Live... from Camp Dixie

promised panoramic of Pensacola Pass

2010-05-24T21:15:00.000-05:00

Here's the panoramic photo I promised of Pensacola Pass, prior to any booms being placed in the pass. There were some way on the right of the photo by the navy cove (where people on base can put their boats in) but nothing in the major part of the pass.
see you at camp!

Booms in the Bay

2010-05-24T21:02:00.000-05:00

So, not much going on in the oil spill world here at Camp Dixie, and I am in the midst of getting ready for summer camp, so I haven't written in the blog too much lately. However, there is a new feature of Perdido Bay that is right in front of Camp. Oil retention booms. They were put up sometime last week (not sure of the exact day) but run probably 1000' or so from the shore beyond camp out into the bay in front of camp. I'm not sure what the booms are supposed to do where they are located. Okay I understand that it's supposed to stop oil, but where they have been put can get quite wavy, and they are only about 8 to 10 inches above the surface of the water. If we have waves any higher than that, they will be over topped, and the oil will get past.
Apparently Baldwin County got 1.5 million dollars to spend on pre-oil stuff, and this is part of that influx of cash. I paddled out to the booms in my kayak, and they are pretty standard booms. I took a couple of photos for your enjoyment.
The summer program staff starts arriving tomorrow, so it's full speed ahead on summer camp!
See you at camp!
Mac

Enough Blame To Go Around

2010-05-11T20:08:00.000-05:00

I still haven't had a chance to work on the Pensacola Pass photos, so that will have to wait. Sorry about that.

The wind is blowing the oil away from Alabama and Florida right now. The 72 hour projection pretty much puts the oil as far from us as has been seen in the last few weeks. That's good for us, but I really do feel bad for the folks in Louisiana that are getting hit by this. Hasn't enough been done to that poor state?

So the congressional hearings have started, and it seems that every one of the companies involved is trying to blame the other. Seriously, isn't there enough blame to go around? Also, what do you bet that the reason the blowout preventer that failed is failing because of the same reason the 4 story box failed. Slushy methane is probably filling that thing up too.

Oh, well. Things are normal as could be here so far. Camp is getting closer!
See you at Camp!
Mac

No News is Good News

2010-05-06T20:30:00.000-05:00

Well there is nothing much to report here at Camp Dixie related to the oil spill. Which is of course a good thing. The winds have been pretty light the past two days, and according to NOAA maps (which are amazing by the way) it is not likely to be close to Alabama until Sunday. They actually aren't even really predicting that it will be here, just that it could be here. Who knew that the "cone of uncertainty" that we are all so used to with hurricanes woud have a similar idea with oil spills. Anyway here's a link to the NOAA 72 hour prediction map. It's in pdf format.

http://deepwaterhorizon.noaa.gov/bookshelf/1925_TMF72-2010-05-06-1300.pdf

The biggest thing that is going on around here right now is that lots of places are doing "costal cleanup" volunteer efforts around the different bays and waterways. Supposedly it is easier to clean up a clean oily area than a dirty one?!? Anyway people are able to help out that way. Otherwise, the way that everyone has been talking, once/if the oil actually does make it here (in the form of "tar balls" most likely) the only people that are going to be able to clean it up are people that are hazmat trained. Oil is considered a hazardous substance (of course) and apparently so is the dispersant that they put on it.

That's it for now, tomorrow or Saturday I will try to post some pictures that I took of Pensacola Pass, I went to see the Blue Angels practice yesterday, and shot some photos of the pass from Fort Barrancas. There were some booms out there, mostly to the side of the pass near the intercostal and Sherman Cove.

Have a great night.
See you at camp!
Mac

Coast gets a reprieve!

2010-05-04T10:06:00.002-05:00

Not much news on the waiting for oil front yesterday, it rained almost the whole day, which helped me get some stuff done in the camp office without feeling guilty. No such luck today, the sun has come out, and I still have some office work to finish, but oh well.

The newest prediction is that the slick won't be here until Thursday at the earliest, which is good news. Additionally, it turns out that fishing in federal waters off of Alabama is still open (There were reports over the weekend that it had completely closed from Louisiana to Pensacola.) Also the state waters are still open as well. So, people around here are still able to fish as necessary.

Apparently there have been a lot of people that are buying up fresh seafood, and long lines at fish markets as a result. It's kind of funny, because right now nothing's closed, so the markets can just keep restocking and saying "thank you" to the whole situation. Of course that will change if/when the fishing is closed in the immediate area.

Funniest thing I have heard on the radio in regards to the spill is that Darden Restaurants (Olive Garden, Red Lobster) has said that there won't be any problems getting seafood in their restaurants because their "seafood comes from a different part of the Gulf." Everyone around here laughed, because we didn't think that the seafood from Red Lobster came from the Gulf of Mexico at all... Maybe they meant to say "Our seafood comes from a different Gulf... in Asia." But it got lost in the translation. Oh well.

Hope everyone has a great day.

See you at camp!

Marty

Waiting...

2010-05-02T20:30:00.004-05:00

Hey everyone, I know it's been a long time since I have written on this blog, but that's because we've been very busy at Camp Dixie and things have been going really well. We've been completely booked this whole retreat season, and are looking forward to Summer Camp (and all that entails.) However, the biggest news that is going on around here right now is the oil spill created by the explosion and sinking of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig.

We don't really know what to expect, I drove from Slidell, LA back to camp yesterday and Mississippi was really smelly. It smelled of Oil and paint thinner...

Right now it feels a little bit like we are waiting for the other shoe to drop. Oil is still leaking from the ocean floor, the weather has been really windy and wavy so it's moving the oil this direction (mostly), and the spill is getting nothing but larger. The Federal Government has also put a stop to all fishing from Louisiana to the panhandle of Florida, so it's coming. Additionally

I just read an article on www.al.com about BP offering $5000 to fisherman in Bayou La Batre, AL in return for not suing them for any losses because of the oil. It seems as though BP knows it is coming too.

I am going to be updating this blog so you can get an idea of what is going on at camp, and will post pictures when I can showing what is going on. The first picture is actually not taken from camp, I drove over to Perdido Pass and took some pictures. Perdido Pass is the closest entrance to the Gulf of Mexico if you were to drive a boat from Camp Dixie. They have put a boom on the inside of the Pass to stop incoming oil in an environment that is less wavy than outside the pass. It currently doesn't go all the way across the opening, so that boats can pass through as necessary, but I would imagine once the oil arrives, it will be kept closed (and boats won't need to go out the pass once it's filled with oil either.)

So, more update tomorrow. Currently the prediction is that we will be oil free until Wednesday or Thursday. We just pray that the winds will blow offshore, and the oil will be stopped at its source.

