I Was An Orphan

World Adoption Day – was this past Saturday, November 9, 2019

I was adopted at the age of 6 months having spent that time in foster care. I have friends and a niece and nephew who are adopted. It creates a special bond between us. 

At a conference focused on adoption and fostering, I realized that I was once an orphan. That time between being born and being adopted. Granted for me it wasn’t very long, but the realization impacted me in a way I didn’t expect. 

When I tell my story about my adoption I often say something about the circumstances where my birth mom had an affair with a married man, which of course is sin and could have ruined many lives. Little did Satan know that at 13 I would attend a Christian camp (Camp Ambassador) and make a decision for Christ. Or that I would go into full time ministry at camps and be influential in the Christian lives of many people, some of whose stories I will never know. 

I am reminded of Joseph’s situation with his older brothers in Genesis 50:20; You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives. NIV

Further, I have been adopted into God’s family by my salvation in Jesus Christ. The Westminster Shorter Catechism says, “Adoption is an act of God’s free grace, whereby we are received into the number, and have a right to all the privileges of the sons of God.” 

Adoption is an act of God’s free grace, whereby we are received into the number, and have a right to all the privileges of the sons of God. [Westminster Shorter Catechism]

Carver’s Cardinal Virtues

I’ve been reading a book called, Chosen for Greatness; How Adoption Changes the World by Paul Batura and was one of the stories was about George Washington Carver. His life was not easy, but he had some great influences in his life including being adopted by Moses and Susan Carver. He grew up on a farm with an insatiable thirst for knowledge. 

Carver was an American agricultural scientist and inventor. He actively promoted alternative crops to cotton and methods to prevent soil depletion. While a professor at Tuskegee Institute, Carver developed techniques to improve soils depleted by repeated plantings of cotton.

In 1922, George Washington Carver penned a thank you note to one of his students who had given him a fountain pen as a Christmas present. In the note, Carver offered hope “that each of you will rise to the full height of your possibilities” and suggested these eight cardinal virtues to help them do just that.

Mr. L. Robinson

I wish to express to each member of the Senior class my deep appreciation for the fountain pen you so thoughtfully gave me. This gift is characterized by simplicity and thoughtfulness, which I hope each of you will make the slogan of your lives.

I hope that each of you will rise to the full height of your possibilities, which means the possession of these eight cardinal virtues which constitutes a lady or a gentleman.

  1. Be clean both inside and outside.
  2. Who neither looks up to the rich or down on the poor.
  3. Who loses, if needs be, without squealing.
  4. Who wins without bragging.
  5. Who is always considerate of women, children and old people.
  6. Who is too brave to lie.
  7. Who is too generous to cheat.
  8. Who takes his share of the world and lets other people have theirs.

May God help you to carry out these eight cardinal virtues and peace and prosperity be yours through life.

Lovingly yours,

G. W. Carver

Carver Quotes:

  • Inspiration is never at variance with information; in fact the more information one has, the greater will be the inspiration.
  • When you can do the common things of life in an uncommon way, you will command the attention of the world.
  • God is going to reveal to us things He never revealed before if we put our hands in His. No books ever go into my laboratory. The thing I am to do and the way of doing it are revealed to me. I never have to grope for methods. The method is revealed to me the moment I am inspired to create something new. Without God to draw aside the curtain I would be helpless.

On his tombstone, “He could have added fortune to fame, but caring for neither he found happiness and honor in being helpful to the world”.

Widji 2019 by the Numbers

Here are some of the numbers from our 2019 summer at Widji!

  • Weeks of camp – 9
  • Decisions for Christ – 56
  • TNT & Blast & Sizzle campers – 195 (7 day campers) 
  • Ignite Partnership campers – 319
  • SALTers – 18 (72 camper weeks)
  • Aspire campers – 5 (for 2 weeks each)
  • Total camper weeks – 591
  • Staff – 50 
  • Volunteers – 51
  • Bibles given out to campers – 125+
  • From the kitchen
    • meals served – 22,175
    • bags of milk – 258
    • ice cream sandwiches – 1,080
    • waffles eaten- 1,320
    • burgers served – 1,080 
    • Subs on Sunday – 1152 croissants + 912 ciabatta rolls
  • 168,000 feet of toilet paper 
  • Bus trips – 15 with 19 buses

