Final Words

Well, today is the last day of camp here, though the campers don’t board the boats for their ride home until tomorrow. This is our last chance to speak the Gospel. Roger Huntington gave his testimony last night. It is a stirring account of God’s grace and power in the life of a sinner whose great passion is to see his people, the Athabascan and Eskimo people of Alaska, come to the same saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. We pray for that end.

Many of our counselors have formed friendships with those in their cabin. Though they are tired they continue to push ahead. We were reminded this morning in our staff meeting from I Corinthians 3 that we merely plant and water seeds. The fruit of our labors here may not be visible to us but we can go away joyfully knowing that God’s message was heard clearly over and over in our words and actions.

Katy Doebler began sending the girl cabin counselors away for a short prayer time together for their campers. What a wonderful idea. Steve Doebler and Tim McIntyre have constantly encouraged me and offered helpful suggestions. Faith Conway has been a beam of sunshine walking around with a smile and encouraging word. How thankful I am for wise and capable helpers!

The weather has been beautiful and we were able to get out on the water yesterday and do some canoeing and swimming. Some of the boys got to shoot guns like the .223 which they  loved. Yet in all, our counselors and staff have continued to use everything to point the kids back to the Gospel. Target practice is an opportunity to explain sin (missing the mark). Running games become on opportunity to explain the Christian race (Heb. 12:1). Rewarding those who don’t retalitate is an opportunity to explain Christians in action.

We are sad to leave those we just became close to. However, we are excited to come home to you. Thank you for your prayers. See you Sunday morning in church (Lord willing of course).

Salmon Roe

Many of us had the opportunity to try salmon eggs (roe) last night. Roger caught a few King Salmon out of the Yukon yesterday so we could have fresh fish for dinner. The cooks (Lori and Laurie and Lola) baked the eggs for us and most people were willing to try them. I have to say they tasted like salmon meat and with a little salt they were quite delish!

Tim McIntyre has been doing a great job of keeping the kids moving during activity time. He wears them out so that our counselors actually get to sleep at night…the campers are so tuckered out they fall asleep!

Annelise turned two yesterday and so we got her a small treat from the camp store. She is actually starting to warm up to the campers.

We have campers asking questions about the devotions we are doing. All the counselors have put time and energy into their cabin devotions. Kaili has even had many opportunities to sit down one on one with a couple of girls who have asked her to read the Bible with her!

Emily has had a chance to do some skeet shooting with her cabin girls and Roger showed Kaitlyn how to properly shoot a bow so she could help him during archery time. Our guy counselors have a harder time because the boys are roudy. However, they are doing a wonderful job. Jacob and Cory have been following a soldier theme and their campers can’t wait to hear another King David story.

We have been encouraged to be here. Because half of our group was here last year and many of the campers were also we already had an established relationship! That has been helpful in developing relationships, answering questions, and practicing patience.

Some of our counselors are feeling sad knowing they only have a couple more days with their campers. Pray that God would work in them and through them to be bold with the Gospel and capture the time!

God of the Nations!

“For I am a great King, says the Lord of hosts, and my name will be feared among the nations.”                                                                                                                Malachi 1:14b

This week many of our counselors and staff will fight discouragement at one time or another. My great discouragement came last night. We had 60 campers show up! Praise God. One of the boys, Steve, was so uncooperative. By the second day of camp he had started 4 or 5 fights with other campers and had cussed out many of the leaders. Finally, Roger said enough! Roger is extremely lenient however if a camper will not listen it is actually dangerous to keep him here. I was greatly discouraged not because Steve would not listen to me but because he wouldn’t listen to God. When I knew he was heading home I went and found him in Roger’s cabin and tried to share the Gospel with him one last time. He wanted to hear it and didn’t want to leave camp, however he just kept muttering, “I don’t care, I don’t care.” So we lost a camper, and I lost faith.

Let me clarify, I didn’t lose faith in God and who He is. I didn’t lose my saving faith. Inseated, practically in my heart I believe I began to doubt that God could ever change a heart of stone like Steve.

I have been doing my personal Bible reading in Malachi during the month of June. But when I woke this morning I began to think that I needed to get to a more “practical” and “encouraging” book to recieve the encouragement I felt I needed.  Yet I went back to Malachi and found that God’s Word is consistently active (Heb. 4:12) as I had been teaching these campers. That is when I was encouraged by Malachi 1:14b. God is a great King and He is advancing His kingdom among the nations. God is not just at work in Anacortes. He is at work among the nations and He will change hearts no matter how hard. I was deeply cut by the Word knowing that my heart doubted that. I was greatly encouraged by the Word because I was reminded that God saves sinners (Rom. 5:8). Truly God’s Word is a two edged sword, cutting out the sin in one direction and encouraging in the other.

