Hello friends and family!
As we all start singing songs of silents nights and sleepy Judean towns, it feels like a sigh of relief after a busy month of camp. Nothing was calm but all was very bright!
Camp News
This fall season has marked some milestones for Ironwood. We will finish up this year having served more campers than any other year in the history of the camp! In November, we also broke our record of campers at a marriage retreat, with fifty-one couples in attendance. That means we filled almost every cabin with a queen sized bed on property!
Our staff got a special treat during our planning meetings as we tested out the concept of our newest camp, called All-Terrain Camp. We set up the ultimate homebase for off-road exploration two miles outside of camp, including a fire-circle, tents, cowboy coffee and a gorgeous view of the Mojave Riverbed. A real western adventure! Well, maybe we didn’t quite qualify as ‘roughing it’ as we also had the Tin Toad food truck, a generator, several RV trailers and an outhouse. All circled up around our fires, we looked like the wackiest wagon train ever. Good times were had by all and we’re looking forward to introducing campers to this experience.
Palkki News
With camper numbers on the rise and staff numbers falling behind, Gabe and I have been running to keep up with our respective job areas and help other teams try to stay afloat. We’ve both put in some long hours in the kitchen as we lost two of our head cooks earlier this semester.
Besides that, Gabe has a constant stream of vehicles coming through the shop that all need differing levels of TLC to keep them running. He also had four different budget proposals to prepare before the end of the year. Revamping the outhouse trailer for All-Terrain was another big project on his plate last month.
My job leans more heavily toward the kitchen as we schedule more camps. I ran two banquets, one of them the biggest I’ve ever experienced as the head cook, and filled gaps in our kitchen schedule wherever I was needed. The rest of my time was filled with a litany of smaller projects that have to get done in order for life to run smoothly at camp: making binders and ordering textbooks for the IIM classes, assembling new equipment for the kitchen, laser engraving key tags for the shop, etc.
We were both able to enjoy a wonderful Thanksgiving break with our ‘adopted family’ from our church in Apple Valley. Our weekend was filled with rest, lots of amazing food, laughter and a day at the beach. God has truly blessed us with wonderful friends!
Plans for the expansion on our new house have been fully approved and funded. Along with new drywall, insulation and an AC unit, a twenty by twenty addition will be built on the south wall of the house. This structure will include a master bedroom with a walk-in closet and a master bathroom. It will be so fun to have a place of our own and one big enough to comfortably host guests!
As this Christmas marks a time of transition for our family, the context of the first Christmas takes on new meaning. Despite our Christmas carols having a theme of quiet and calm, the world into which Jesus was born was anything but serene. If you think our holiday traffic is bad, just imagine everyone everywhere having to travel back to the birthplace of their ancestors in order to pay taxes to a king who imposed his authority without their approval. And that was only a hiccup in the mayhem of Jewish politics which itself was nearly drowned in the overwhelming pandemonium of the Roman government. (Sound familiar?) When the Son of God was born, there was no such thing as certainty or security. Maybe that’s why the angel’s announcement shocked the shepherds. Maybe they were saying to one another as they hurried to Bethlehem, “Good tidings of great joy? In this economy? This we gotta see!”
So how could the heavenly choir sing of peace on earth and goodwill toward men to a world of fear, selfishness and upheaval? Why should Christians smile in the face of rising adversity in our country? What gives Gabe and I the confidence to step into a new stage of life as resident staff, not knowing where we’ll get support or how we’ll manage our jobs in an increasingly busy spring?
The answer is found in Luke 2:11. “For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.” Peace isn’t found in the perfect control of our circumstances. Peace isn’t found in the benevolence of the people around us. Peace isn’t found in the stability of our authorities. Peace is found in Immanuel, God with us.
We can experience God’s overwhelming peace in any situation simply because we know the Sovereign Creator. And we have the awesome privilege of being ambassadors of that peace to a lost and broken world.
Love in Christ,
Gabe & Cheyenne
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