2 cool stories

  1. Another camper stands out for us from one of our Ignite partnerships. It was the first time this camper had been to camp, and they were nervous about the experience, in part because their birthday would take place during the week. The leaders found out and arranged a cake and a celebration; we often do such things for birthdays, but what happened behind the scenes was special. While at camp this camper’s shoes fell apart. One of the leaders went to town and purchased a new pair of shoes for them, and gave them to the camper afterward. At the end of the week, Heyoo was chatting with the camper and asked how his birthday was. “I got a new pair of shoes!” they said with excitement. It is such an encouragement to see a need and meet it without asking. Nobody needed to ask if the camper needed something, people knew and met their need proactively, perhaps leaving an impression that will stay with that family for a long time.
  2. Summer camp has always been a place that meets needs for people in a variety of circumstances. In the case of this summer, we welcomed a couple of campers who had recently lost a parent to cancer. The speaker that week unwittingly answered questions about heaven, a topic that was at the front of these camper’s thoughts. Closely following the Q&A period, they approached their cabin leader, who engaged with the leadership team at camp for help in answering their questions. What made this so interesting was how this was minutes before the cabin leader was sharing her testimony. That night, all of the campers in the cabin shared their testimonies also and prayed for each other. A healthy conversation took place that allowed these campers to work through some of the healing needed in coping with their loss. It amazes us how God works in His people when we provide love and support to others, not always knowing what circumstances they are coming from.

The Greatest Gift

As Thanksgiving approaches, we often pause to think about the things and people we are grateful for. It cased me to wonder, “What is the greatest gift you have ever received?”. I have a few that come to my mind. 

  • Life by my birth mother, though she could have chosen abortion
  • Being adopted at 6 months and receiving love & grace from my loving parents
  • Grace from God who gave me salvation in Jesus Christ (I became a Christian at 13 years old at Camp Ambassador) 
  • A wonderful wife of 33 years who is also forgiving and understanding!!! (so much more than you know)
  • 3 beautiful girls (Nicole, Carolyn & Melissa), 2 godly sons-in-law (Tim & Ben) & 3 wonderful grand children (Olivia, Logan & Liam)!
  • Not dying from doing stupid things like rock climbing with no harness during high school to name a few. The credit goes to God as He had things for me to do. 
  • Financial help when needed from many family & friends.
  • The church generously being the church when I was unemployed and also during my time of sick leave for post concussion syndrome. 
  • A variety of Christmas and birthday gifts from family & friends.
    • One year my dad gave me my grandpa’s journeyman’s box from the 1920’s.
    • Melissa knows I love to watch NCIS (TV show) and gave me a t-shirt with the Gibbs’ rules. 
    • The girls have a tradition of wrapping up the same hammer for my stocking each year that I stopped unwrapping it, so the paper grows thicker each year. 
    • And many more that have been wonderful!

SO, what’s your greatest gift? What are you thankful for this Thanksgiving weekend??

Jesus Weeps Over Jerusalem

Luke 19:41-42 And when he drew near and saw the city (Jerusalem), he wept over it, saying, “Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace!”

Jesus is approaching the city, coming down from the Mount of Olives, he is able to see over all of Jerusalem, the temple mount is immediately across the valley. His memory goes back to his years of preaching and doing miracles there, to worshiping the Father there throughout his life during the religious holidays, and back to his time in the temple as a young boy talking with the priests. 

Then his memory goes back further; to the repeated conquering of the city by foreign kingdoms, back further to the rebuilding of the temple and the city walls after Israel’s exile in Babylon, back further to the fall of Jerusalem and the destruction of the first temple, back further to the wicked kings who rebelled against him and killed his prophets, back further to the building of the first temple by King Solomon, then back to the inauguration of King David, and even further to the conquering of the land by his newly rescued nation, and back to the initial promise he made to Abraham as they both looked over the land that would be the home to his people Israel.

He looks down on this city and He cries out, would that you, Jerusalem, irony of ironies “the city of peace”, even you had known on this day the things that made for peace!

