The Pastor’s Piece – September 4, 2022
The Pastor’s Piece
FCFI
September 4, 2022
My wife and I were working on a home improvement project and needed to rent a certain piece of equipment that would spray and scrub concrete and then suck up the gray water. We checked all the local rentals but none of them carried this particular tool. So we had to expand our horizons. We found one an hour and twenty minutes away in Madison, Wisconsin which meant we’d have to pick it up, use it, and get it back in 24 hours – or pay for two days. I love a good challenge.
As August gives way to September, God has blessed us with beautiful weather. If we could have September weather the year around, I think most people would live happily ever after. September yields low humidity, cool nights, warm days, and a bountiful garden harvest and great anticipation of our other crops out in the field. It sounds like a perfect combination and good reason to take a country drive north.
We left Martintown after our Bible study on Tuesday morning. The trees are beginning to show signs of turning, but as yet have not. The fields are different shades of green from the alfalfa, soybeans, and corn. Everybody keeps their little corner of earth mowed, trimmed, and simply beautiful. This is a great country God has blessed us with. We need to thank Him continuously, repent of our sins (personal and corporate), seek Him and serve Him. “Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,’ says the Lord Almighty,” (Zechariah 4:6).
We made it to our destination, picked up the tool we needed and got back home just in time to leave and meet some people for dinner. We had dinner and visited for a time then went home. On the way home we calculated what we estimated the time it would take to do the job and realized we had to get started on it now. We worked until midnight, turned in and were up and at it again before 6 the next morning. We finished the job at about 11 o’clock that morning and headed back to the store in Madison to return the machine before the deadline. Since we had a little time to spare, we took a different scenic route this time and detoured into a small town where we discovered a quaint little coffee shop. We stopped and enjoyed a delicious morning brew while sitting at a sidewalk table, refilled our cups and hit the road. We still had about a 30 minute cushion.
A few miles south of Madison I saw a tiny sign along the road that said: “Lake Waubesa Bible Camp.” I have heard those words many, many times in my life since meeting my wife. That is where she went to Bible camp when she was 14 years old. Lake Waubesa Bible Camp is where she committed her life to Jesus Christ as her Lord and Savior. She speaks about it often and that is one reason why we are dedicated to Christian camp ministries – they effectively reach teenagers for Christ.
We followed the signs and found Lake Waubesa easy enough, but the camp was a little more elusive. Lake Waubesa is a big, 2074 acre lake surrounded by, what I’m guessing are million dollar homes (reminds me of Lake Geneva). Tucked in behind those expensive pieces of real estate is a small acreage relegated to Lake Waubesa Bible Camp.
It was the first time my wife had been there since her teenage years. As she took in the scenery, it all came back to her in a flood. It was like being in a time warp almost. Nothing had changed much. They still had the mess hall, the rec hall, the cabins, the old shed was there with the life preservers, boat oars, and kayaks. The buildings had a dark brown wood vertical siding. There was a small dock for launching boats and for fishing from. There wasn’t any activity taking place and we figured it was because it was close to school starting. It was a walk down memory lane. After we arrived home, we looked it up on the Internet and found that it is still an active, year round camp committed to spreading the gospel of Jesus.
It was a good day for many reasons – we got our floors scrubbed, we had a nice tour of southern Wisconsin in late summer, we found a quaint coffee shop, and we discovered again where my wife’s spiritual roots were planted years ago. God is good all the time.
(Kevin Cernek is Lead Pastor of Martintown Community Church in Martintown, Wisconsin)