You know what they say: anything worth doing is worth the struggle to get there!
We lived that out this weekend as we had an amazing weekend with other Missio Lux families, as well as a few others that joined in, but no one had an easy time getting there! One family had a very sick child that got well enough in the nick of time, one family had a child have a surgery so they couldn't come at all, others had to work late so they arrived in the dark to set up, it wasn't easy.
Bill and I hit about every obstacle we could find: getting lost (even though I've been there lots of time), unbelievable traffic, too little space....but it was so worth it!
I love camping!
I love being in nature, smelling the trees, seeing the stars, enjoying the coffee just brewing in the morning, best thing ever! I love sleeping in the tent, having my family close by (even though this year we took our two neighborhood children instead of our own as they weren't available), building friendships on a different level with those in our community, the list goes on and on.
One of the gifts of Missio Lux is how well the children get along with one another. They range in age from 3 to 12 in the Arbors Missio Community, yet, they are all friends and no one gets left out. The families who came that aren't part of Missio Lux remarked several times about this and how welcome they felt, especially their children.
We loved our camping location at Camp Cascades. Camp Cascades is a Covenant camp and it has two camping areas; ours had bathrooms and a picnic shelter close by, as well as trash pickup, water and a fire pit.
But, the best part of camping at Camp Cascades is all the amenities: horseback riding, pony rides, a water slide, rock climbing, a lake with a beach and several fun toys: the blog and the Iceberg climbing wall...with even a water snake included for the boys!
Sunday morning we gathered to have a focused time of worship: Psalm 8 was our theme. We measured the earth by a small round ball and then measured the sun by stretching into a 362 foot line...this is how much bigger the sun is than the earth!
We sang some fun songs with movement and then reflected on the power of our thoughts and our words: Our Heavenly Father gave his Son Jesus a blessing at his baptism, how much more we need to hear the words of blessing. We ended by dividing into families and giving one another blessings. As I looked around and watched the families, I could see the power in what was taking place.
Bill and I were able to bless our next door neighbor children: Sydney and Zach. Sydney was very moved by the experience and tears ran down her cheeks. Zach was more into climbing the trees and soon found himself "hanging on a limb,"needing help to get down.
Too soon it was time to pack and leave. It went too fast, but we can anticipate next year and all the fun that we will take place again as we live out what it means to be "the family of God to one another."
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