Kris and I had a wondrous time at Mission Meadows camp in Dewittville NY (on Chautauqua Lake). Family and Fellowship.
We spent most of Saturday with Lukas and Annika, who took us to see some sites around the Chautauqua region and then to their home where we spent some time with their two dogs — Slater and Meriam. It rained the whole day, but we’ve been to Seattle so we know how to deal with rain. We enjoyed seeing Annika’s mom and dad, Gordie and Marleen Nelson. And I got to see some North Park students — including lots of chat time with Jay and Betsy Baehr and Hauna Ondrey. And parents of students present and past. And some other students, including some I hadn’t seen in years.

Kris and I really enjoyed the senior saints — sharing breakfast and lunch with them, sitting around for some coffee, and their occasional questions about my talks. This camp was genuinely intergenerational. Two of the ladies probed me during lunch where I thought their deceased husbands were — one asked me if I thought they were in “limbo” or were they in the presence of God? I said, “Presence of God.”
It is always great to meet “blog-friends” who come up to us and say they read the blog everyday.
Friday night my talk was about the “cross before the cross”: self-denial in Luke 9:23 as exhibited by Joseph and Mary. Saturday night I spoke of the community of the cross — how the vision of Mary in the Magnificat was jolted by Jesus’ own cruci-form vision of the kingdom, and how the early community in Acts lived out the “cell” form of that kingdom vision of Jesus. Saturday night unfolded into about 30 minutes of question and answers about why the younger generation is not as interested in “church” as the older generation is. Some honest hearts were made visible during this time together and I hope it leads to some healing and further discussion.
Sunday morning I spoke on the gospel of the cross — moving from created as Eikons to being cracked Eikons and how the gospel of the cross (resurrection/Pentecost) transforms us into Christ-like Eikons (2 Cor 3:18-4:6).