Camp NaCoMe is not the St. Francis Westin!

Our Church here has been having a weekend family camp at NaCoMe for over forty years. It is a treasured tradition. I suspect that little has changed in all these years except that in more recent years the cabins have had air conditioning added. NaCoMe is located in middle Tennessee eighty miles from Jackson. Tom and I went there when there was no air conditioning and when we were much younger. Childcare is available for babies and young pre-schoolers, the elementary children have fun with crafts and middle-schoolers through adults gather in the pavillion for the program--this year: "Christmas in July." During free time children of all ages hunt for crawdads in the creek, swim in the frigid lake, canoe, washer pitch, fish and play impromtu games of volleyball, etc. Tom and I spent our free time rocking, watching grandchildren play and visiting with others as lazy as we were.

The heat and humidity were brutal. The campers who preceeded us didn't clean the cabin and my sheets didn't fit the bed. I woke up a lot during the night, to retuck the bottom sheegt and trying to find a comfortable position. I came home with back problems I haven't had in years. The St. Francis had all the ammenities one could want--and then some. The weather in San Francisco was cool enough to warrant a jacket even in the afternoon. The pillows on my bed were so comfortable that I came home and bought some for my own bed. It was luxury one weekend and the rustic life the next--quite a difference. One weekend was spent with Marty and Christopher, the next was spent with Tommy, Liz and children. The delight of being with family is the same. Being with family any time, any place is always my favorite place to be!

Tom and I made our first of the week trek to the Farmers' Market yesterday. We bought a box of tomatoes and a couple of bell peppers in anticipation of making chili sauce/tomato relish later in the week. My tomato man threw in a couple of jalopenos just 'cuz I'm a good customer. We also bought peaches to make dessert for last night and enough corn to have to eat this week and to put some in the freezer. I have two kinds of basil growing by the back steps and one sprig of rosemary in a pot--not at all like rosemary in our yard in California which had to be pruned constantly. The basil is doing well and I'm experimenting with fun ways to use it. Do you have any good ideas?

The young woman who led the retreat, a recent graduate of Columbia Seminary, did a good job of involving everyone as we looked at Scriptures most often identified with Advent and Christmas. She balanced fun activities with serious questions. One of the passages we talked about was the angel's visit to Mary, a passage that I have both preached and taught. It's also a passage that I use for personal meditation, pondering the statements: "The Lord is with you;" "nothing will be impossible with God;" and "Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word." We could have spent the entire weekend on this one passage or even these three statements. Think of how our lives, our witness would be if we had always on our hearts that the Lord is with us, that nothing is impossible with God and we declared that "I am a servant of the Lord. Whatever you choose, whatever you desire, wherever you send me, let it be so." The statements are inter-related--nothing is impossible because God is with me and I can live and be according to God's word because God is with me and nothing is impossible.

"Think on these things."

Blessings,
Pastor Margaret