A Ceramic Kitchen

Hey everyone,
I hope you are having a great time wherever you are. We've been hearing that winter is here for most of the country, I won't tell you that it's supposed to be about 70 degrees here in Alabama this weekend. Rough life huh?

Anyway, it's time to do a bit of an update on the kitchen. You saw pictures of what it looked like when we started removing the peeling, chipping paint from the floor. We were able to get everyone off, and decided we needed some assistance to see what we should put down on the floor. We called the health department to see what they recommended, and they dropped a bit of a bomb on us. They are no longer going to accept painted concrete as a floor in a kitchen. So it looked like the new floor was going to be tiled! The board of health recommended that we bring them a sample of what we would like to use, and they would tell us if it passed muster or not. After waiting for over an hour for the final decision (thanks Ray for waiting) they said we can put in ceramic tile, but they recommend quarry tile in the places where heavy equipment will be sitting on the floor (that means the fry cookers and the stove.) Well, things have moved beyond that point, and the ceramic tiles have been laid!

Above is a picture of the installers putting in the tile (seriously, they are great at what they do. Could you lay a whole room of tiles this straight? I'm sure I couldn't.) So, we have new tiles in the kitchen! The main dining hall area has also had all its paint removed, and we are looking at some new solutions for that. Things are really starting to look great in the dining and kitchen areas of Camp Dixie. I'm very excited to reveal the changes to our first group rental at the beginning on January, and can't wait until everyone sees it at the first chicken dinner in February! (That's scheduled for February 3, 2008, so make sure you come to see it then!)


Here's a picture of the tiles laid down, but before being grouted. If you look closely under the vent hood you can see the quarry tile. More finished pics to come after the New Year.

Have a great weekend!
See you at camp (on February 3)
Mac.

Kitchen floors are fun!

Hi everyone! I just wanted to take a couple of minutes to say Merry Christmas to everyone, and also to let you know what's been going on at Camp Dixie the past couple of weeks.

Actually the past couple of weeks, I haven't spent all that much time at Camp Dixie to be honest. At the end of November I spent a weekend in Louisiana helping out with the Southern District Junior High Youth Gathering. We had about 80 campers at a Retreat Center, and had a ton of fun. It was a great time. After that event, I was home for one day before traveling to Lincoln, Missouri for a National Lutheran Outdoor Ministry event at Heit's Point Lutheran Camp. Heit's Point is an amazing place, it's on an arm of the Lake of the Ozarks, so it is beautiful, beautiful beautiful! They also have some amazing camp buildings, and it's always nice to see a new place.

On the way home from the NLOMA event, I got to experience some winter conditions, and some winter driving. Just a few miles from the camp it started snowing, and as I traveled further south, it started raining/sleeting. By the time I took this picture there was almost two inches of ice that had accumulated on some parts of the front of the truck. The ice never did stick to the roads (the ground was still warm enough to keep it from freezing) but the bridge decks were awfully icy. No worries though, when I got into Arkansas it stopped raining, and by Mississippi it was warm enough for the ice to melt.

Once I got back to Camp Dixie, I found out that some of our volunteers had started working on our floors in the kitchen. On our last kitchen health inspection we lost a couple of points because our floor paint was peeling, and in generally bad condition. In order to get those back we are looking at a new surface for the floor. But first, no matter what we do, we need to remove the original paint that is all over the floor. It seems like an easy task right? I mean we can hardly keep the paint on the floor, it shouldn't be a problem to remove it. Yeah. Right. Actually the paint is quite a pain to remove from the floor. After several days of work, we've managed to get the main kitchen area clean, as well as the fry room in the back. We've got some great ideas on how to make the job happen more quickly now however (can you say diamond tipped cutting blades?) So it shouldn't be a problem. Everything should look great for the upcoming retreat season.

Well that's about it for now,

See you at camp!
Mac

NOW I'm done with the hull

Hey everyone, just a quick sunfish sailboat update. I kept looking at the boat, and remembering that I hadn't waxed the bottom of the boat when I did the top and sides. So, now the bottom is waxed (with the 3M Fiberglass restorer and wax.) It looks (and feels) great. So now the hull really is done (except for the fittings I want to replace, but that is going to have to wait until after the holidays.)

