Camping and the Heart of God
"I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth." —3 John 1:4 The Fourth of July is quickly approaching. It is one of my very favorite times of the year. Although for me the fourth doesn't evoke pictures of grand fireworks displays or patriotic concerts (though I greatly enjoy both), rather, when I think of the fourth I am transported in my mind to a place hundreds of feet below the surface of the "caprock" in north west Texas. Here, on this week, in a small branch of the Palo Duro Canyon, some three hundred 4th & 5th graders assemble to meet with God. This camp, not unlike our own district camps, is a ministry of the United Methodist Church which reaches out not only to kids in conference churches, but also to those for whom camp is their first exposure to church or God. In my 32 brief years of life, I have spent 27 of them attending this camp. In that time, I have witnessed countless children (many of them now adults) receive