Summit Park: Be proud of your team. God’s Word is going forth. Everyone is making valiant efforts to spread the Gospel in word and deed. We are also having fun. Yesterday afternnon it was very hot and we were able to make it out to the mud pit swimming hole. There will be many stories and pictures to share when we come home.

Please pray for us now! God is a King with an advancing kingdom!

Welcome to the Alaskan Adventure

Hello all,

My hope is to keep everyone back home as up to date as possible. These may be shorter notes but enough to wet your appetite…

The church we stayed at in Fairbanks is First Basptist Church and Pastor Bryan was very hospitable. We enjoyed our stay and visit. Our first night in Alaska was a surprise to many because at 11:00 PM is still looks like 3:00 PM in Anacortes! The sun never really sets so it is always light.

Travels went well, we have all our luggage! We did have a 3 hour delay for no discernable reason. However we are happy to be flexible. As one of our boats was pulling out it ran aground on something and sent Tim flying face first in our boat…fortunatly he is a good sport and wasn’t injured.

The first campers start showing up tomorrow at around 1 PM so please keep us in your prayers! We look forward to sharing our trip with you on our return.

James

Cantata

If you enjoyed the Christmas Cantata featuring the vocal talents of our own Summit Park Bible Church Choir under the direction of Peter Woodard and accompanied by Jennifer Liddle, here is your chance to re-live the experience.

Christmas Program 2009

If you missed this year’s Christmas program, this is your chance to see it! The youth of Summit Park Bible Church put on a Wonder-Full play highlighting the real importance of Christmas. This program was performed on December 13th 2009. Enjoy!

A crow, a raccoon…nope…just a fly

Have you ever noticed that certain creatures have this irritating ability to be a pest and not leave you alone…until you get a weapon? They say that crows are like that (I wouldn’t know because I’ve never hunted one). However, think about your lawn. It could be covered in starlings for many days in a row. They eat all your cherries and scare away the song birds. Grrr! Finally, you have had it! You grab the BB gun and wait, and wait, and wait. It’s as if they have a sixth sense and they are nowhere to be found. So you put away the BB gun and suddenly they are back.

Raccoons are similar. They come around and make a mess of the garbage, eat all the cat food, and make annoying scuffling noises on the porch. My natural inclination? Grab the shotgun, but again the next night: no raccoon. Arg!

All that to say, I have discovered that flies are of the same ilk. I like a good afternoon power nap. A half an hour nap can get me back on track and ready to plow into more reading and homework. However, recently I had this fly that landed on my face and woke me from my nap! You understand that when you are in the groggy-sleep-mode you just want to go back to sleep and not deal with finishing him off, so I just brushed him away foolishly thinking I would receive the rewards of a nice sleep. For the next 5 minutes straight the fly and I had a little understanding. He would land on my face; I would brush him off. He would land on my arm; I would brush him off. He would land on my ear; I would brush him off. And so the cycle went. I could not sleep! I was upset because Dori wasn’t around to finish him off while I got my beauty rest. Finally, I had it! He landed on me once more on my nose! and I jumped off the couch and tore the fly swatter off the wall and turned around…but wait…where is he? I searched and searched for that fly. I even stood still to see if he would land on me but all of this was to no avail. Mister Fly won that round. He used his cunning mind and disguises to hide from me, and in the end I could not go back to sleep because I had gotten so worked up!

Well there is no moral to that story, unless you really stretch it. I’m sure we could come up with some spiritual application. However, this weekend was spiritually reviving for me because we drove up to Oregon to spend Thanksgiving with the Ruble relatives. It was also Grandpa Ruble’s 80th birthday and so we did a double header. We had about 35 Rubles gathered together in Elkton to celebrate thanksgiving to God for all that He has blessed us with and came together again on Friday morning to commemorate Grandpa’s 80th birthday.

What a refreshing time for us to be with our family. Jacob, Justus, and Kiera were excited to see each other and play. Annelise loved seeing Caleb and Caleb loved trying to chew on Annelise’s fingers. Stephen, Nathan, Aaron and I were able to play some basketball and practice new songs together. Dad had a little bit of rest for his voice until Sunday when he preached at Elkton Cornerstone Christian church.  Mom, Tina, Dori, and Christina all were able to do a little bit off shopping together and make Eggnog Lattes. The beautiful thing is that we all love God and so as we gather together it is an encouraging time and I know that not everyone enjoys that kind of family get together. I am so thankful to God for His bountiful provision of a godly physical family. I am also so thankful for a godly spiritual family that I long to return to in Anacortes. The time draws near for us to come home…please pray that the baby does not come until we get home. Dori really would like to have her doctor and our own home when the baby comes. We look forward to seeing you all!

(By the way, Mister Fly did not win! When I got back from our Thanksgiving trip he met his doom. He must have gotten lazy because he landed on my chair and stayed there way to long; I squashed him with the fly swatter. So I wrote him an English sonnet.)