Here's a picture. it looks like the trailer is definitely going to need some work once the boat is done.
Peace,
Mac

Sanding, Sanding (to the tune of sailing, sailing)

So, the sanders have come out, and it's time to see what can be done with the daggerboard and rudder for the Sunfish sailboat. If you remember from the last blog, all of the wood pieces for the boat have seen better days. They've been left in the sun, and they don't like that one bit! So, I took the daggerboard and rudder apart, and started the process of making them beautiful.

Here's what the 'board looked like after sanding it down to the non-faded/non-varnished wood. It looks much better doesn't it? The 'board itself is in pretty good shape. There are a few cracks down at the bottom of it (right side in the picture) but they were very small, and actually expected in a 'board that hasn't been refinished in forever. Hopefully the spar varnish that is put on the 'board will help with those cracks.

There was a bit of a surprise when I took apart the rudder however. The rudder "cheeks," which is what connects the rudder to the boat, were hiding an unfortunate problem. There was a large crack in the rudder. Believe it or not, I'm actually not a stranger to cracked rudders. Both of the boats at Camp Omega had rudders that cracked in half when I was working there. It's not the best situation when that happens, because the boat is obviously difficult to steer without a rudder (what? impossible you say?) and the other problem is that the rudders are expensive to replace (see the earlier comment in this blog about the pieces being made of mahogany.) Luckily this crack has not traveled all the way down the rudder, so I am going to try to use some wood glue on it, clamp it together, and see if that will hold it for a while.

The next step is spar varnish on everything that has been sanded. The minimum recommendation is 3 coats with at least 12 hours between coats, so it might be a little bit of time before this part of the project is done. It's taking a while, but this boat is really starting to shape up.

That's it for now,
See you on the water, and at Camp!
Mac

Happy Thanksgiving!

Well, the calendar has clicked around again and it's almost Thanksgiving! Thanksgiving can only mean one thing. Nope it doesn't mean the two (now three) football games. It doesn't even mean all the food (although let's be honest, that is good) it can only mean... Black Friday is coming. Now, if you are wondering what the heck black friday is, it was "the worst day ever" when I was working at Best Buy. You see, there are so many people shopping on Black Friday, that they even made us poor souls from the service centers (who are usually shielded from actually dealing with the public in person) go into the stores to try and help. People from the Best Buy corporate offices in Minneapolis even had to head out to the stores to help with the rush. Yes, black Friday is the busiest day of the shopping season, the day that the stores can go from their year being "in the red" to being "in the black" financially speaking.

For the past several years (some in the cold of Minnesota, and last year in the chill of Alabama) we have stood (or sat) in line to get the great deals that are available the day after Thanksgiving. Last year we picked up the monitor I am looking at right now as I write this for under $100! We picked up a couple of cheap hard drives, and we honestly have more DVD+R's than we will ever use in our lifetime, because the past couple of years they were selling them 100 at a time, free after rebate.

This year, we were hoping to find a great deal on a flat panel TV. The TV that we had in our bedroom finally died after 9 years of service. The picture tube only showed a single line across the middle of the screen. And then of course there was this awful burning smell. Anyway, it is no longer with us. So we need a replacement.

Unfortunately, there aren't any deals that are in the price range that we were looking for. We are still holding out for Wal*Mart (yes Wal*Mart!) because they are the last of the big box chains that haven't announced all of their on sale items for the Friday sale. We shall see. It will be strange if we actually sleep in on the day after Thanksgiving.

That description of the day after Thanksgiving was a bit longer than I had intended. What I really wanted to do was to let you know some of the things that I am thankful for this summer. We had a very busy retreat season, and we had a great opportunity to meet and help lots of people with their retreats. This summer was the best yet. We had an amazing staff, who really stepped up to lead our on-site and day camp programs. If I could hire every one of them back for next summer I would. They were that good. I also want to thank those who supported Camp Dixie. Those of you who helped out at chicken dinners, ate at the chicken dinners, or donated money to Camp Dixie. Your foresightedness is what makes the ministry at Camp Dixie possible.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone, I hope you have a great day!
See you at camp!
Mac

So how is the sailboat going?

