healthful, if painful. (blink, blink)

Jewel, Gail's mom, is going in for a procedure called cyber-knife this week in Phoenix. Two weeks ago they tried it and botched a biopsy, which has required two weeks of recovery. Jewel is a former smoker and lung cancer (barely) survivor who didn't comeout with her voicebox intact, so she uses the mechanical robot-sounding stick-to-the-neck to 'talk'. Her lung cancer is back, but can be treated almost 'simply'! with this new high-tech procedure. However, she's rather freaked out about having to go through this all again so soon after a serious medical mistake. Nine of us caravanned to their house after services and prayed over Jewel. It was a chain prayer and both Natasha and Justus took his/her turn, carefully wording shockingly eloquent and selfless prayers on Jewel's behalf (!!), except that both of them included different versions of this sentiment, "We don't want Jewel to die so please don't let her die." ... (mmm... uuh...) Jewel has been very special to the children since even the try-out weekend last year, and vice-versa. She brings them a tootsie pop sucker whenever she comes to worship saying, "I like to give a treat to sweet children." awwww... Jewel was deeply touched by the prayer time. When we got in the car to go home Jeremy said, "I think we just made Jewel's year." Mmmm -- she's a 'love'.

There will be more details shared about the weekend as the pictures are posted. Just ... not tonight. My Dr. Pepper is starting to wear off, finally. Maybe I'll get to sleep here pretty soon - ha.