Moth's

There I was, sitting around a fire I had just built, alone at Simon House Bible Camp. The kids had just gone home and there would not be more till Sunday afternoon, freedom. The fire was a little bigger than I intended, but there was no wind, and the everything was wet, no need to worry, besides the heat was nice. The power went out a short time later, and the only light in the camp was either my fire or someone’s flashlight.

I sat there staring into the fire, praying and reflecting upon the week past, and then God brought something rather odd and intriguing to my mind. As the other lights had gone out around camp, all the moths that were on the near by buildings were now being drawn to the light of my fire. The odd part was that the Moth’s didn’t realize that not only was the fire beautiful and attractive but it was also fiercely hot and harmful. The Moth’s flew right into the flame of the fire, and than dropped into the ashes, dead. God asked me if that made any sense? I didn’t quite get it until I was praying the next day. I sat above the waves like I had dreamed of doing the whole school year and God just hit me with it.

“I have brought you passed so many fires this year, yet you have not taken your eyes off the one true fire. You have remained in the one fire that will not harm your life, the one that will only enlighten you and draw you nearer to me. All the ones you have come by this year would have damaged you and drawn you from my presence. I told you what I desired of you and you obeyed. Warn them!”

It just so happened I had signed up to testify in the service we would be doing it as a camp in Flin Flon the next day. I was amazed that God would give me a warning in my testimony for other’s to hear. So I shared the moth story, I talked about how there are so many lights in the world, and they can all be so attractive. Like an assured career and excellent pay, or fancy toys that you just so happen to be able to afford. I talked about my experiences, declining job offers I was receiving since I was now a rising star in the field of carpentry. I was getting offers like eighteen dollars an hour and amazing benefits. I didn’t even have my level one, but with my experience, I could have a career job by the time I was twenty, be ticketed as a Master Carpenter. But when you walk this earth, there is only one fire that you can go near, that you can walk into and it will not harm your relationship with Father, rather it will do quite the opposite. It will strengthen the relationship and give you passion for the Creator of all things. I knew what God wanted from me for this summer past and for this school year, knew that those fires were not His. I than shared a verse that Paul had written a few years ago, some of you may know him.

Philippians 3:7-16

7I once thought all these things were so very important, but now I consider them worthless because of what Christ has done. 8Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the priceless gain of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I may have Christ 9and become one with him. I no longer count on my own goodness or my ability to obey God's law, but I trust Christ to save me. For God's way of making us right with himself depends on faith. 10As a result, I can really know Christ and experience the mighty power that raised him from the dead. I can learn what it means to suffer with him, sharing in his death, 11so that, somehow, I can experience the resurrection from the dead!

12I don't mean to say that I have already achieved these things or that I have already reached perfection! But I keep working toward that day when I will finally be all that Christ Jesus saved me for and wants me to be. 13No, dear brothers and sisters, I am still not all I should be,^[c] but I am focusing all my energies on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, 14I strain to reach the end of the race and receive the prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us up to heaven.^[d]

15I hope all of you who are mature Christians will agree on these things. If you disagree on some point, I believe God will make it plain to you. 16But we must be sure to obey the truth we have learned already.

How about that one? I don’t mean to say that a life that is completely focused on following the Fathers lead will make you financially poor, or give you a poor job. I mean to say quite the opposite. I say that if we choose to follow God on the paths that our lives should take according to His will, than you will be blessed and have all that you will ever need. A life of standing in the one true fire, of following and seeking God will be amazing. Like Paul said, “But I keep working toward that day when I will finally be all that Christ Jesus saved me for and wants me to be.” That will be an amazing day friends. So shall we take a walk, or would you prefer to run the race that lies before us, and remember, some fires do burn, so keep your eyes fixed on the father, the one true fire.

Roots of Love

Have you ever tried to push over a tree? I’ll bet that if it was a nice healthy big old tree that you had very little luck with accomplishing the task. Note that I often see the tree itself break off and fall before its roots ever release there grasp on the soil. This of course is only where the soil is deep and rich. Well, I have a story about something else, doesn’t involve the tree itself, just a part that makes it stand tall and true, its roots.