See you at camp,
Mac

Many Blessings at Camp Dixie

2009-09-28T15:12:00.006-05:00

So just to set the stage for this post, I am sitting in the shade outside the house on the back cement slab. The weather is just about perfect (low 90's and the only clouds are those puffy ones that are lazily crossing the sky). This is what living in Southern Alabama is all about, as far as I can tell anyway.

It's a little bit different than what we get to put up with during June and July, our highest temp this summer was 102, with the humidity at about 99%, which put our heat index somewhere between 110 and the temperature on the surface of the planet Mercury. It's kind of fun making sure that the campers stay cool and hydrated. Sometime during the summer we decided to get some sprinklers, and set them up around camp during our games, so anyone who got too hot could run through the sprinkler and cool off. It worked, and we had a lot of fun with the sprinklers as well as with our games. I had no idea the sprinklers would be so fun, but as a Director, you learn more about what works and what doesn't every year. You also remember things that you had forgotten, like how much fun it is to run through a sprinkler as a child.

One thing that was a huge blessing for Camp Dixie this summer was our Traveling VBS Program. We ran this program for the third time this year, and were able to visit 7 congregations, as well as make a surprise appearance at an additional congregation to help them with a Day Camp program they were running in New Orleans. We received nothing but compliments about the program and the counselors, which speaks a lot to the people running the program (the counselors) and also to the need of congregations in the area to have a VBS team available. I wish there was a better way to measure the programs we run during the summer outside of sheer numbers, but other than surveys by the participants (which were very positive) I just don't know how to do that. The good thing is that the numbers are positive too, Summer Camp was within 6 campers of last summer (great considering the economy around these parts) and the Traveling VBS program had even more campers than we did last summer, and more than we had on-site this summer!

So I am almost done with the original planning process for next summer, the new website with all the dates for next summer is almost ready to be uploaded and become active. I can only pray that we have the opportunity to reach as many children next year as we did this year, and I hope we can find even more congregations to reach with Traveling VBS.

While I am thinking about blessings, and other thing that has been great for Camp Dixie has been our chicken dinners. If you've never been, we have 7 dinners during the year, and it is our major fundraiser for the Camp. This year has been amazing, we've averaged right around 600 people, in fact the last time we even ran out of chicken before the dinner was over. Thanks again to everyone who has been to a dinner this year, and if you haven't you should check them out, it's a tasty treat for a Sunday.

Well, I think that's about it for now, you can check for the website to be updated really soon, and I hope you are having a great after summer time.

See you at camp!

Mac

Remember how days used to take forever?

2009-08-14T10:59:00.002-05:00

I finally believe something my mother told me when I was a child. She would tell me, in the middle of a particularly "long" day for me that as you get older, time will go by more quickly. I never believed her, the days always seemed to crawl by...

Not so anymore. I can't believe how fast this winter/spring/summer has gone by. Since my last blog entry a lot of things have been going on at Camp Dixie. Here's a quick rap-up, I will be blogging about them in the near future (I sure hope to anyway!)

In February we had a NLOMA conference in quite possibly the coldest and most remote place in the United States (Northern North Dakota, 8 miles from the Canadian border.) At that conference we got many of the applications for the summer counselors.
We hired 14 staff members for this summer. We were hiring right up until staff training started on May 22.
Kim and I took a quick trip to Las Vegas to see a concert and the Grand Canyon (first time for me.) What fun!
Lifeguard Training with the Camp Dixie staff!
Summer Camp and Traveling VBS! This summer we had 248 campers (just slightly down from 254 last summer) in our on-site program. Praise God!
Costa Rica Servant Event. 14 people traveled to Costa Rica to help Camp Penuel serve inner city Costa Rican children at their site. It was a great trip!
We moved and re-designed the "Raging River" challenge course element. For the first time in a long time, campers were experiencing a new Raging River.
Celebration Lutheran Church from Tallahassee Florida came to Camp Dixie for a Servant Event and helped us build a horizontal climbing wall.
Summer camp ended. One of the greatest staff groups ever departed Camp Dixie and went back to their homes all across the country. You guys are missed!
Retreat season has begun!

Well, those are just a few of the things that have happened in the time since I last wrote a blog entry. Hopefully many ideas for future blogs can come out of this.

Summer Camp is on its way!

2009-01-08T12:27:00.003-06:00

It's hard to believe I just said that, but it's true. The calendar has turned to 2009, which means summer isn't all that far away. We've even sent out the first batch of brochures. Yup, that's right over 600 brochures were sent to former campers and their families just after the new year. If you haven't received yours yet, you can get more information at the Camp Dixie website.

I thought I would tell everyone about a couple of changes that I am very excited about for the summer of 2009. First of all, if you have seen the summer camp materials or the website, you may have noticed that we have changed the age groupings for the summer camp programs. More specifically we have changed from grade level groupings (i.e. Conqueror camp is for 6-8th grade) to age level groupings (Conqueror camp is now available for campers aged 12-14.) This will hopefully alleviate some situations where friends wanted to be in the same camp, and were the same age, but were in different grades. It should also get rid of the problem where some campers were older than conqueror age (they were 14 and in 9th grade) but were not old enough to be a YLT yet.

We've also added a new program to encourage campers to bring friends that have never been to Camp Dixie before. If a camper brings a new camper to Camp Dixie, the person who invites the new camper will get $10 off their registration fee. If they bring two that's $20 off. (Sorry, the new camper will still have to pay the full fee.) I am secretly hoping (can it be a secret if I just blogged about it?) that some camper out there will take the challenge and try to get free camp out of the deal. That means they would have to invite 18 new friends. Can you imagine how many people could be reached with the love of Jesus if everyone brought 18 friends? Amazing.

Finally, parents and campers in the 12-14 year old age group can look for a new cell phone policy to be in place this coming summer. I haven't worked out the complete details yet, but it looks like we will not have a complete ban on cell phones for this age group next summer. Check your registration confirmation information for the full policy.

Well that's it for now, I hope you are having a great week, and had a wonderful new year. Kim and I managed to head up to Minnesota for a couple of weeks over Christmas, but that's a whole nother post in itself.

See you at camp!

Mac

Where were you?

2008-11-21T10:09:00.005-06:00

When I was growing up I would most often hear that question if I returned from someplace covered in something that shouldn't be on my clothes. Usually for me it was grass stains (we used to play a lot of football and soccer in my friend's backyard.) Sometimes and depending on the season, it could be mud, snow, sand, or even possibly some of my own blood. Like I said we liked to play football. Tackle football.

Sand is something that we see a lot here at Camp Dixie. Basically having all our land on a beach means that sand comes into the building an

d our house on almost every one's feet. If you have the right kind of shoes (mine are my new ones made by Reebok) they almost act like sand vacuums and you can have your own desert inside your house if you like!