I noticed that it's been a few weeks since I let everyone know what's been going on with the Sunfish sailboat, so I thought I would fill you in.

The boat has been out of the water for a little while, partly because there hasn't been all that much wind (and I love big wind in the little boats) but also because it's been drying out in the sun on the side of the house. In order to dry out a boat that only has a 1/2" hole on the side of it to drain water, you need to open the inside to the outside. So I ordered some inspection ports to put into the hull so I have an easy way of opening and closing the hull. The picture on the left is what it looks like when you cut the hole into the deck of your sunfish for the port. It's not for the faint of heart, it makes a lot of noise and it's a bit of work to cut through the gelcoat and fiberglass.

After cutting out the holes, I put the inspection port in with some 3M waterproof silicone and stainless steel screws. It looks pretty nice, except I waxed around the port with a wax that changed the color of the gelcoat. Oops. I was able to get rid of it by using some 3M fiberglass polish. (No, this is not an add for 3M, although they do make nice products) Here's a picture of the inspection port retainer in place, after the bad wax but before the good wax.

I ended up putting three ports in, one at the bow, one at the stern, and one in front of the cockpit but behind the splash guard. Now the trick is to open the ports on sunny warm days, and keep them closed on rainy days. And now that this part of the project is done, I am done with the hull for a little while. Next comes the wood pieces of the boat. They all need to be re-sanded and re-varnished so they look and perform well again.

Here's a picture of what the daggerboard looks like before refinishing. It's spent a lot of time in the sun/weather, and most of the original varnish has come off, and the wood is very faded. The board is actually made of mahogany (sorry to those of you who don't like using rainforest wood.) The rudder also has been out in the weather for quite some time, it's lost it's color and doesn't have any varnish on it anymore either. I don't have a picture of it, but I will take some more as I sand and refinish.

Anyway, that's it for now, thanks for reading, I hope you have a great day!
See you at camp!
Mac

Two years ago (two weekends ago)

So, what happened two years ago (and two weekends)? Well, it was the Elberta Sausage Festival. Now for those of you who aren't sure what that's all about, Elberta is a town with German Heritage. Kind of like those towns in Minnesota where my great-grandparents lived. To celebrate this, the town of Elberta has a festival. They serve sausages, lots of people come, and they call it the sausage festival. They have them twice a year, once in October and once in March.

Which means there have been four festivals since Kim and I came down here. But in an interesting twist of fate, this is the fifth Sausage Festival that I have attended. You see, that missing fifth festival is the weekend that Kim and I came down to interview with the Camp Dixie Board of Directors for the Director Position.

It seems like a long time ago. Believe it or not I even called in sick from my then-current job so I could come down. The funny thing is that I called in sick TWICE! We were working so many hours at the service center at that time, that we had mandatory Saturdays. I felt bad about doing that for a while, but I love this job, so I feel quite a bit better. Also the service center that I worked at has since closed, and the people there are either working at different places in Best Buy, or have moved on to new positions. No more feeling bad, because if I still worked there I would likely have to have been looking for a new job anyway.

So I just wanted to mark the occasion of my fifth Sausage Festival, and my two-years-since-I've-been-to-visit. It's truly been a great time, and I am looking forward to the future here at Camp Dixie.

See you at Camp!
Mac

Some Days are Wetter Than Others

Hi everyone! I just thought I would take a couple of minutes to let everyone know that we are still here! Yup, the skies over Camp Dixie did their best "Story of Noah" imitation, and it rained for almost a week straight. A personal weather station in Gulf Shores, AL reported that there was over 12 inches over the week of the storm, while a station in Lillian, AL (just up the bay from our location) showed that it had over 17 inches. At one point in the storm, the Lillian weather station reported that rain was coming down at over 5 inches an hour. Now that's a lot of rain!

