Return of Bantam16

Heeeeeee’s back!

It worked out for our whole family to go to Family Day at Honey Rock, the camp where B16 has been for the last month. It was great to catch that first glimpse of our tall son walking across the grassy parking lot to meet us! A month had been a long time.

He had a great experience, and we are so grateful. His group spent 8 days in the wilderness, hiking, camping and canoeing along Lake Superior. After another week back on the camp grounds, they took a bus to Minneapolis for a service project, which was cleaning up debris left from a tornado nearly two months ago. In the poorer areas, there was still much clean up left to be done. They were sobered and humbled to see the poverty and devastation.

Thanks to everyone who prayed for his safety! He had one half-fall, half-roll down a 70 foot embankment, when a shale ledge gave way beneath him as he reached back to give an arm up to another guy behind him. It was a spur-of-the-moment race up a hill by the side of the river, not a planned climb, and praise God, in his eagerness to get to the top first, he had not bothered to remove his life jacket. It protected his torso as he struck rock outcroppings on the way down, and except for having the breath totally knocked out of him, and a few scrapes on his arms and legs, he was okay.

He says he feels like he grew in every way—especially spiritually and physically. They had an 11-hour solo time on the wilderness trip in which he really felt God’s presence. All the guys shared their life stories, and the counselors challenged and encouraged them in multiple ways--with God’s word, with team activities, with discussion and physical challenges. Just what guys need!

We had fun as a family swimming at the hotel, and canoeing and hanging out at Honey Rock. Keepin' it real, though...the van ride there and back was a pain.  The three youngest were overtired, argumentative and whiny both ways, which was unexpected, since they are usually so chipper. Still, we were glad we all could go...

And glad to all be together again!