Why am I asking where were you, and telling you about sand? Because since I last posted on the blog, Kim and I have been to a very sandy place. Egypt. I could probably talk for days about the interesting things that I saw there (we flew into Cairo, and the path to the runway leads right over the pyramids, and we traveled down the Nile river in a riverboat cruise.) But I thought I would share a couple of pictures, so you can see where we've been since I last posted.

Here is the obligatory picture of the one of the Pyramids of Giza and the Sphinx. It was an amazing sight to actually be standing there and looking at those things. The pyramids are one of the seven wonders of the ancient world and the only one that still exists. Incidentally the pyramid

behind the Sphinx here is the great Pyramid of Khufu which was built before the

other two pyramids and the Sphinx. The Great Sphinx is commonly believed to have been built at the time of the second pyramid (built

by Khufu's son, Khafra.) We were able to enter that pyramid when we were there (no cameras allowed). They only let 300 people each day into each pyramid so it was quite a rare treat. If you've never been in a pyramid before it's cramped, stuffy, and smells like the sweat of the 299 people that went in before you did. But it was

amazing nonetheless.

We also went to

visit many ancient Egyptian temples. Often we visited them very early in the morning (just as the sun was coming up) or late in the afternoon (as it was going

down) to beat the heat. It made for some great pictures that way. This is a statue of Ramses the Great that was at one of the temples we visited. Ramses was a very interesting guy. He might have been the Pharaoh of the Exodus (there are about 5 or 6 that are suspects for that Pharaoh) and he ruled for a long time (he was alive until he was 90 or 91). He also liked himself a lot. He made many many statues of himself, and also put his cartouche (his royal name) on any piece of stone he could find. Interestingly enough, when he had his name carved into buildings that he had built during his reign, he had them carved in as deeply as possible. He didn't want a Pharaoh after him

to renovate the building and take his name off. How did Ramses know this might happen? Because he did it to every temple that he renovated throughout his life.

Finally, the four statues that are in the last photo have as much to do with why Kim and I traveled to Egypt. I will never forget seeing this image in my 6th grade social studies text book. It is a picture of the temple of Ramses the great (here he is again) at Abu Simbel. The temple was actually carved right into the mountain, and there is actually a companion temple next to it for Ramses' wife. I remember seeing that picture and just being in awe of the whole idea of the Egyptians being able to carve that out of the mountain, and that it was lost to the desert sands for centuries. Here's what the area looked like just before it was excivated in the early 1800's. Amazing huh? Well. that's where we've been while we were away. It was an amazing trip

Hurricane Ike is BIG!

2008-09-12T14:51:00.002-05:00

Hey everyone, this is just a quick update to say hi and let you know what's going on at Camp Dixie. Right now we are feeling just a bit of Hurricane Ike. Hurricane Ike is large enough that we are even getting some of the storm surge here (and we are a long way from the Texas coast.) The tide is about 3-4 feet higher than normal, and it's been windy, which means waves over the seawall. Woo hoo. Here are a couple of pictures so you can see what it looks like. Just a note, the bottom picture is all water... Don't worry though, the weather is supposed to calm down, and we are still planning on having the chicken dinner on Sunday. See you then!

Three Kinds of Lies

2008-09-04T13:55:00.003-05:00

Mark Twain (pictured on the left) popularized a saying by Benjamin Disraeli (he was a British statesman. Really I looked it up) about statistics. The quote goes like this: "There are three kinds of lies: lies, da**ed lies, and statistics. Well, Kim and I were talking about our busing plan from New Orleans to Camp Dixie (we really did do some work on it before last summer) and were wondering where most of Camp Dixie's summer campers come from. So, I sat down and looked at the registration information and came up with some statistics. I'm not really trying to say anything with them, so they probably aren't lying, so enjoy.

Did you know that the great state of Florida sends more people to Camp Dixie summer camp than any other? Yup, 39% of the campers that attend Camp Dixie Summer Camp come from Florida. The second most common state for people to come from during Camp Dixie Summer Camp with 28% of all campers is... (drum roll please) Camp Dixie's own... Alabama! Third on the list of states to send campers to Camp Dixie is... Louisiana with 23% of the campers. Now, you may be wondering where the last 10% come from? Well, that's a bit tricky (so we put them in the "other" category.) That category includes such great states as Tennessee, California, Maryland, and Georgia.

Well these numbers gave us a little better idea of where campers are coming from. And the busing idea, we're going to determine once and for all in the next couple of weeks if it is a possibility.

So there you go. Some statistics for fun.
See you at camp!
mac

How do you celebrate?

2008-08-14T14:00:00.009-05:00

Summer camp ended just a couple of weeks ago, and though summer is probably the best time in outdoor ministry, it's also exciting to see it end. Finally all the planning and hard work that you've been working on for ten months is finally closed and you can look forward to the next summer.

We really did have a great summer. We had lots of amazing people working here, some great campers and a lot of fun times.

But, as the summer ended, I wanted to have a little bit of a celebration. Ever since Kim and I moved down here we saw the sign at the corner of highway 95 and 98. It says "Skydiving, Experience the thrill." The sign was a little beat up three years ago when we moved here, so you can imagine what it looks like now. When we first got down here we wondered if that place still existed. Our questions were answered the first time we went to the Blue Angels Homecoming Airshow. The first act that jumped in with the American Flag? You guessed it, the Emerald Coast Skydivers! So we knew the place existed, and actually had a pretty good reputation. They wouldn't let just anyone jump into that air show right?

So, for my celebration, how about a skydiving jump? Sounds good to me! Kim gave the place a call, and I was scheduled for a jump. We arrived at the airfield and got to watch a fun video that was starring the guy who created the tandem jumping equipment. Basically that means someone like me can go skydiving after only a few minutes of instruction, rather than the 6-8 hours of instruction that it used to take before they would let a newbie skydive. The video was awesome to watch, and what made it even more interesting was that the guy had a massive beard. That's a picture of him over to the right there. He's a genius, and has invented a ton of stuff for sport skydiving. They showed him jumping, and while he was jumping he had to have the beard tucked into his jump suit. Crazy huh? I don't know if we should tell him, but I think he might be compensating for the lack of hair on his head? Maybe?

Anyway enough about Bill Booth (that's his name.) So we took off in the Cessna 182 and headed up. We needed to get to 10,000 for the jump. Unfortunately a 182 isn't the fastest thing when trying to get altitude. In fact, it took almost 20 minutes to get up to the jump altitude. I got some beautiful views of the area however, and I can see why they call it the emerald coast. The water was beautiful and there sure is a lot of it. We flew right over camp, twice while getting up to 10,000'. Once we got there it was time to go. I got out the door, and the tandem master that was strapped to my back jumped out the door for us. We fell head first for a little while, then tipped back up to look at the plane flying away from us. Then we actually did a whole flip before getting into the "free fall position." The feeling was amazing. Terminal velocity for someone in that position is about 120 mph, so we were heading down at 120 miles an hour! Talk about noise!