He was right there, riding on a donkey, coming to pay with his own blood the penalty for all of our sins. The God of the universe came down to earth to personally be crucified, be buried and rise again one the third day to conquer death and bring us salvation. 

God is good… ALL the time!!

Days Without Sin: 0

I heard a story recently of a Christian man in Brazil who determined he was going to stop sinning. An excellent goal to be sure and something for which we should all strive. He tried and tried and started to eliminate some sins. He had to get away from the distractions in his life, so he shut himself off more and more from people, technology and the world. Although he didn’t do a lot of the sins we commonly think about, he couldn’t escape himself and his own thoughts and heart. He could NOT stop sinning. 

A Christian who sins vs a sinner saved by grace. The goal is to NOT sin, though we struggle against our human nature. 

1 John 1:8 If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 

Romans 3:23 For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God

Psalm 32:5 I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not cover my iniquity; I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,” and you forgave the iniquity of my sin.

We all sin. Our sin is doing anything that is against God’s character. For examples; we shouldn’t lie because God is truth and we shouldn’t hate because God is love and we shouldn’t sin because God is holy. 

Keep short accounts with God. Pray for forgiveness often. Repent. 1 John 1:9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. 

Reaching the World One Camper at a Time

Ignite: a partnership program with churches and organizations impacting one camper at a time to impact one family to impact one neighborhood to impact one city to impact the world!! We are reaching the world one camper at a time!

How donations affect campers. A week at camp can change the trajectory for a child or youth’s life forever. Not only does every camper hear the Gospel, they also learn from the example of Christian youth and young adults as they live out what it is like to be a Christian in front of them. 

Consider these two stories from camp

  1. Knowing what some kids come from is humbling and sobering for me. The bus driver for Escape Week told me that on her way up she overheard a conversation between 3 girls. One asked another how her house was doing. Another girl entered the conversation and asked what happened to her house, to which she replied that all of their windows had been shot out, but it was okay now because they were boarded up.
  2. Sponsored campers from Capstone banded together to raise funds for at least one other camper to be funded to come to camp. This means that we have campers helping campers help campers to come to camp.

This summer we hosted 319 sponsored campers in our Ignite program from our five partnerships. The total donations needed to sponsor these campers is $220,000, but our God is bigger than our need and He is always faithful. The donations cover all program, food, staff, cabins, busing, Tuck Shop, tubing, and a camp pastor for each week. 

You can help send campers to Widji to experience life changing ministry. For every $520 in donations toward Widji ministry programs, the full cost of non-ministry programs (meals, accommodations, recreation) for one camper will be contributed by Bible Centre Ministries. Your financial partnership with Camp Widjiitiwin is an investment in the lives of 100’s of campers and staff.

Relationships have always been at the heart of the success of Christian camping ministry and that is what most campers talk about when they get home – the friends they made & the staff that influenced them. That, plus the FUN, games, food, campfires, activities and of course the Tuck Shop. 

Our Spiritual Battle

The spiritual battle we fight was initiated by two races created by God – angels and humans.

Ephesians 6:10-12 – Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armour of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. 

You cannot lose your salvation, but you can compromise it and your testimony with it, through your sin. You show disregard for the God of the Bible, by following after worldly things. This you do by giving in to one or more of three enemies. 

  • The enemy inside – the flesh, ignoring God and doing your own thing even though you know it isn’t right
  • The enemy around us – the world, following after the things of the world that can become idols to you when they take the place of God in your life
  • The enemy outside of us – the Devil, if we fall for his lies that lead us into temptation and sin, self doubt and away from God who loves us

Tim Keller – if the Bible is true about the spiritual world and evil you will not be able to understand and defeat on your ow the darkness of your own heart, in your family, in our city and in the world.

Ephesians 6:13-17 Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

This World is NOT My Home

Back when I was working at Muskoka Woods in the late 80’s we had some great and popular Christian musicians come and play concerts for the campers and staff. Those influenced the music I listened to, although I was mostly into country music (yes, before it was cool).

One of my favourite albums at that time was Larry Norman’s Christian Rock album Only Visiting This Planet, Reader’s Digest.

