How to Be Perfect (for Dummies)

Hello friends and family!

Apparently, it’s trendy to start 2026 by looking back to your life in 2016. My only memories of 2016 fall into two categories: counseling at Higher Ground and my first semester at Ironwood. It was the beginning of a bittersweet decade. But through all the bitter and the sweet, the things that changed and the things that didn’t, God has been faithful. He continues to be faithful right now, in this new year that has already been overflowing with opportunities to serve Him.

Camp News

The second half of December was very quiet. Our Ministry Crew takes a few weeks for Christmas break, and it is very hard to run camp without them. So, we just don’t have camp! This does allow the Resident Staff team to catch up on a few smaller projects or begin planning for the next big project. It’s boring, but useful time.

The beginning of the year is equally useful and infinitely less boring. We started with three retreats on the first weekend of January, before Ministry Crew returned. (To remind us how much we depend on them!) This was immediately followed by two work weeks. Lots of progress was made on different projects around camp including (but not limited to) the Barn, the three staff houses, road repair, spring cleaning, and dock painting. There was something new or improved around every corner! Just to spice things up, camp also hosted a couple’s retreat and Ironwood’s Young Adult Retreat during that time.

Palkki News

We spent a very quiet Christmas at home this year. Gabe and I decided that our combined gifts would be upgrading our dinosaur of a TV to something that actually connects to the internet. It’s been a fun improvement to at-home dates and movie nights. Rosie didn’t understand all the commotion of Christmas, but she did like the shiny ornaments and enjoyed having her daddy at home all day for a couple weeks.

Gabe started the new year in the kitchen, filling in for Ministry Crew. During the work weeks, he ran two different welding crews responsible for welding headache racks with seats for truck beds, steps that slide into hitch receivers, and new sections of fence in Rivertown. He was also assigned a new assistant for the spring semester. Their big project for future months is to overhaul a Jeep for the on-property fleet.

 My schedule isn’t as busy as Gabe’s, but life is never boring with Rosie and Diesel around! The highlights of this month included a visit with my friend from Wisconsin, introducing Rosie to her aunt and uncle during the second work week, and a movie night with the Ministry Crew girls. It’s amazing how much bonding can happen over an old musical comedy!

You know what’s hard about project season? The human propensity to make mistakes. Wrong measurement. Broke a tool. Didn’t order enough material. Ordered too much material. Dropped a really heavy log into the truck bed and smashed the new toolbox.

  Most people hate making mistakes. For some, the embarrassment of messing up in front of someone else is unbearable. For others, a less-than-perfect product or process drives them absolutely insane. Honestly, most of these reactions are due to pride. But the natural desire to do well also reflects the image of a holy God who does everything with excellence.

To my fellow perfectionists, this is a truly terrifying reality. God is infinitely good, just, loving, and wise. Therefore, I have infinite opportunities of failing to live up to His standards. Of course, I realize that all my sins were completely pardoned the moment I received Christ, but it’s this very salvation that makes me so zealous to be like Him. Alas! zeal does not equal holiness.

We are called to obey; we want to obey. We’re just not good at obeying! How are we to have hope? Jude presents an encouraging thought at the end of his short letter condemning the ungodly and commanding believers to pursue purity. “Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of His glory with great joy…” (Jude 1:24)

I don’t need to be paralyzed by my own deficiencies because God is the one who keeps me from falling off the path. At the end of the journey, He will present me to Himself exactly the way He wants me to be.

That’s a huge relief to this perfectionist!

Love in Christ,

Gabe and Cheyenne (and Rosemary) Palkki

PS: To see some great welding project pictures, check out the Gallery! The Pray page has also been updated!