The past few weeks have been very interesting. I turned 60 and had a great party with a lot of friends and family – that was awesome. Before that I went to Europe with my wife and son and visited England and France – that was awesome. But through both of those fun times, lurking behind the scenes and just beginning to make the world take notice, was COVID-19 the Coronavirus. In the weeks since my birthday party the whole world has changed. Literally, the whole world. There are very few countries that have not been impacted directly by the virus – and none who have not been, or will not be, indirectly impacted.
Here at Camp Arnold (where I’m the Camp Director) we have people on Public Health Leave (which I previously did not know was a thing), we’ve cancelled all of our rental groups through at least the end of April, and we unsure of what the future holds. Our primary purpose at Camp Arnold is to provide an amazing summer camping experience for youth. And, during that week, through what we say, do and teach, to show them Jesus. And if we can help them to see how beautiful Jesus is – he will draw them to himself. BUT – we aren’t even sure right now if summer camp will be taking place.
So… we’ve been hanging out in our house a lot; taking walks around camp frequently; we’ve been going to church at places all over the country online (which has actually been very cool); and we’ve started to get kind of used to it. It’s our new normal. And I know it won’t last forever, which is great, but we are trying to find the positive and enjoy being together more than we normally are.
I hope this finds each one of you healthy and feeling blessed. You know you are blessed whether you “feel” blessed or not on a given day. So look for the blessings, love each other well, stay inside, and let’s all look forward to the old normal (with some new wisdom…).
Peace!