I know some of you have asked about the 'Praying 4 Tripp' button on my page. I have become engrossed in this little boy's story, and thousands of others have recently, too. This little trooper is fighting a horrible skin disease called epidermolysis bullosa (read about it here: http://debra.org/) and his fight has turned ugly over the past month or so. He developed a bad infection and things began to look really bad. His mom, Courtney, has devoted her entire life to her son. She spends hours in a rocking chair with Tripp, and if you'll read her blog, her existence right now is for him and taking care of his needs. She's such a hero . . . I mean, really. If you get some time, click the button and spend some time on her blog. I'll warn you that some of the photos are graphic, but it just shows you the amount of pain that Tripp is in most of the time.
Last week, a prayer vigil was held in Louisiana for Tripp. Over one-thousand people attended this vigil and guess what? God won! Tripp began to get substantially better, and some of his pain has subsided. This is still a horrible disease for him to deal with, and he'll have it as long as he's here with us. For now, however, he can give his mom a few more smiles. I could tell you so much more about Tripp and his mom and grandparents, but I'd rather you take a look at her blog. I posted the a video from the vigil below, so check it out:
Please add little Tripp's name to your prayers. He needs the Father's constant comfort and love in his sweet life.
There's much to write about in this post, so grab a drink and get comfortable . . . if you're interested in the details, that is. If details aren't important to you, scroll down and at least check out the photos and the video.
Our trip started last Saturday, July 9th. I prayed for this trip for months. However, it wasn't for the reasons you're thinking. I mean, sure, we wanted to hear from God, but what I DIDN'T want to hear from was the very depth of Daisee's lungs. Daisee IS NOT a rider. She has hated her car seat from day one, so my prayers were focused on getting through this twelve hour road trip without planning a stop to a sanetorium. All that to say that my prayers were answered for our trip up north. The drive went beautifully. The boys were both entertained by gifts from Brandon and Sarah, along with a guilty pleasure that became evident by watching their faces as they were secretly mesmerized by Dora the Explorer and Mickey Mouse Club videos. Daisee couldn't have done any better. All she needed were her stickers . . .
. . . her LOTS of stickers (thanks to big bro, Ryan) . . .
. . . and her videos. She barely made a sound the whole way to Indiana, and then a couple of days later to Michigan.
While driving through Kentucky, we took the kids to Lynn's Paradise Cafe (if you're a fellow Facebooker, you remember these photos) for dinner. Everybody should experience this whimsy little place at least once!
We stopped at a mall and let everybody stretch out a little bit after dinner. These are a couple of things the kids did for fun there . . .
While in Indianapolis, the focus of our time there was devoted to The Children's Museum of Indianapolis. This is the largest children's museum in the world, and I'm convinced that we could have spent three days there and still not experience everything. There was something for each of the kiddos, and we all had a great time. National Geographic had a huge part of the museum while we were there, so there was a big focus on archaeology on the lower floor. The boys were able to participate in a small-scale 'dig' . . .
. . .while me and Daisee went to check out the Dora the Explorer exhibit. Like I said, something for everybody, and it was fun watching her take it all in.
Aside from those specific elements, there was just an entire weekend full of stuff to do there, but we only had a day. Check out a few more pics . . .
Once our visit to the museum was over, I headed to the hotel gym for a while and afterwards we headed to the Steak n' Shake for dinner. Good milkshakes, but if you've never been to one, well, you're not missing much. Just one of those iconic things, ya know? Afterwards, we went back to the hotel and Craig took the kids to the pool while I did laundry at the FREE hotel facilities. I'm such a weirdo, because I LOVE doing laundry on vacation. There's just something about going home and knowing it's done.
We got up the next morning (Monday) and headed for Michigan to the Life Action Family Camp. A little funny side note . . .Craig was talking to the boys on the way in about how important first impressions are. I guess just knowing that we were gonna be meeting a lot of new people and were gonna be spending a lot of time with them called for a 'be on your best behavior' kind of talk. As he was getting his point made, he started to focus a little too hard on the rearview mirror, and proceeded to point the swaggerwagon into the direction of a fellow camper on a bike. He, being the GREAT driver that he is, gently corrected his aim (uh, yeah...) and Ryan says, "Better watch out, Craig. It wouldn't make a very good first impression if you run over somebody going into camp." If you know Ryan, you know why that little bit of dry humor is hilarious.