The puddles took a lot longer to dry around here than normal (in fact, we still have a couple around the property) But they are mostly gone. The bay was over filled for a couple of days, and at some point water was actually running from our property, over the sea wall, and into the bay. The bay water has taken on a nice dark orange color from all the pine needles (And whatever else) that were washed in, but all in all everything is good.

This picture of a Blue Angels jet wasn't taken during the current storm, but it was taken after one of our ground soaking rains. It was pretty fun to watch a $35 Million airplane splashing through puddles like I do in my much-less-than-$35 million camp GMC Pickup.

Because of the rain, and the cold that has come after the rain ended, I have not had a chance to get the Sunfish out into the bay in a while. The good news is that even through all the weather, it isn't carrying any new water (no holes in the top of the boat!).

Camp wise, we are working on getting a publicity piece out to congregations in the Southern District about our Traveling VBS program, and our new praise time at camp called Adoration. I'm very excited about both events, they should be a lot of fun, and hopefully will reach a lot of campers.

God's Peace, and see you at camp!
-Mac

Your Servant Event has been Approved

I just checked the LCMS Servant Event website to see if our application for our summer Servant Event had been approved yet, and 'lo and behold, we are approved for our servant event! It always feels good to be approved doesn't it. Even if it is by the LCMS Servant Event committee.

This summer we are planning a servant event to the beautiful country of Costa Rica. Camp Dixie will be working with congregations from all over the United States to send up to 32 High School aged youth to Camp Penuel July 3-13 to assist in a "winter break" (yes, they consider that time to be their winter break) retreat at the camp. This retreat will focus on campers who live in largely urban areas who have never had the chance to spend time in the lush Costa Rican countryside. They will be transported to the camp to experience the great outdoors that God created, and to meet the Servant Eventers from the United States.

We will know more details of the event after we talk to the Director of Camp Penuel over Thanksgiving, but we are very excited about the opportunity to help high school students from all over the country find that they are "Called" to tell others about the love of Jesu Christo.

Incidentally the picture above was taken in 2004 at Camp Penuel by Moxie when she was there with Twinkie's high school group. What beautiful countryside.
God's Peace, See you at Camp!
-Mac

Summer Camp 2008: Called

It's time to take a break from our regularly scheduled (well kind of) Sunfish sailboat discussion to talk about Summer Camp 2008 and the theme for this summer, "Called." Coming up with a summer theme is always a little bit difficult. The theme needs to be something memorable, but it also needs to be something that is meaningful. In the same way, the theme verse that is chosen has to be something that really fits in with the theme in a powerful way. The verse to go with our summer theme this year is from Ephesians 4:11, "It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God's people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up." It's such a powerful verse, that really sums up what it means to be part of the body of Christ. As Christians we are "Called" all the time.

This summer we are hoping to integrate the "Called" theme into three separate programs. Our on-site program here in Elberta, AL, our Traveling VBS program, which will be traveling all over the Southern District to lead VBS programs at congregations, and finally in our Servant Event program, where participants will be called to leave the country, and visit a camp in Costa Rica to help spread the word of God to children who may never have had the opportunity to hear it before.

Here's a brief brainstorm of how we hope to integrate the "Called" theme into our three programs.

On-Site: One of the biggest concerns for me as a Director is that though I know we do great things here at Camp Dixie during the summer, how do we make sure that campers are integrating with their home congregations and continuing to live the Christian life when they are away from camp. This summer we are going to try to introduce the theme even before campers arrive at camp. Through mailings and email contacts, campers will be learning about ways they have been called as Christians to serve those around them. We are also planning on having the campers arrive with extra supplies that will be donated to local organizations. While at camp they will sort and prepare these items for delivery. Finally as they are ready to leave camp, they will have the opportunity to serve those less fortunate than themselves, and find out what it really means to be called to service toward others.

Traveling VBS: Our traveling VBS program will also discover what it means to be called to service before the week that our counselors will be traveling to the congregations. Congregations will receive specific ideas of how campers can be integrated into the congregation, and how they can live out their call where they live. During the week, we will be encouraging participating congregations to call their campers to service with a Servant Event activity that everyone can participate in, that will also be giving back to the community. Congregations will also be presented with some opportunities to call their campers into the congregation after the summer is over.

