February

Dear Friends and Family,
It is also official that as of March 1 I have a terrible case of spring fever. Please pray with me continually for the warm weather to come soon. It is encouraging to see the snows melting away and the robins flying around. I have also emensly enoyed waking up to the sound of birds singing again in the tree by my window. The one and only downer to this thaw is the extreme amounts of mud that exsist everywhere. However it is but a small price that I am very willing to pay for the sake of having the sun out again in all of its glorious brilliance. Yes, summer is my favorite time of the year and it is finally just around the corner! Kids are already signing up for summer camp and there is a small, low hum of ecitment beginning to fly through the air here at Bair Lake. It is steadily getting louder and more ecited! It you haven’t picked up on it yet, I am bubbling over with a contagous exhilaration for summer camp that I hope you all catch!
Another thing I have recently enjoyed was our last pillars book, Secrets of the Vine, by Bruce Wilkerson. It is a small, easy-to-read book that I finished in about two hours. Don’t let the size fool you though, its impact is far larger than its size. We were challenged to read John 15 as many times as we could while reading the book and I can’t express how much the added to each other! The book helps explain different things about grape vines and vineyards that give you a new understanding for the words Jesus spoke to His disciples in John 15. As I have all of the other pillars books we have been reading in the last several months I would also highly recommend this book.
Our outfitters February month theme was abiding. We learned in our Thursday bible study and pillars book club more about how to abide in Christ and the benefits as well as the necessity of it. It is something I am still learning to put in practice. The months are flying by faster than I know and it seems I scarcly have time to grasp the concept of one month’s theme before the next one hits me full force.
In my last newsletter I explained in depth about my year-long project that I am doing as part of my program here. I am in the process of collecting different recipes as part of that project. If you have any favorite family recipes please feel free to send them to me and maybe it will make it into my devotional. I am looking for dinner, breakfast and appetizer recipes. My email address is heparcher@yahoo.com. Thank you very much for your help in this area.
I and my fellow staff members of Bair Lake recently returned from a three day Michigan Christian camping conference in Holland, Michigan. It was so encouraging and exciting to get to know other camps and do some networking with them. I was also tremendously challenged by the guest speaker, Ron Hutchcraft. His messeges can be heard online at, www.michiganchristiancamps.com. If you have the time I would strongly encourage you to listen to them. They were excellent.
God bless,
Hannah