All the noise ended when the chute opened. We slowed down to 14 mph and it's a kick in the crotch when that happens let me tell you. As we went down my tandem instructor showed me how flying the chute works, and how to flare the chute for landing. It's a crazy feeling, practicing the flare it felt like we completely stopped. Anyway, we spiraled a little bit to get down to the ground, and set up for our landing. Kim overheard the local skydiving crew sitting at the Drop Zone mentioning that the winds were pretty gusty, so they had a couple of guys help us out when we landed so we wouldn't get pulled by the parachute. We also "sat" the landing, with me landing on my butt instead of my feet, turns out that's more stable than trying to run the landing. I guess little kids have it right when the land on their backsides when they are learning to walk. Anyway we landed safely and it was an amazing experience.

I did learn a little bit about faith and trust during the jump. It's amazing the amount of faith and trust you put into people to help you. When I signed up for the jump I had to basically trust that the guy who packed the parachute did a good job, that the tandem master I was with knew what he was doing (he had over 1000 jumps to his credit so I wasn't too worried) and that the pilot who flew us up to 10,000' was having a good day. Incidentally as a side note, the pilot was wearing a chute too. He mentioned on the way up that he wished he could be jumping out with us, but someone had to get the plane on the ground for the next group. Funny.

So anyway, that's how I celebrated the end of the summer. It was a great way to end a great summer camp. Well, I think that's it for now. If you ever get the chance, go skydiving. It's amazing!

A (slightly) Rainy Day

2008-08-12T11:36:00.003-05:00

Today is one of those days that I've come to look forward to on the Gulf Coast. It's raining off and on, and it's sunny off and on. Essentially it rains every hour or so, and the time in between has some clouds, but a lot of sun. Pretty interesting to the guy from Minnesota who didn't grow up with weather like this.

It's been a long time since I have written, and a lot has gone on at Camp Dixie. This summer we had over 250 campers at our main camp program, and over 200 campers take part in our Traveling VBS program. We are very excited about these numbers! That means by God's grace over 450 campers learned more about Jesus!

Much has been happening since then as well. The most recent "happening" was the donation and installation of a new playground set at Camp Dixie. Thanks to the Engel family, Camp Dixie has been able to replace the playground that was partially destroyed in Hurricane Ivan, and then didn't weather very well in the years after that. The installer put it up yesterday and today between rainstorms (during the sunny times) and it looks great!. Here's a picture so you can see what it looks like.

You can just see the old swing set behind the new playset. Don't worry that will be taken down shortly. We also need to get some more landscape fabric and mulch down around our new set. Those will be coming shortly, so the next time you visit Camp Dixie with your children, they can play on the new playset.

It's gone from mostly sunny to mostly cloudy again, which probably means it will be raining shortly. I hope everyone has a great final few days of summer (many schools down here started yesterday) and we will see you at camp!
Mac

Lots of things

2008-04-08T13:12:00.009-05:00

Looking at the latest post on this blog prior to today, I was overcome with a wave of nostalgia. Ah, those were good times when we were waiting to get the floors finished.

Since then, a lot has happened here at Camp Dixie, so I thought a photo montage was in order to show what has happened.

First of all we have finally finished this wave of floor improvements. New tile has been laid in the Kitchen, Dining Hall, front Bathrooms and the two front storage rooms in the main building. We've also fixed all the light fixtures so that they are all lighting up now. It makes the inside of the building look like a million bucks. Well about $7000 anyway.

Here's a picture of the Dining Hall with its new tiles.

Since we last chatted we also had a NLOMA Conference in Arizona. At this conference all the camp directors in the nation get together and talk about important issues facing outdoors ministry. We also use this time for our Joint Recruitment process for summer staff hiring. I also took an extra day and headed to Tuscon to visit the Pima Air and Space museum and the Titan Missile Museum. It's pretty fun stuff, the Air Museum had more military planes than I have ever seen in one place, and at the Missile Museum I literally got to walk into a cold war missile silo.

Here's a picture of one of the more interesting planes at the Pima Museum (a NASA super guppy that helped move rocket parts during the start of the shuttle program) and a look down into the Titan II Missile silo. Just as a note, the sides and bottom of the silo were made of concrete eight feet thick, and it had no seams in it anywhere.

The beginning of March saw the return of the Blue Angels (always a sign that summer is coming) to Pensacola Naval Air Station, a visit by Kim's family, and this year it brought one of the earliest possible Easters. The Easter sunrise service at Camp Dixie, which is an annual tradition for St. Mark's Lutheran Church of Elberta, AL, actually had a sunrise during the service. We were actually singing a song, and just as we started the last verse, the sun started to peek over the Florida side of Perdido Bay.

Here are a couple of pictures of the 2008 Blue Angels team. I didn't get any pictures of the sunrise during the worship service, I thought it might be best to pay attention to the service as much as possible.

Throughout the past couple of months we have been going through the hiring process for summer staff. We are planning on hiring 14 or 15 counselors this summer, and we currently have 11 of those positions filled, so we are well on our way. Once again we have great people coming from all over the country, from as far away as Minnesota and Kansas, and as close as Southern Mississippi.

In April, I've been working on getting summer camp registrations processed, as well as getting ready for summer camp. I was however able to take some time to head to an airshow near Panama City at Tyndall AFB with FTP from the past two summers at Camp Dixie (better make that three, he is working here this summer too. The Thunderbirds were headlining (ask me sometime who I think is best after seeing the Blue Angels a lot, and the Thunderbirds twice in my life.) But the best part is where we sat. We sat to the right of show center a little ways, and as we were sitting there, four F-15's taxied right in front of us and sat there for their part of the show which was coming up. So for about 10 minutes we were 20 feet away from some very powerful, very loud fighters. The best part however was as they turned onto the taxiway in front of us, the pilot decided to give the throttles a little kick, and we got to enjoy the rear end of two F-15 engines at what I am sure was just a bit above idle speed. The resulting wind blew over the trash barrel next to us (which had a very large sandbag in the bottom holding it in place), it blew FTP's hat off his head and about 10 yards away in an instant, and i'm pretty sure it embedded some pieces of dust into my legs that won't be coming out for a while. All in all it was a fun weekend.

Here is a picture of one of the F-15 pilots, as well as my first F-22 sighting. Doesn't it look a little bit like a UFO?

Well that's about it for now, this past weekend we had a great group from Slidell, LA. We had some fun doing challenge course with them (I've never actually made everyone in a group not be allowed to talk before.) And we even tried some fishing, but after having our bait stolen numerous times by fish that were too small to even be hooked by our hooks, we decided to quit that little excursion.