Servant Event: The Servant Event for this summer is an awesome opportunity to see how some can be called to leave their congregations, and their normal lives to travel to a completely different culture to spread the word of God. Participants will be called the Costa Rica to assist at a camp very much like Camp Dixie, except everything is in Spanish! More information will be coming as this event is approved by the LCMS Servant Event committee, But this is an amazing way to show how God can call us in ways we haven't even imagined.

So that's just a little bit of how we are going to integrate our 2008 theme into our summer programs. We've got a lot of work to do, but it's exciting to know that we have been called to bring it all to you this summer.
God Bless, and See you at Camp!
-Mac

In The Water!

So for the first time since before Hurricane Ivan, the sunfish sailboat has been in the water. (Hmmm I wonder if the boat needs an official name?) I didn't get any pics of the momentous occasion. It was really windy, I was the only one there, and I was learning to rig the boat with the funky mast, so I was pretty busy. The reality is however, that the boat floated, it sailed like a Sunfish should, and nothing broke on the first trip. I am going to have to pick up some spar varnish for the daggerboard and the rudder to get them looking pretty, but everything worked just like it should. I'll hopefully get some pictures up soon.
More info to come.
Peace,
-Mac

It's alive! It's alive! It's alive!

It's official. The Sunfish is looking 1000% better since the last post. The mildew and moss gave way to some elbow grease and a bleach and water solution, and after a more careful inspection, the boat really is in good shape. Looking at the picture, it really reminds me of one of my favorite movies, Wind however, I'm going to have to do something about that. Anyway after getting into the boat and getting to know it a bit more, it really. It's a sailing movie (of course) and there's a part in it where the main characters get together and check out a boat that they used to sail together, that has been repaired. The guy says "it almost doesn't look like the same boat." Seriously, this almost looks like a different sailboat. The trailer looks the same does look like the water that was sloshing around inside the hull was from Hurricane Ivan. Or at least some of the many rains after that, because it was fresh water. Other indications show that the boat was usually sailed in salt water before I owned it. The plug on the top of the deck is missing, which is probably where the water entered. After letting out the water, the boat was a lot lighter, and still doesn't show any signs of delamination.

There were a couple of surprises however. The sailboat came with three sails, the new one I talked about in my last entry, the red and white one that is sitting on the top of the boat in the pictures from the last entry, and a blue and white one that is still in a plastic bag. I opened the red and white one, just to see what it was like (knowing that it was probably in very bad shape.) It was in bad shape, but more surprisingly, it actually wasn't even an official Sunfish sail! It had a picture of a dolphin on it, with the letters SR underneath. A quick check on Google confirmed it, the sail was from a completely different kind of boat called a Dolphin SR, it is very similar to the Sunfish. I also took a look at the mast a bit more closely. It had a different design than I was used to, but I figured that was just because it was a newer Sunfish. Turns out that the mast is actually from that Dolphin SR boat (wherever it is). It should work no problem, but I think that means that I can't enter any Sunfish Class regattas, because the boat is no longer "Class Legal." Oh well.

The only other problem with the boat is that the tiller handle has rubbed completely through the top white layer on the back of the boat (the gel-coat). However, because I am going to have to put a couple of inspection ports into the hull anyway to get the boat dried out, I will probably just put it right there, and no one will be the wiser. All in all, it was really fun to get the boat cleaned up and see what I actually have. I have created a list of things that I need to buy to get the boat in top shape.

• 3 Inspection Ports to cover the holes cut in the hull for drying.
• The front handle has been in salt water, and is corroding pretty seriously. It will probably have to be replaced soon
• The plug is missing on the topside of the boat. Pretty important piece, and it will need to be replaced sooner rather than later.
• The bailer plug is also missing. That little plug helps water get out of the boat when it comes into the cockpit.
• I am also probably going to replace the harness on the back of the boat, it's a completely unique design on this boat, and the newer Sunfish actually have a better design that includes a traveller to make the sail move more easily from side to side.

