“Rejoice in the Lord always;
again I will say, rejoice!”
Phil. 4:4

I’ve been reflecting on how long we have been part of the resident missionary staff here at camp compared with how long it has been since camp has held an event. I’m thinking it must be some sort of odd record for new staff residing at camp without hosting an event! Although that’s not really a record we want to have claim to!

I was listening to a sermon recently which focused on Philippians 4:4&5.  “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice!  Let your gentle spirit be known to all men.  The Lord is near.”  We are glad we can continue to rejoice even in these times of uncertainty. 
 
Even without hosting events, my work has steadily continued. Here are some technology things that have been accomplished in the last 8 weeks:

• Migrate the financial system to camp property
• Migrate camp’s website to a cloud service
• Install anti-virus software on all camp’s computers
• Wire up the new carpenter shop to camp’s network
• Configure wifi for the maintenance area
• Complete wiring for the Westside chapel network
• Configure backups for camp’s desktop computers
• Finalize the new Trading Post software configuration
• Configure VPN service for camp
• Preparing to better manage Summer staff applications and STEP applications for summer camp

 And here are some administration tasks as well:

• Planning the details of summer events
• Making decisions about canceling events for the winter
• Preparing the Summer camp brochure and the mailing list
• Preparing the Spring & Family camp brochure and its mailing list
• Ensuring that Teen groups are kept informed of events & decisions and rescheduled if necessary
• Organizing camp’s vehicles

As you can see, even when there are not retreats happening, the Lord allows for constructive work to be done and preparation for the time when camp will be open.  I give thanks to the Lord for this time of preparation.  We are rejoicing in the Lord – in His work laid out before us.
 
We continue to pray for the Lord’s timing for camp to reopen.
 
Jim for the Bennetts