And today it's windy. Warm, but cloudy and windy.

The beginning of the end... we hope.

2008-02-07T09:27:00.000-06:00

Hey everyone, it's been a long three months of getting the floor ready for tiles and such at Camp Dixie, but the end is in sight. The tiles are now being laid in the Dining Hall, and in the next few days they will also be laid in the front bathrooms and the old Director's office and the old linen storage room, as well as the breezeways between the dining hall and the dorms. In a word they look beautiful! The tiles really brighten up the room and bring a nice look to it. The final task after the tiles is laid will be getting a coat of polish on the floors, but that will have to happen next week, the tiles are supposed to be laid for a couple of days before that happens.

We asked for donations for this project and it has been just amazing how generous people have been to Camp Dixie. If you are reading this and have donated to the floor project, all I can say is thank you. Thank you so very much, and the floors will look great the next time you see them. Speaking of which, the next chicken dinner is coming up on March 2. Hope to see you there.

See you at Camp!

Mac

Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, and turn on the heat!

2008-01-22T12:18:00.000-06:00

Hey everyone, it's been so long since I've written in the blog here, that I need to make sure that I say some greetings. Like I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas. We went to Minnesota to see the fam over Christmas and it was cold. I also hope everyone had a safe and happy New Year. We hung out with some friends in Pensacola, and it was slightly less cold. Then shortly after that I got a cold. Yuck.

And now, the weather is still a bit cold (now I do know that all you people north of here are going to laugh at this,) but the other day it got to 25 degrees. Really 25. Cold Cold for here.

Anyway, there are lots of things that are going on at Camp Dixie. Mostly it revolves around floors for now. The tiles have been laid in the kitchen, we've been using it for a couple of weeks, and it looks BEAUTIFUL! We also have purchased the tiles for the Dining Hall floors, and those will be installed starting on February 4th. Yup, that's the day after the chicken dinner, and also the day after the Super Bowl.

I will post some more pictures of the kitchen, it really does look nice.

See you at Camp!
Mac

A Ceramic Kitchen

2007-12-22T10:47:00.000-06:00

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!

2007-12-10T19:50:00.000-06:00

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

2007-11-27T07:41:00.001-06:00

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)

2007-11-24T07:35:00.001-06:00

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!

2007-11-21T12:19:00.001-06:00

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?

2007-11-21T11:40:00.000-06:00

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)

2007-11-05T19:05:00.000-06:00

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

2007-10-25T14:55:00.000-05:00

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

2007-10-23T08:45:00.000-05:00

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

2007-10-22T11:21:00.001-05:00

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!

2007-10-19T08:25:00.001-05:00

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!

2007-10-17T20:02:00.000-05:00

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

2007-10-17T10:18:00.000-05:00

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

2007-08-08T20:10:00.000-05:00

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?

2007-01-16T12:10:00.000-06:00

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

What are those leafy things? Are they TREES?!?!

2006-12-15T09:42:00.000-06:00

Well, it's been almost a month since I last wrote in this blog. During that time I've managed to make a trip to a sister NLOMA camp in Iowa where we discussed new opportunities in outdoor ministry. A very large opportunity was actually presented to Camp Dixie at that time. I can't tell you what it is yet, but check back sometime soon after New Years. We may have an announcement regarding a new ministry opportunity for Camp Dixie. But enough of the teasing.

Time sure does fly when you are busy. It's actually a common misconception that Outdoor Ministry is very relaxing during the month of December. Sure there are fewer groups that are using camp between Thanksgiving and New Years, and the grass doesn't need nearly as much mowing, but when the outdoor work slows down, it can only mean one thing. It's time to get ready for summer camp! I've been spending the last couple of weeks sitting down and working on the brochure for next summer, as well as a one-sheet poster we will be sending to congregations to help publicize our summer offerings. Today I started working on updating the website with the Summer 2007 information. The Board of Directors still has to approve a few items regarding summer camp, so the changes won't be posted until after New Years, but it's good to try to get ahead on these things (or so they tell me.) So, you can look for the new brochure to be coming to your houses (if you are on our mailing list) within the first couple of weeks of January, and you can start registering for summer camp at that time. Oh, hint, hint. Look for a COLOR brochure when you look in the mail.

I just looked back at the last time that I wrote an entry here, and we do have some changes that have been finished since then. The back girls dorm bathroom has been completely repainted, and it looks great. That leaves the dorm rooms themselves as the only thing that will eventually need to be repainted on the girl's side of the dorms. I am also hoping to get a chance to do some painting on the boy's side of the dorms (specifically the shower area) but I'm not sure how quickly I will be able to get to it. We've also started planting some trees! There are six new trees between the parking lot and the beach that have been planted, and seem to be doing well. It's winter, so it's a little hard to tell. Also, with the monies that were donated in memory of Board Member Ed Engel, we are planning on planting three larger trees around the camp. One is already in place on the beach side of the boy's dorms, and another will go in the corresponding place on the girl's side. A third tree will be planted in front of the little house on Camp's property. Hopefully within a few years, we will have some shade!

For anyone who is interested in being a staff member this summer, both the Summer Staff and Junior Staff web pages have been updated with the new information for 2007. The Summer Staff page will send you over to the NLOMA site to fill out an online application there, the Jr. Staff page has the new Job Description and application files right on the page. Check it out!

Finally, I would like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas on behalf of myself and the Camp Dixie Board of Directors. We all thank you so much for your interest in Camp Dixie, and hope that God will bless you during this Christmas Season.

See you at Camp!
Mac

More Ch- Ch- Changes

2006-11-02T10:31:00.000-06:00

Hey everyone!
Well, here we are, it's the beginning of November. For those of you who are reading this in states that are north of us here in Alabama, I spent some time yesterday on the sailboat. It was about 80 degrees and sunny. There wasn't a whole lot of wind for the boat, but with the temperatures in the 80's on November 1st, who cares? What a beautiful day! You don't need to feel too bad though, we have a bit more reality setting in today, the temp is 55 and there is a cool breeze coming off the bay. Luckily we can thaw out tomorrow, it's supposed to be 70 and sunny.

One of the big reasons I started this blog is to let readers like you know what is going on day-to-day out here at camp. Last time I teased all of you about some other changes that are coming to Camp Dixie, and some of them have already arrived! The vertical wall has been cut down to a more managable size, the "porthole" tire has been put up at a reasonable height, and the "triangular tension traverse" ropes and carabiners have arrived from the company we ordered them from. So, we have three more elements that are usable on the Challenge Course!