Well, once again that's about it for now. The boat is much better off than anticipated, more to follow!
God's Peace,
Mac

Catching a Sunfish

Here's a blog of a different sort, to tell you a little bit about one small piece of what is going on in my life as Director at Camp Dixie. There will be more Dixie-centric information coming later, but right now, we will have something different.

So the other day, as the wind was blowing a little bit more forcefully than usual, I was thinking how nice it would be to have a small sailboat again. When I first learned how to sail, I learned in a Laser sailboat, which is a very fun little boat. They actually use that type of boat in the Olympics! When I was the Program Director at Camp Omega, they had a couple of sunfish sailboats, which were also small, and fun to sail in.

I have thoughts about the small sailboat every so often, and so I look on the internet at local classified ads and craigslist to see if I can find anything for sale. I have found out that the gulf coast is the place for large boats. There are very few (if any) smaller sailboats that show up in ads. But, the day I was thinking about it, there happened to be one on Craigslist. Hmmm interesting. The boat wasn't that far away (in Gulf Breeze, Florida) and looked to be a good price. I consulted with Kim about the sailboat, and then sent off an email to the owner. Here's what I was told. The boat was in good shape, but hadn't been sailed since before Hurricane Ivan (2004) after that her husband had it sitting in the backyard on the trailer which was included in the price. The trailer was rusty, but was solid, and there was even a new sail for it.

So, the next day, after attending church in Pensacola, we headed out to Gulf Breeze to see the boat. It was almost exactly as she said. It had most certainly been sitting in her backyard (which was wooded) since hurricane Ivan. The boat had accumulated quite a bit of mildew, but pushing on the top and bottom, it seemed solid, and didn't suffer from the dreaded delamination (which is when the fiberglass starts to separate and weaken.) We had a few moments of almost not wanting to buy the boat (we had to buy new tires for it, but were able to get the owner to pay for one of them). But the boat looked to be in good shape, and the new sail was very seriously new ($290 value right there.)

So we headed home with our new toy, and prayed that the Gulf Breeze police wouldn't notice that the trailer didn't have any lights and was peeling paint as it was going down the road.

The picture on the right side here is what the boat looked like when it arrived at the Camp. That's when I started learning more information about it. First of all it's a newer sunfish than I have ever sailed in before. Not that it's that new. It was manufactured in 1989. It really was in good shape, with the only problem being that some fittings will need to be replaced, and the deck has a small crack near the cockpit. Luckily that's not structural, it's only cosmetic.

On a "One Class" Sailboat like this one (which means that every single boat is made to specific specifications) you can tell a lot by the serial number on the hull. So the serial number (PSB23396D989) tells us this: The boat was manufactured by Pearson Yachts, the factory serial number is 23396, it was manufactured in February of 1989, and its a 1989 model Sunfish. This boat's serial number starts with PSB which means it was manufactured by Pearson Yachts, which owned the rights to sunfish in 1989. However if you look at Sunfish owner's information, most people will tell you to stay away from the Pearson manufactured boats. Pearson had a bit of a cash problem when they were making Sunfish, and went bankrupt after only making Sunfish for a few years. They have been known to cut corners, and often suffered from delamination. I had already determined that there wasn't any of that involved, so it looks like I have one of the good Pearson boats (and they supposedly do exist).

It also had a United States Yacht Racing sticker on the back of the transom, and it appears at some time that this boat was used for racing. That's not unusual for a one design class boat like this. Usually people that are racers buy new boats specifically to race them, then after a few years they sell it and move on to a new boat. That creates a large enough used market so that "normal" people who aren't racing (like me) can get them pretty cheaply.

One thing I did discover is that it appears the remnants of Hurricane Ivan are still inside the boat. The boat is a "wet boat" which means it is probably too heavy to race anymore (I wasn't planning on doing that anyway) and I will probably need to cut some holes in the hull to dry out the flotation blocks inside the hull. I had to do that with one of the Camp Omega boats, and it really helped get the boat lighter.

