Crossing Over

Many of us have many camp stories

Camping does a body good…unless you’re a friend of Bobby...listen to his letter he sent home from camp.

Illustration: Bobby’s Letter From Camp:

Dear Mom and Dad,

Our Scoutmaster told us to write to our parents in case you saw the flood on TV and are worried. We are okay.

Only one of our tents and 2 sleeping bags got washed away. Luckily, none of us got drowned because we were all up on the mountain looking for Adam when it happened.

Oh yeah, please call Adam’s mom and tell her he’s okay. He can’t write because of the cast.

I got to ride in one of the search and rescue jeeps. It was neat. We never would have found Adam in the dark if it hadn’t been for the lightning.

Scoutmaster Keith got mad at Adam for going on a hike alone without telling anyone.

Adam said he did tell him, but it was during the fire so he probably didn’t hear him.

Did you know that if you put gas on a fire the gas will blow up?

The wet wood didn’t burn, but one of our tents did, and also some of our clothes. Matthew is going to look weird until his hair grows back.

We will be home Saturday if Scoutmaster Keith gets the bus fixed. It wasn’t his fault about the wreck. The brakes worked okay when we left.

Scoutmaster Keith said that with a bus that old you have to expect something to break down. That’s probably why he can’t get insurance.

We think it’s a neat bus, and he doesn’t care if we get it dirty. It gets pretty hot with 43 kids in the bus, so, if it gets too hot, sometimes he lets us ride on the fenders.

He used to let us take turns riding in the trailer until the highway patrol man stopped and talked to him.

Scoutmaster Keith is a neat guy. Don’t worry, he’s a good driver.

He’s even teaching Jessie how to drive on the mountain roads where there’s no traffic. All we ever see up there are logging trucks.

This morning all of the guys were diving off the rocks and swimming out in the lake.

I couldn’t go in because I can’t swim, and Adam was afraid he would sink because of the cast, so Scoutmaster Keith let us take the canoe across the lake. It was great.

You can still see some of the trees under the water from the flood. Scoutmaster Keith isn’t crabby like some scout masters.

He didn’t even get mad about us not wearing our life jackets.

He has to spend a lot of time working on the bus, so we are trying not to cause him any trouble.

Guess what? We have all passed our first aid merit badges.

When Andrew dived into the lake and cut his arm, we got to see how a tourniquet works.

Steven and I threw up, but Scoutmaster Keith said it probably was just food poisoning from the leftover chicken.

He said he got that way with food when he was in prison. I’m so glad he got out and became our scoutmaster.

He said he sure figured out how to get things done better while he was serving his time.

By the way, do you know what a pedal file is?

I have to go now. We are going to town to mail our letters and buy some more beer.

Don’t worry about anything. We are fine. - Love, Bobby

Can you imagine the parents of Bobby, what they were thinking and if the wife was strongly encouraging the husband to get in the car and get Bobby home!

Since this is the beginning of the year, God has inspired a message for me to give to you about moving from camping out, to Crossing over…

Many times, our message we have as beloved children of God sound much like that camp letter from Bobby.

Our testimony that we give or our prayers we say to God indicate things happening in our life that seem natural to us…much like the things at camp seemed natural to Bobby in his letter.

Can you imagine what God is thinking when he hears our prayers that possibly contain phrases like…

I was flooded with depression when you saw me the other day, don’t worry though, the doctor prescribed me some medicine that will get me through this stage.

Don’t worry about Adam, I prayed for him because of his broken spirit, he should get better once he pulls out of it.

Did you know that if YOU give someone advice on how you would have done something different when they are in the midst of a bad situation --- that their temper blows up? I don’t understand why people avoid me.