Now, for those other changes that I was teasing you with before. We also had a group out to Camp Dixie in the middle of October from Divine Savior Lutheran Church in Shepherdsville, KY. The first two days of their time at Camp Dixie was a bit more wet and windy than we had originally anticipated, so our outdoor activities were put on hold, and we concentrated on painting the inside of the building! The Dining Hall has a new coat of white paint on the inside, and the hallways to the dorm rooms were also painted! The kitchen painting was finished and the ceiling was done in there as well. Finally, we also painted the front bathrooms on both sides. The group also helped with a lot of cleaning. The vents in the Dining Hall were cleaned and repainted as needed, and we removed as many cobwebs as we could find. Everything that we were able to work on looks great!

The group also cleaned and primed the girl's dorm shower area, but we didn't get a chance to paint it when they were here. I was able to get it painted last week, and it really makes the girl's shower area look nice. My next goal is to move on to the girl's bathroom area and paint that. Sometime after that the Boy's shower and bathroom areas will need to be cleaned and painted. But who knows, that might not happen for months (or years?)

Another change that you will notice when you arrive at Camp, is that we have added a new soft drink machine, removed one of the old machines we had, and raised the prices on cans of Coke in our machines. After the summer camp season I started evaluating the costs that were associated with selling Coke cans in the machines and from the Trading Post. Because of the high cost of the cans as well as delivery, we had to make the unfortunate decision to change the prices of cans to 75 cents from 50 cents. We've also removed one of the Coke machines so that we can better evaluate demand and keep one machine full all the time. The machine that we have added is a Pepsi machine that serves 20oz bottles. Now both Pepsi and Coke drinkers can get something they like out of one of our machines or the Trading Post. Bottles of Pepsi will be $1.00, which is actually less than what you would pay for them at your local gas station.

Finally, there is one other change that I can tell you about right now. Actually it's more of an addition that creates some changes. Camp Dixie has a highspeed internet connection! We now have DSL in the office, which will actually create two new changes from our modem days. First of all if someone in the office is on the internet (like I am when I write one of these, or when we check the email) we won't be tying up the phone line anymore! You've been bitten by this problem if you have called the office and it immediately went to voicemail without even ringing. The second change that will happen because of our new DSL line is that we are going to be adding a wireless connection that our guests can use while they stay at Camp Dixie. We have been getting more and more requests for this ability, and now that DSL exists, we can make it happen!

Well, I think that's about it for now. There are more changes in the works, but it's a bit too early to talk about them. If you have any questions about Camp Dixie, want to have a retreat here, or are interested in picking up a brush for a couple of days to help continue painting, please email at director@campdixieministries.org, or call us at (251)987-1201.

See you at camp!
Mac

Changes... Changes... Changes...

2006-10-13T09:02:00.000-05:00

Hey everyone,
So I am now emotionally back from Kim and my trip to Hawaii. Believe me it took awhile. I do still look at the daily updates about the volcano on the big island, just to see what's going on. We got to see lava when we were there, and I got to stand within about 15 feet or so of a lava flow (it was flowing really, really slowly) so that was very cool. That is some place I will definitely have to return to in my life, at least as long as killauea keeps erupting.

So, the reason I wanted to blog today was to tell everyone about some changes that are coming, and the basis behind them. First of all, we are finally starting to work on the challenge course to get as many elements working again as possible. The "porthole" tire has been taken down from it's lofty eight foot height, and will be placed at a more usable four to five foot height. The idea of the "porthole" is to have your whole group make it through the tire without touching the sides! Unfortunately with the tire eight feet up in the air there was just no way to make that happen. There are some great pictures of people making it through the tire, however their whole weight is being carried by the tire (and their stomach). Tires aren't a fun thing to have rubbing against your stomach, so I'm very glad that we are finally making this change. Getting the tire down from it's perch wasn't too difficult (I was able to do it myself) but getting it back up will be a bit more difficult, so the Grace Lutheran Men's Group from Pensacola will be helping me this weekend getting it back up. Thanks guys!

There is another element that they will be helping me make safer. We are finally going to start using the vertical wall again after we make a few modifications. The first is that the wall (which currently stands at about eleven feet tall, will be getting cut down to size. The white line that I have drawn on the picture of the wall to the right is where the new top will be. Eleven feet is really tall. I did some research on challenge course design, and an eleven foot wall is no longer considered a "low" element (as all the rest of ours are) and actually should have a belay system, and everyone using the wall should be harnessed for safety. Rather than take on that higher level of training and cost for one "high" element, we are going to lower the top of the wall to normal "low" element standards The new top of the wall will be at seven and a half feet. This will still be a challenge for our campers, and will make the wall even safer!

There is a third element that we will be able to use for the 2007 retreat and summer camp seasons. I'm not honestly sure how much this one has been used in the past. Everyone I have asked about it says that they have never used it. I found information about it's creation when Craig Oldenburg was director at Camp Dixie (that's a few directors ago) so we may be bringing back an oldie but goodie. The element is called the "Triangular Tension Traverse" and its not only cool because of the alliteration, but it's also a fun element. In this element, the participants start from one of three trees, and using a rope attached to the tree they started from, they walk along a wire that is suspended 2 feet above the ground. There can be as many as three people doing this at a time, so if they meet in the middle of the wire, they will have to find a way to pass each other. All of the permanent pieces of the element are in place, however the ropes that attach to the trees is AWOL. I have purchased new rope, as well as some carabineers that will make it quick and easy to remove the rope when not in use.

Over the past year, many people have asked about other favorite elements that the Camp Dixie challenge course had at some time in the past. Unfortunately hurricane Ivan was not kind to any of the trees on Camp Dixie property, and it didn't stay away from the challenge course. There are three elements that are currently still out of action. The "Nitro Crossing" element (where you would swing on a rope from one safe area to another) lost two important trees, so it is currently out of action. The "Swinging Log" element, where campers had to walk from one end of a log suspended a couple of feet off the ground to the other end also lost one of its trees. The log that campers used to walk across is actually one of the posts for the new volleyball court. What a great way to recycle! The final lost element is the "Horizontal Climbing Wall" where campers would have to climb from one end of the wall to the other. This element was attached to four trees and a post, and two of the four trees were toppled by Ivan. Parts of it were still standing (and some were still laying on the ground) when I arrived as director in January, however for safety reasons it was taken completely down before summer camp started.

So, why am I telling you about these past elements? Because this summer, we are hoping to rebuild at least two of these three elements! We are currently planning to rebuild both the "Swinging Log" and "Horizontal Climbing Wall" using telephone poles rather than trees as was done previously. Hopefully this will make the elements a bit more sturdy against the wind, and actually will improve the safety of building the elements as we can install most of the necessary hardware on the ground before lifting everything up into the air.

Well, I was going to tell you about some more changes that are coming to Camp Dixie, but this blog has gone longer (and taken me longer to write) than I thought it would. I really need to get back to replacing some shower curtains (ah I'm such a tease about those other changes. The shower curtains were not the changes I was talking about even though they are nice.) I've also kept the phone line tied up for too long.

