Week 118-119 - Indian Hills Camp - 11-23-2008

How from Indian Hills Camp,

What a ministry! We completed our first SOWERs project. This camp is a huge blessing to the thousands of kids who come here. And we were blessed to be a small part of improving the camp.

1) Our Group Leader John (on the right) speaks with the maintenance chief Tom. Tom looks relaxed, but he was running all three weeks staying a step ahead of us all the way. Of the 72 hours of time we donated, Pete had only 10 minutes with nothing to do and that was on the last day. 2) The men's crew was Pete, Paul, Peter and John.

1) Paul was with us for the first two weeks. He is a terrific guy and a boyhood friend of John. We missed his smiling face, good humor and hard work in the third week. 2) Peter and Susan were newbies like us but they arrived two days after us. So given our seniority, John directed us to "pass the torch" to them.

Ellen, Rosie and Susan were busy painting the wagon's wheels, the picnic tables, cleaning "The Barn", and doing office work.

Here are Larry, Mo and Curly Joe adding daily water to the camp truck. When it broke down, we made do with John's car and the scooter.

1) Pete and Paul strengthen the bleachers. Later Peter, Paul and John repainted them. 2) John and Pete build and paint a new railing on the Paint Ball park lookout tower.

The Winchester Outpost before and after we added the roof facade.

John is a patient man. The chainsaw was so dull that he fell asleep cutting the bench posts. But he stuck with it and we built four new benches at the Winchester Outpost.

This utility trailer needed a lot of TLC. We shortened it and added a railing to keep kids from falling out on hay rides. The final product was buffed and painted and lights were added to make it street legal. Pete had not welded in 44 years but "like riding a bike", he got the job done.

1) The blessings were most noticeable when we saw the kids having so much fun! 2) The kids line up at the BMX track. Kids rode the camp's bikes or brought their own.

Our kids had fun too!

Life at camp was not all work. Each morning started with a 30 minute devotional. And each week we had game night; and at the end of the week we went to breakfast and church together. Pete and John organized a special "Boys night out" for our foreign friends (Peter is from Alberta, Canada and Paul is from Pennsylvania!). The night out included a visit to Jack in the Box and Cold Stone Creamery (both were a first for Paul and Peter). Then we headed back to the Mattson's Mobile Mansion for a viewing of "Young Einstein".

Close by in El Cajon is Shadow Mountain Community Church. Started by Tim LaHaye decades ago, it is now pastored by Dr. David Jeremiah. Worship is lively with the 122 member choir and Dr. Jeremiah delivers the Word with great passion and clarity.

At the close of the project, we headed a few miles into San Diego to visit with Melissa, Emily and Chad. On Saturday we watched a scrimmage of the PLNU rugby team. And we visited the Rock Church pastored by Miles McPherson. The Rock's sanctuary seats thousands and each week dozens of men, women and children come forward to accept the Lord as their Savior. Awesome!

We will spend the Thanksgiving week in San Diego and begin our migration home.

We can't wait to see everyone,

Love, Pete and Ellen

Photos from Nov 2008