Craig had been reading that Buchanan (the city where camp was located) had experienced some bad storms during the morning hours, but we didn't realize at the time how bad these storms were. As we drove into town, we noticed lots of big limbs and huge trees down. They weren't uprooted, but most of them were snapped. Those of us here in Alabama know what that tends to mean. There were boats on shore there that blew in from the other side of the lake. The BLOB (a huge water activity) was blown out of the water, and the pier was blown over and torn up. We made it to the camp site and go inside, and there's no power. They had generators running for the basics, but there were no lights and no A/C. Now, I know its north, but friends, let me tell you...it was still HOT. (another side note . . . the highs Tuesday and Wednesday were in the mid 70's with no humidity and a nice breeze . . . uh, hello October. . . NICE) I'm not a whole lot of an outdoors person, so bugs combined with wet, combined with no air makes for an ill person. My nostrils may have been flaring at this point, but I'm not sure. I just know that the further into Monday afternoon we got, the more gross I was feeling. At this point, our family assistant, Kendra, was telling us that it may be Friday before we got power again. Oh. My. Goodness. I was feeling extremely faint and all flustered and just panicky. We went to our services Monday night, and I just wasn't feeling it...just being real, ok? God was a long way from me at that point. This WAS NOT a vacation. In fact, I perched myself in that little-bitty-can-barely-turn-around-in bathroom after everything was over and I cried. Craig didn't ask why, because he knew what I would say. I wanted to go HOME! I needed AIR! I needed dependable LIGHTS! I needed my HAIR DRYER! I needed water that didn't smell like sulphur and iron pipes! We went to bed that night, and for the first time I can remember, I didn't even have a sheet on my body. It was the longest night EVER and when we woke up the next morning, we all looked and smelled like somebody that had been taken captive somewhere in the rainforest.
I know that so far, this is sounding pretty grim, but once I took a shower, things were looking better. There was still no power, but at least I was clean. We all began our sessions in our various places. Gavin was in Base Camp, Ryan participated in IGNITE, and Daisee went to the nursery. Craig and I went into the tabernacle each day for the studies that were focused on becoming an authentic Christian. The morning sessions dealt with issues in our families and the evenings consisted of a more general message on what REAL Christianity is all about. Jimmy Herdklotz was our leader and he was an excellent speaker. He, and his wife at times, brought lots of humor and heart-felt guidance into God's word. There was always a time of worship and music in the beginning of the service. Those of you who are NBC members will remember how great their praise bands are. It was refreshing to experience those times at camp. We sometimes feel so intimidated during worship here, but to go away and see all of the hands raised and faces lifted to Jesus was such a feeling of freedom.
The activities were non-stop, especially for the kids. They made friends, played new games, and were given a chance to just let go and have fun.
In this photo below, the boys are with our family assistant. Her name is Kendra, and she was fabulous. Each family with young kids is assigned an 'assistant'. You don't have a choice. You HAVE to accept help while you're there. Anybody got a problem with that? Uh, no. They'll babysit, participate with games, take your kids here and there, fix plates at mealtimes, I mean, can we say AWESOME?!
On the last day of camp, Gavin memorized all of his bible verses and he got to 'pie' Kendra!
Wednesday night was date night. All of the kids' leaders took them from 5:30-9:30. They fed them, worshipped with them, and then wore them out doing all the 'stuff' that they do. Craig and I went to the pastor's lodge for dinner with all of the other couples. This lodge is off site, and its probably the most beautiful place I've ever seen that's owned by a Christian organization. It was formerly an estate that Life Action renovated.
Once dinner was over, we headed into South Bend for the rest of our date. We found the South Bend Chocolate Factory and sat down to a lovely dessert of fondue for two, complete with strawberries, bananas, pound cake, and pretzels for dipping. The dipping was nice, but I was just ready to jump into the pretty little bowl of chocolate and swim around for a while. I. LOVE. CHOCOLATE.
Our power finally came back on Wednesday night, and everything was in full 'go' mode after that. We had the whole experience. Lights, sound, good food, activities . . . it was on. We had two more days of camp, and we lived it up. I finally began to put my attitude about my inconveniences aside, and let God reveal himself to me. I was finally experiencing the worship and love for him that I had longed for, and honestly, when it was over, I wanted to stay. Isn't that GREAT!?
If you've never thought about taking your family to Life Action Camp, DO IT! It's not cheap, and its a long ways away, but its worth it! Our boys even came back having heard from God, and that in itself was a huge answer to prayer for me and Craig. Sometimes we forget that God uses and convicts our little people, so to hear Ryan say that he wants to grow spiritually brought tears to my eyes Friday night.
Be praying for each of us. We each want to live an AUTHENTIC life that is encouraging to others. The world has enough talkers, and we don't want to add to that. We want to show that Christ is REAL in our lives, and show the joy that comes from carrying the promise we have in Him.
Check out the rest of the photos, and don't leave without ESPECIALLY viewing the camp video. This was our week. and we're excited to plan another trip to family camp, hopefully next fall.
The main lodge...
Accomodations . . .
This blessed big rig provided what little power we had at the beginning with a generator on the back of it . . .
The next pic is of Root Beer Pond. There's a big fence around it that says 'keep out'. If you think about it, the name makes sense, seeing as how its a place for sewage. Notice the big pelican bird swimming around in it (bottom pic). If you watch the video, you'll see some funny stuff.
The tabernacle - This is where the sessions for the adults were held.
Each age group of kids had their own little building to meet in . . .
Waterfront activities...
Boating and tubing . . .
This is the 'bike barn'. We all rented bikes for the week.
Gavin and his new buddy, Hayden, had a ball aggravating the stew out of these canadian geese that hung out here...
Gavin mastering the game of carpetball . . .
Ryan and his ninja mask for his Smuggler competition . . .
Daisee's ride for the week . . .
. . .and finally - our Life Action Family Camp video! Make sure you 'full screen' the video to get the best experience!