I hope everyone has a great day! God's Peace!
See you at Camp!
Mac

Back from paradise

2006-10-03T20:45:00.000-05:00

If you called the Camp Dixie office two weeks ago, you would have reached a message telling you that the camp office was closed. It was closed because Kim and I spent a week in the great paradise of Hawaii! If you've been to Hawaii before, you know what I am talking about when I say paradise. If you haven't you should really go. Really, I mean it. I am now recommending it to all of my friends (which includes all you who are reading this blog!)

So anyway, one of my great passions is the Pacific Theater of World War Two. Ever since I was in elementary school, I have read books about the great battles of the Coral Sea, Midway, and the Marianas, just to name a few. Then of course there is the one that started it all for the United States. The Japanese surprise attack at Pearl Harbor.

I've finally gotten to see Pearl Harbor, and it was everything that I expected. Well, not really everything. When you see pictures, or look at maps, you really don't get an idea of the scale of everything around you. I always thought of Pearl Harbor as this giant body of water. After all they brought battleships in there for heaven's sake. In some places it is quite large, but Pearl Harbor is honestly a very narrow harbor between where the interstate (H1) passes it and Ford Island sits in the middle. That's right where battleship row was in 1941. I can totally see why the officers that were in charge of the defense of the harbor in 1941 thought that an attack was impossible. It took us 3 minutes to get from one side to the other in a navy launch at about 10 miles per hour. If you were coming in an airplane at 140 mph, you could blink and miss it. The picture above is of the USS Arizona, which is still sitting at the bottom of the harbor. It was an amazing experience to be that close to a war relic that I've read about so many times. At the Arizona museum they even have one of the anchors from the Arizona that was recovered from the bottom of the harbor after the explosion. It was something like 200-300 yards away from the sunken battleship. Wow. It's amazing how finally getting to see something really puts everything into perspective.

There is another attraction near the Arizona. The Arizona is the beginning of the war in the Pacific for the United States, and the USS Missouri is the end. She is moored proudly on a new pier constructed for her on Ford Island. The picture at the right was taken from the Arizona Memorial. We toured the gigantic battleship, and even took a guided tour inside the ship, which even included a stop in one of the engine rooms. The Missouri has a special name for one of it's decks. Normally the decks are numbered as you go up from the main deck (they are numbered as you go down too.) But this deck doesn't have a number. It will always be known as the "Surrender Deck." This was the place that the Japanese high command surrendered to the allies on September 2, 1945. Here's a fact I didn't know. If you've ever worried about signing a document on the correct line you shouldn't worry about it. The Canadian delegate accidentally signed on the wrong line on one of the documents, so everyone had to sign in a different place. Strange huh? Oh well, I guess it happens.

Well, we saw some other things in Hawaii that I've never seen before. Like black sand beaches, and a lava coming out of active tubes on the big island. All-in-all it was a great vacation. Sometimes it feels good to get away.

Where were you on...

2006-09-11T20:05:00.000-05:00

Going through High School and a little bit in college, friends of mine and I always lamented that we didn't have a story that followed "Where were you when you heard about _______?" Our grandparents told us stories about where they were when they heard about Pearl Harbor, and our parents told us where they were when they heard about President Kennedy being shot, or where they were when man first landed on the moon.

Then September 11, 2001 happened. Now and forever we have something that we can tell stories about.

On September 11, 2001, I was working at Camp Omega as the program director. I can't remember if we still had a dial up connection, or if we had finally gotten a satellite internet connection, but I remember that I checked my email when I got into work at about 9:00. There was a headline on yahoo.com that said that a "small" plane had crashed into one of the towers of the world trade center. I clicked on the link, but wasn't able to get the page to come up. For the first time that I had ever seen, a page on yahoo said that "maximum connections have been reached." So why not try CNN right? Nope, I couldn't get anything to work on there either. Every web news site was completely at maximum connections, or didn't respond at all. So, I checked my email. Oh well.

We didn't realize anything big was happening until Patrick Hair (who always had MPR on in his office) said something to the effect that there was something going on in New York. We still couldn't get any web sites to connect, so Kevin Hall, the director, ran over to his house to see what was up. He was gone for quite a while. Apparently as he got into the house, he watched the second tower collapse in on itself.

We lauhed at him the next day because he didn't invite us over to watch on his fancy Satellite TV, but when he didn't come back for a while, we grabbed the camp conversion van and turned on the TV in it. Now, don't get me wrong. It was 2001, and the van was from some time in the early to mid 1980's. The TV we watched it on had one channel that worked, and it was in black and white. Right as we turned it on, we watched as they replayed the collapse of the second tower "that happened minutes ago." It truly was surreal.

Patrick and I worked on getting a strap peg on my guitar for an hour or so after that, and then I decided to go home. I watched the rest of the day. I watched the same things over and over, the second plane crashing into the tower, and then the video of them both collapsing.

I think something that has been forgotten in the past five years is that feeling that was in all of our stomachs. We had been attacked on our own soil. If it could happen to New York and Washington DC, it could happen anywhere. Gas lines started to form that evening. Everyone was stocking up. I don't even know if they were sure what they were stocking up for, but it was scary enough for everyone to go out and get as much fuel as they could.

I remember going outside that night and taking a walk around. Where I was living you could usually see the airplanes lined up on approach to MSP. That night the sky was completely quiet. It truly felt like the world had completely changed forever.

The plane above was one of the only planes that was allowed to fly after the FAA grounded all non-fighter traffic. It is a Navy C-9 transport, and it flew firefighters and rescue workers up the east coast from Georgia to New York. Thank you to all who have protected our lives, and our country since the beginning of this war on terrorism.

