Day 22. A little late but still here.

Today was a good day, filled with rest and a little bit of work. Then food and fun and Mcdonalds dip cones... 

The day began in the afternoon. Despite my query on when we should be up and at it in the morning I was strictly forbidden to set an alarm and told that we'd "go out to camp whenever you guys wake up". Well... me and hunter apparently both decided that this was a great opportunity to sleep in so when we slumbered all the way until noon. I can't decide if it's a good thing or not that I'll be allowed to set an alarm even on rest days now...

After we woke up we grabbed some lunch and headed out to camp to do some chores and pick up a few things, but not before hitting mcdonalds for dip cones, I'd say we're getting a bit addicted to those things but that would suggest that it's in any way a bad thing. Just keep in mind if you want to bribe us... dip cones are a good start. Now it was off to camp. Even having been there the day before it once again had gained a bit of distance in memory and my own perception of time. Except this time instead of the melancholy end of a good thing I was ready to do it all over again. I was ready for the noise and chaos to begin anew. Sadly this was not to be so we completed our errands and came back into town. 

we ate an incredible supper of steak, shrimp, deviled eggs, and potato salad and made a few of the leftover gallons of milk from camp into chocolate milk. mmmm chocolate milk... Dinner was fantastic! But in many ways dinner paled in comparison to the great conversations we had after dinner. 

The topic that we've been discussing off and on all summer is vision versus reality. In ministry this is something that we are trying to find the middle ground almost constantly. Our dream is to be more effective and have greater resources to work with in order to do all of the things that we'd like, but the reality is that we've got the resources that we do this summer and we can't produce extra buildings or people right now. 

In some small way we ran into this concept while I was working concrete a few years back, Depending on the foreman that I was working under that day we'd either be operating on the idea that 'lets do the best we are capable of' or the idea of 'that's good enough'. The first required a little more time and effort but yielded far superior results. The second got the job done but occasionally required that we come back and fix mistakes. 

In ministry we also have to consider the fact that our mission isn't to keep the popcorn machine running or the fences looking pretty. Our mission is to minister to kids (and anyone else that comes to camp). And during camp season that mission tends to force us into 'good enough' mode. If our maintenance is good enough that frees us (or someone else) up to be with a kid and make their camp experience the best that it can be. In the same vein when we're prepping in the off season we  should be doing the best we can so that it lasts as long as possible and that it doesn't require our direct attention during camp season because we've got better things to do. 

Also on this subject it helps to think of the camp as basic setup that can be expanded and grown, but it must always be balanced with the fact that God gives us what we need and what we have right now is enough. We've got lots we think would be cool to see and there are tons of incredible dreams and ideas floating around... but ultimately if God ordained that we should do camp with tents and an outhouse I'd still be showing up because the effectiveness of our ministry can be augmented by better facilities but the true impact of what we do is only because God works in us and through us to impact lives. He is the one in charge of it all and we're just trying to be good stewards. 

-Nick