Summit Grove

Our ministry at Summit Grove Camp in New Freedom PA has come to an end.  We began this journey in late March from Summerville.  We have experienced the blooming of spring in South Carolina, North Carolina, Maryland, and lastly, Pennsylvania.  These pictures are from downtown New Freedom.

The railroad that carried President Lincoln to Gettysburg and a short time later to his final resting place in Springfield Illinois goes through New Freedom.  There is a scenic railroad tour that originates here.

This is the second time we have been able to serve here and the project we took on was a bit more than we had envisioned.  Not the end result, but the amount of work required to achieve it.

Summit Grove was founded in the 1860’s and has been serving as a Christian camp since it’s founding. They have a variety of church groups and organizations that utilize the facilities.  In the summer months they have a day camp that ministers to the local population and on weekends there are numerous groups that have retreats here.  The tabernacle, that dates back to the founding, can accommodate hundreds.  On Memorial Day weekend they are hosting 300 youth and chaperones from the Vietnamese Church community.

When we were here last October we took notice of the bath house that serves the campground and the A-tels that border the campground.  The A-tels are A shaped buildings, each one providing sleeping accomodations for eighteen “campers”.  They are serviced by a centrally located bathroom that is shared by the small campground as well.  On our previous visit in the fall we painted the entrance doors to the A-tels .

The bathhouse is a block building that has six shower stalls as well as sinks and toilets serving both men and ladies.  We took notice of the condition of the building and thought it would be a great project to tackle on a future visit.

Needless to say we bit off quite a bit more than we thought.  Jane and I were the only Sower couple on the project this time.  It was great working together, at least for me, she may have another view to share.

We started off by removing two feet of wood siding from the entry side of the building

We then power washed the whole building, then scraped the remaining loose paint and after replacing some weathered wood, began to put on two coats of paint, and in some places three.

The inside corridor that leads to the entry doors turned out to require the most work.  The wood siding on the outside could be painted with a roller but on the inside there were lots of boards that needed to be painted with a brush.  Not much paint roller use there.

Got to have some plantings

Every morning the Sower team sings a song together called Our Best.  “Hear ye the Master’s call give me thy best, for be it great or small that is His test, do then the best you can not for reward, not for the praise of men but for the Lord.  Every work for Jesus will be blessed, but He asks from everyone his best, our talents may be few, these may be small, but unto Him is due our Best our All!”

This verse from the old hymn serves us well as we work through the day.  In our flesh we are often tempted to take a shortcut on quality or quantity.  This little song comes quickly to mind as we realize that our Savior offered His best for our eternal security, how could we offer less?

The final product was more than we had hoped for! 

We praise the Lord for giving us the stamina to press on with the work.  The weather was perfect with only one rain day to deal with.

We had hoped to get the floor painted inside but ran out of time.  Jane cleaned all of the fixtures and shower stalls and had them gleaming.  Our deep cleaning training at Fair Haven ministries in Tennessee really has paid off.

We joked that the outside of the building appears new and inviting but once inside you realize that you are at a rustic camp.  How much is that a picture of our lives?  On the outside we can look pretty good, but on the inside things are sometimes more rustic than expected.

Praise be to Jesus, who doesn’t wait till we clean up our lives to bring us Salvation, but takes us just as we are, and then begins the process of renewal, resulting ultimately in Christ likeness!

We are back home in Summerville, awaiting the arrival of our seventh grandchild in early July.  Julie, Eli, and Micah are expecting the birth of daughter and sister Veda, pronounced ‘vada.

Thanks for sharing in our Journey.

Godspeed till next time,  Glenn and Jane