Say Hello To My Little Friends

2006-08-30T07:49:00.000-05:00

If you've had the chance to look outside my office window (and honestly not that many of you have, and even if you could the window has been scored by years of salt water and air so it's hard to see out of), you know that there are a bunch of bushy flowery plants that have grown up outside the window since we cut down some dead bushes. I keep meaning to get around to cutting them down a bit, but every time I think about it, there is a butterfly flying around those plants and eating (or whatever they do) off of the flowers it has on it. So, the plant gets a reprieve and gets to live another day. This butterfly was outside my office window the other day, and I happened to have my camera in the office. The picture turned out pretty well, especially since every time I would move closer to it, it would move further away. It didn't leave, just get into a position where I couldn't take a very good picture. Oh well.
Also, my other little friend is my new ipod shuffle. If you look at the picture over on the side here, the big ancient looking mp3 player is the one I used to listen to when I kayak around the bay and exercise in the house. I got it as a free gift (it was selling for $99 at the time) when I bought Windows XP from Best Buy in 2001. It had 96MB of memory (adfter we added a 64MB card), which holds about 15-20 songs. Any time I went for a long kayak trip, I would actually listen through all the songs before I got back to the camp. Oh goody, I get to listen to them all... AGAIN! Annoying. So I've got a new ipod shuffle! It's small, it's sleek, and best of all, it has 512MB of memory, so even if I go kayaking for two-and-a-half hours, I don't have to hear the same songs over and over. Nice. Just a little look at where technology has gone in the last five years.
-Mac

Summer Camp, What fun

2006-08-21T10:18:00.000-05:00

Wow, it's been a long time since i've written in my blog, now that it's on the Camp Dixie website, I'm going to have to try to be more attentive to it. So the biggest reason that i haven't written anything since last MAY, was because of summer camp. Summer camp is always a great time, and this year was no exception. We had a great senior staff, a wonderful junior staff, and some great campers. The final numbers came in, and we had about 220 campers this summer. Now, that's a bit fewer than we had at Camp Omega where I was Program Director most recently (we had around 1800 there during the summer) but it was great none-the-less. We had a lot of question marks this summer, not knowing if the aftermath of Katrina would affect our registration numbers. I'm also the third director that Camp Dixie has had in the past three years, so that could have been a stumbling block as well, we also weren't able to get the summer information out as quickly as we would have liked to. Suffice it to say, we feel blessed that every camper who came was able to come to camp this summer.
So, believe it or not, it's time for me (and hopefully some campers and parents too) to start thinking about summer camp 2007. We've gotten some camp session dates figured out and approved by the board of directors, and we even have a theme. The summer 2007 theme is going to be: "Grace Is Free." The theme verse is taken from John 1:16 "From the fullness of his grace, we all received one blessing after another." I'm really looking forward to next summer, there are quite a few things that we are going to change, improve, and hopefully we will reach even more campers with the Word of God.
I've also just finished the Summer 2006 Camp Dixie newsletter. It's in COLOR this time because a color laser printer was donated to camp! Hopefully this will get some people excited about camp. Hey it's in color! Camp Dixie must be cool!
That's about it for now, I have some email to return, some newsletters to fold and label, and I know there is some cleaning I could be doing somewhere around here. Thanks for reading everyone.
-Mac

Things you can’t do in Minnesota

2006-05-21T21:04:00.000-05:00

I was kayaking the other day on the bay, watching some dolphins (no really, dolphins!) swimming around, and thought it might be interesting to write a little bit about things that I’ve found you can do here in Lower Alabama (L.A. oh yeah!) that you can’t do in our former home, Minnesota.

First of all, the only time I have ever seen dolphins before is at the Minnesota Zoo. It’s a nice zoo, they had several dolphins that they trained to splash water toward the crowd and such. However lately, there have been some dolphins (4 of them to be exact) that have been living just a little ways from here. It’s the first time I have ever seen dolphins that close in the wild. In fact it might be the first time I have seen dolphins in the wild period. The first time I saw them they approached my kayak from the side, underneath me. So it’s also the first time I was ever checked out by a dolphin. I can only imagine what he was thinking of that blonde haired Minnesota boy who was in that silly blue kayak.

The Blue Angels. Now, don’t get me wrong. I have actually seen the Blue Angels (that’s the US Navy flight demonstration team if you don’t know what I am talking about) twice before in Minnesota. One time I drove to Hibbing, MN to see them fly in about 1994, and I also saw them in Duluth, MN a couple of summers ago. But down here, wow. Their summer home is Pensacola Naval Air Station, which is about 11 miles or so as the crow flies from the front of Camp Dixie. The Blue Angels practice most every Tuesday and Wednesday during the show season, and if there isn’t too much haze in the air, you can see them from the camp's beach. Also, they let you on the base to view the shows as well! Let’s just say I have seen them more in the last three months than I have seen them in my whole life before that. I’m a big fan.

Last but certainly not least, is beaches. Now, "there are public beaches in Minnesota" I can hear a few of you saying. However, they are on lakes, or even worse man-made-ponds. Here I’m talking BEACH, Gulf of Mexico beach. This is beach that other people in the country come to when they are on vacation. So far we’ve visited Gulf Shores (not too bad a beach) and Pensacola Beach (very nice beach) in our short stay here. It’s still strange to think that we can drive for 30 minutes or so, and be at the real beach. Oh, and in July, the Blue Angels perform a show right over Pensacola Beach. I will definitely have to take in that show.

God’s Peace everyone.
Mac

So where did the name Mac come from?

2006-04-17T20:46:00.000-05:00

So, for those of you who are new to Camp Dixie, or are just catching up, my camp name is Mac, and I am the director here. Now, I know there are some who are wondering where the camp name Mac came from, so I thought I would tell you.
But first, just a little bit about "camp names" in general. During the summer, the staff of Camp Dixie will have an alternate name that they will be identified by. When campers come to camp, they won't know their actual counselors name, they will know them by a camp name. During the week the campers will try to guess what their counselors real name is. They don't end up finding up until the last night of camp, when the identities of the counselors will be revealed. (At this point the counselors really do feel like superheroes...)
So, my camp name is "Mac". There are numerous reasons why it could be Mac, I will leave it up to you to figure out which is the "real" one. (That is if there even is a real reason.) Anyway, the first possibility has to do with the picture to the left of this post. Mac is one of the characters from the SSX snowboarding games that I love to play on the playstation 2... I only hope that when the PS3 comes out there is an even cooler version of SSX. Or, the reason could be my previous love for Macintosh computers! I used a mac from about 1988-1999, and loved every minute of it. It actually got me my first job at Best Buy, I was the only one there who knew about the Mac computers they sold. I still have one at the house, don't get to use it much, but there you go. That could be it. And the final reason could be... my wife and I (her camp name to be told at a later time) went to South Korea this past summer with her parents. While we were there, there was another couple that was about our same age, and same situation. The woman had also been adopted from the country, and her husband was with her. So during the whole trip people kept confusing us and calling me the husband's name, "Mac." I just gave in to the whole idea, and went with Mac as my camp name.
So, one of these stories is probably true, and that's how the camp director got the name "Mac."

Why live... from Camp Dixie?

2006-04-17T20:32:00.000-05:00

So they always say, that if you are going to take the time to do something, you had better make it worthwhile, and have a purpose. The purpose of this particular endeavor is to tell people a little bit about what is going on at Camp Dixie. Every day there are so many things that are going on, and because I am the only full time staff member, I am the only one who gets to see them happening! So, hopefully with this blog I can get you all to see a little bit about what is happening at the Lutheran Outdoor Ministry site at Camp Dixie in Elberta, AL. Hopefully you will get a greater appreciation of what awesome things are going on here!