Anyway, that's about it for now, I will be continuing to post as i move further along in the process of getting the boat cleaned up and in the water.
Peace,
Mac

It's been a crazy, crazy summer

Hey everyone! Okay it's been so long since I have updated the Director's blog here, that's it's almost obscene. To those of you who want to hear from me more often, I am truly sorry. For those of you who figured I had forgotten all about this blog and wasn't going to ever write again, HA! I fooled you!

It was truly an amazing summer at Camp Dixie. There were so many awesome things going on that it's hard to know where to start. We had a great staff here this summer, one of the best that I have had the chance to work with. We also had over 200 amazing campers that made camp a fun place to be this summer. And finally we had our Day Camp program, which spent 7 weeks in either Louisiana, Mississippi or Alabama teaching campers about Jesus at their own congregation! During the 7 weeks that they were out in the congregations, they worked with over 300 campers. We were truly blessed to be able to participate in this ministry

After summer camp was over, several of our counselors travelled to the LCMS National Youth Gathering in Orlando, FL to promote outdoor ministry, and to spend a day at the Magic Kingdom. The Gathring was a ton of fun, we had about 10,000 people sign a banner that showed all the National Lutheran Outdoors Ministry Association locations in the United States. And the Magic Kingdom was... well... magic, even though it rained for most of the day.

But the summer is over, and people always ask me at the end of the season "what are you doing now?" The short answer is... Writing a blog, preparing for next summer, and retreat hosting for groups that come to Camp Dixie during the rest of the year. We have a very busy schedule of groups bringing their ministries to Camp Dixie for retreats, and it keeps getting even busier.

This blog is really rambling tonight, but there is one other person that I need to introduce to the Camp Dixie world. We have a new staff member who will be joining us as a program director to help with retreats and summer camp planning. She was a staff member this summer. Her camp name is Twinkie and I am very excited to have her working at camp!

I think that's it for now, but check back shortly for some new updates. Twinkie is getting some of her things from Minnesota, so she can move down to Camp Dixie, but when she gets back we are going to be introducing the summer theme for 2008, as well as some new programs that will be coming up before and during next summer.

Have a great morning/day/evening/night, and I look forward to seeing you at camp! -Mac

So what is that exciting opportunity?

Hi everybody!
It's been a while since I last posted, so I hope that everybody had a great Christmas, and a fun New Year! Kim and I managed to get back to Minnesota for Christmas. It was the first time in a year that I had been there, and I missed it- sort of. I now remember that I don't miss the traffic in Minneapolis, and I don't miss having to scrape car windows. We didn't get to see much snow when we were there, and it wasn't very cold, so nothing to miss there. It was great to see family again, and to spend time together. That made it all worthwhile. Even worth spending a night at a shady motel on Northwest Airline's dime in Memphis when our flight was delayed.

So, I left a teaser on my last blog talking about some new excitement that would be coming up at Camp Dixie. Well, it's here! The board voted on it and approved it. Camp Dixie is going to be partnering with Lutheran Social Services Disaster Response to host Day Camps in congregations that were affected by hurricanes Katrina and Rita. That means a Day Camp program is available for congregations located in Louisiana and Mississippi.

Day Camp is an awesome experience. Counselors travel from Camp Dixie and stay with host homes in congregations, and lead campers through a VBS style program at their church! Imagine it. Getting to play all those fun camp games, singing fun camp songs, and being led by camp counselors, right at your own congregation! What makes this an even better proposal for congregations is that LSSDR will be paying for the costs of these events! Now, it's not only a great deal, it doesn't cost the congregation anything to have the program! I'm sorry about all the exclamation points, but I am really excited about the opportunity that this presents to congregations.

If you know of, or are a member of a congregation that would benefit from this opportunity, please contact Camp Dixie as soon as possible. There are going to be eight weeks available to congregations, and now that we have started publicizing them, they will likely go fast. Check out the Camp Dixie website for more information.

That's it for now, I am currently working on getting the Summer 2007 brochures printed so they should be coming in your mailbox shortly.
See you at camp!
Mac