How can I explain what this fly means to me?

He lands on my nose and the parts I can’t see

So we have a friendship me and the fly

How I wish I could end it *blink *blink *sigh

Buzz-Buzz he says to me while I sleep

He wakes me up from counting my sheep

How can I slumber my fiendish friend?

My love-thoughts for you are at a dead end

My thoughts turn to anger for what is the answer?

I could dip him in tar and then dose him with ant’s fur

Maybe tie up his legs and roast him over the fire

If I told you I love him I would now be a liar

My solution, my friends, is much simpler than that

I’ll swing the swatter and my fly-friend goes SPLAT!

DORI LOOKING PREGNANT!

ANNIE PLAYING WITH GRANDMA IN OREGON

JACOB AND JUSTUS WRESTLING WITH GRANDPA IN OREGON!

FUNNY-GUY STEPHEN PUT THE ANTELOPE HEAD IN NATHAN’S BED!

Dori’s Fellowship

Tonight (Sat.) Dori is at a Ladies Fellowship at Placerita Baptist Church. This is a blessing for her in so many ways. This is an opportunity for her to just get away and be able to socialize with other ladies. She doesn’t have to worry about the kids (or me for that matter). As well, she gets to have a meal served to her that will hopefully satisfy her pregnancy cravings. She will also be hearing from Barbara Cameron, the mother of Kirk Cameron. Some of you may remember Kirk as an actor on the TV show Growing Pains. More recently, my generation will remember him from his role in the Left Behind series. For the youth they will remember him as starring in the 2008 #1 independent film, Fireproof. Kirk is also part of a ministry (along with Ray Comfort) called Way of the Master which promotes boldness in evangelism.

Kirk grew up an athiest in an unbelieving family. However in his late teens he was captured by God’s grace and began immediatly to make changes in his life. Today he is blessed to see most of his family saved, including his mother Barbara Cameron. Dori was encouraged to hear her testimony.

This is a very busy time for me. I thank you all for your prayers and apologize for not updating you last week. By Tuesday of next week I will be done with all 3 of my major projects. Pray that I will be effective with my time and stay focused.

We are very excited about seeing our family for a Ruble reunion in Oregon for Thanksgiving. Jacob has been talking about seeing Justus for a couple of weeks! I think he is going a little stir crazy in the RV. We will all be thankful to be with family for a few days.

“Eight Silly Monkeys”

We have found that there is only so much you can do in an RV with kids. Dori can’t often set the kids loose outside because there is no yard to play in. Since there is no yard the kids end up playing in the roads that are frequently traveled by the garbage-man-crazy-driver, rushing neighbors, and grounds keepers on carts. So Dori spends a lot of time with the kids at the local parks or inside the RV with the kids.

Therefore, we end up reading a lot of books to the kids. I’d wager that we have close to half of the reading material in our RV memorized (I exaggerate). I could quote you the entire “Big Red Barn” book by Margaret Wise Brown and most of “From Head to Toe” by Eric Carle. Even Annie’s cardboard books about colors and letters are permanently stamped in our minds. Ask me what is on the “A” page and I will tell you “apples, airplane, ambulance, ant, and avacado”. Turn back to the “Q” page and you will find “quilt and queen.”

Sometimes it helps to have Jacob read to Annelise. It gives Dori a couple of minutes to just sit and relax! So you can watch Jacob reading to Annelise the book called “Eight Silly Monkeys”. It has a definite rythme; if you have never read the book before  I think you will catch it in the way Jacob reads it! Annelise, who never tires of reading the same books over and over, is sitting attentively chiming in with her imcomprehensible jibberish.

I wonder though, how many of us are so familiar with the word of God because we read it tirelessly that we can qoute it with familiarity. Is it indelibly stamped upon our brains  so that we recall it with joy and authority? Why is it that memorization of Scripture is a child’s duty but as soon as we graduate from AWANA we rarely practice it?

I’m reminded by Psalm 119 how the writer loved God’s law so much that it was with him night and day. He meditated upon it and made it a practice to apply it to his life. He loved God’s laws because it made him wise when he practiced what it taught. Do we share in his joy? I hope we do. I would encourage you to read Psalm 119 and consider all the ways the writer has made God’s Word a joy to his heart.

Please pray for us as we look forward to Thanksgiving. The next three weeks I have many big projects due and Dori has hit the uncomfortable stage of pregnancy. She is experiencing pains and loss of circulation to her feet. Thanks for your cards, prayers, and gifts; it is good to know we have a church family that loves us!

A Window…

They say a picture is worth a thousand words. I’m tired of reading and writing so we are gonna let the pictures do most of the talking tonight. The pictures will be your window to our week!

It’s weird picking out a pumpkin in 93 degree weather.

Pastor Dave Kaneversky and family were at the pumpkin patch same time as us. This is his son Klayton who Jacob is friends with.

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