Follow God or sing the blues, and who they’re gonna sin with.
What a mess the world is in, I wonder who began it.
Don’t ask me, I’m only visiting this planet.

It also had the song, Why Should The Devil Have All The Good Music? Oh the 80’s Christian rock was good. 

This year we celebrated the 152nd anniversary of our great country Canada, it seems appropriate to gain an understanding of this verse as it applies to being a good Canadian, as well as a faithful citizen of “[the] better country, that is, [the] heavenly one” (Hebrews 11:16).

But as Christians, our citizenship is in heaven.

And we eagerly await a Saviour from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body. Philippians 3:20, 21

Ephesians 2:19, a precious verse for expatriates, says, “You are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God… Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone.”

This World is Not My Home
recorded by Jim Reeves, written by Mary Reeves and Albert E. Brumley

This world is not my home I’m just a passing through
My treasures are laid up somewhere beyond the blue
The angels beckon me from heaven’s open door
And I can’t feel at home in this world anymore
Oh lord you know I have no friend like you
If heaven’s not my home then lord what will I do
The angels beckon me from heaven’s open door
And I can’t feel at home in this world anymore
I have a loving mother just over in gloryland
And I don’t expect to stop until I shake her hand
She’s waiting now for me in heaven’s open door
And I can’t feel at home in this world anymore
Oh lord you know I have no friend like you
If heaven’s not my home Then lord what will I do
The angels beckon me From heaven’s open door
And I can’t feel at home In this world anymore
Just over in gloryland
We’ll live eternally
The saints on every hand are shouting victory
Their songs of sweetest praise
Drift back from heaven’s shore
And I can’t feel at home In this world anymore
Oh lord, you know I have no friend like you
If heaven’s not my home Then lord what will I do
The angels beckon me From heaven’s open door
And I can’t feel at home In this world anymore

This world is not my home, I’m just a passing through…

Bendable, Foldable, Malleable, and Moldable

This line has been in my blog ideas folder for a while now and I can’t remember where it came from or what I was planning to do with it.

We got every bit of bendable, foldable, malleable, moldable material into me.

As I got to thinking about it and talked with a few people about what they thought it might mean, it seems like it’s the idea of a circle, of clay on the potter’s wheel. And I remembered we are molded in the image of God. We are made and remade to shape us to be more Christ-like. God is the Potter and we are the clay. We are made and molded in His image. Watching a potter at the wheel is mesmerizing as the clay spins it seems to magically take the shape in the mind of the potter/creator. 

I remember hearing in science class that we are made of the elements of the earth. Genesis 2:7 says, “Then the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.” 

Jeremiah 18:1-10 talks about the potter’s wheel.

The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: “Arise, and go down to the potter’s house, and there I will let you hear my words.” So I went down to the potter’s house, and there he was working at his wheel. And the vessel he was making of clay was spoiled in the potter’s hand, and he reworked it into another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to do. Then the word of the Lord came to me: “O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter has done? declares the Lord. Behold, like the clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel. If at any time I declare concerning a nation or a kingdom, that I will pluck up and break down and destroy it, and if that nation, concerning which I have spoken, turns from its evil, I will relent of the disaster that I intended to do to it. And if at any time I declare concerning a nation or a kingdom that I will build and plant it, and if it does evil in my sight, not listening to my voice, then I will relent of the good that I had intended to do to it. 

Once the clay piece is in the right shape, it won’t stay that way unless it is fired in the heat of the furnace. Here’s an outline of these verses. 

  • God is the Potter (v. 6)
  • We are the Clay (v. 6)
  • Life is the wheel, the place we are tested and tried
  • Disobedience is the marring (v.4)
  • Trials of life are the furnace. Here are a couple examples of the “firing” of people in the Bible
    • Job – furnace of pain; he did well
    • Peter – furnace of persecution; he did well
    • Solomon – furnace of worldly pleasures; he kind of did okay

Am I in fact bendable, foldable, malleable and moldable as God works in me to create me into the person He has in mind for me in His service? To be honest; some days I am and some days I need to do better and allow Him to do more shaping of me. 

How about you? Are you bendable, foldable, malleable, and moldable for God to shape you? OR are you a stiff stick that might break in a wind? Be moldable.