Camp Noah Biloxi

Many of you have heard my favorite marriage quote - "The secret to a long happy marriage is Low Expectations."

I went to Biloxi on Monday prepared for being told, "You're not on our list. Please leave." I didn't have Low Expectations, I had ZERO Expectations.

This one is being held at another Lutheran church, but it's "LCMS" and all the ones I've been doing were "ELCA". Don't ask me, I don't know and it turns out, I don't need to know.

The first person I saw when I walked in the door was Karen, a lady who had volunteered at the camp I did two weeks ago. She is the Site Coordinator at this one and welcomed me with open arms and some well placed sarcasm. So I felt completely at home.

The next person I met was the lady who is the Site Coordinator for next week and she immediately invited me to work there, too.

The inbetweens just keep comin'.

This week's camp is about 2 miles from where Karen Parker of Camp Hope works her regular job and next week is actually at the Church where she works. So my truck AND motorcycle are not getting much use for a couple of weeks. After breakfast I ride the Honda 3 miles to Karen's house and then ride with her.

Ivy, her 11 yr old daughter is attending this week and having a ball. She wasn't here for Katrina. Her parents sent her to Tallahassee with her grandparents while they stayed here. So my first thought was, "She wasn't really impacted that much." Then I found out that it was 5 1/2 days before she and her grandparents found out whether her Mon and Dad were alive. I don't know if it will last, but I sure see a much happier kid after just two days with these wonderful volunteer camp counselors.

Of course, I'm still helping here at Camp Hope in the evenings and in the morning before I leave. It's starting to wear me down a little, but I get so much energy from the kids that I think two more weeks is very doable.

And there are only 85 to feed instead of the 172 last week, so it seems a lot easier.

Just to recap - I started off the week not knowing if I'd get to do another Camp Noah before I left MS and by 9am Monday I knew I was doing TWO more.

I've a new phrase,

"Life's not fair. THANK YOU GOD."

Because if life WAS fair, I'd not be having NEAR this much fun !!!

And then we...

Three weeks ago I got on the Honda and headed 3 1/2 hrs north to Brandon, where Lesly lives.

A couple of serious rainstorms, but all in all a pleasant ride. She said she wanted me to meet her daughter and son-in-law. It turns out the real priority was to see if her cats would accept me. She has two, a Siamese and an Angora which is a giant long haired fur ball. "Smoky the long hair doesn't like strangers and hates men. She won't come out from under the bed while you're here."

Well apparently her cats are small children in disguise because within two hours I could call Smoky and she'd come running to get petted. Then the Siamese would come to see what the fuss was all about. AND my allergies didn't act up ! Whew, with THAT test passed, meeting her daughter was a breeze. I'm told that she liked me, too.

We had a wonderful late dinner with Jessica and Jeremy on Saturday night. Jess is a veterinarian in a small practice. This was her weekend to be on call and she didn't get to Lesly's until around 9:00. We really did have a nice talk. And she didn't even ask, "What are your intentions."

There is a wonderful art museum in Jackson and it had a new exhibit, "Between God and Man." which is a collection of art depicting Angels.

Great stuff - here are couple of pictures. There were dozens, along with some wonderful sculpture, too.




I got up early Monday morning and had a spectacular ride back. Blue sky, bright sunshine and cool air - not a combination you find after 10am in MS in July !

The weekend must have been a success because she came back to Becky's last weekend and will return next weekend.

Life really is great !