When I was much younger than the young person I am now, I was playing with two of my cousins behind my grandparent’s cabin. We were having a great time playing in the dirt, and decided to take a break I suppose. We walked over to the cliff that lay behind the cabin and looked down. Below since the tide was down was a wonderful beach of sharp rocks and more rocks. We were arguing at whether or not you would survive the plunge when the tide was up. I knew that the tide was only a couple feet in difference at our cabins and I decided it would be a rather painful and perhaps deadly experience. Upon continued disagreement, we decided to go back to playing; my cousins turned away and went back to the dirt. I turned after further examining the situation and went to take a step when the ground beneath fell away and I with it. My first thought was something like, “Oh dang!” Then followed the frantic grabbing for something to save me from the landing, since the fall was the lesser in physical pain. I fell past the loose black dirt with nothing in it to hold to, and made it to the bed rock where there were some tree roots that had been exposed over time. I grabbed on to one and held on for dear life, the root strong and steady did its job well. My cousins noticing my shrieking terrified screams like that of a young boy came over to pull me back up to safety. Yeah, I was saved by a root that was strong enough to hold me from my death.

Mathew 13:21 NLT

“But since they don’t have deep roots, they don’t last long. They fall away as soon as they have problems or are persecuted for believing God’s word.”

The point in that verse is that we must seek to have deep roots, but deep into what. We need to be strong so that we may be tall and remain standing for all to see.

Ephesians 3:17-18
“Then Christ will make His home in your hearts as you trust in Him. Your roots will grow down into Gods love and keep you strong. 18And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide , how long, how high, how deep His love is.”

There you have it, the love of God is what your roots must grow deep into, so that you may know it and live as a strong tall tree that can not be pushed down or removed from its foundation. I encourage you to do this, to seek Him earnestly and daily, so that you may know His love.

So what does my story of being saved by the roots of a tree have to do with all this about having strong roots? I’m sure that you have many friends and co-workers that do not know the love of Christ and there for are not strong enough to hold there course when troubles come there way. I encourage you to have strong roots so that when they need it, when they begin to fall you can stretch one out for them to grab hold of. You can love them like God does, but in a way that they can know since they do not know God himself. In this you will wear Christ for them; you will show them the face of God and start a work in there lives that we pray will one day lead to them to having there own roots in the love of God.

Ephesians 3:19 NLT
“May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.”

Break Me

Alas, you find me here once again. Did I seek to be found? An odd question. Something I learned this summer, you can only be found by God if you seek Him. Odd to think that you must look for your rescuer. Yes, you must take your eyes off from what the world would lay before you, what has so easily entagled you. Take them and redirect them to heaven. There you will see God, looking down from above, your eyes meet, your heart breaks, and than He can do as He has always desiered. Let you know how intament His love for you is, how deep and eternal, not only in time, but in size and amount. You know this? I wish I did, for if I truly understood the love of God, than I would not sit here afront of my desk and wright of it, I would be on my knees balling my eyes out, comforted by His love and broken for the lost who dont know it. Just a thought I thought I might share.

Good Night All
TraV

Halifax in short

Thursday, July 22, 2006

Well, I said many times that I would try to tell write a blog about my trip to Halifax. To sum it all up nearly two months later, it was amazing. The trip down was long I guess, I flew from Thompson to Winnipeg and met up with the team the next day at the Air Port. From there we flew as a team of nearly one hundred to the Halifax Airport. There we hopped into two full size coaches and some smaller vehicles since we all didn’t fit and made our way to the Lord Nelson Hotel, it is a beautiful thing, right down town, only about 6 to 10 blocks to the harbor, depending on which route you took I guess. I was rooming with a guy from Swan River and he was pretty cool, His name was Tom, we became pretty good friends over the course of the week, but I haven’t heard much from him since the trip. Well, although the competition was only two days they kept us busy for the whole week, there was a lot to do there. I had a ton of sea food though, its was so lovely and expensive. But oh well, life will go on I figure, just a little money. I didn’t do so well in the competition because well, my migraine interfered, yes I still have it even now, nothing severe yet, but it’s coming back now that the acupuncture has stopped. So I don’t know what I placed but I had fun and that’s all that matters but it would have been nice to win of course, but oh well.

Saturday, July 22, 2006

We did a harbor tour as a team at one point, that was pretty cool, had a whole boat to ourselves and a tour guide took like two hours I guess, it was nice. Reminded me of being home in Newfoundland, a place my family is headed for right now. *sigh* Doing Gods work can be so painful. Well I don’t have a whole lot more to say about the trip. It was great, but it took me away from home where I had a lot to do, so if I had my time back I probably would not have gone.

My summer for now

Long Summer July 8/2006

Well, as long of a summer that it has been, through rough cabins, missing my family and other hard times, I still wish my time here at Simonhouse wasn’t coming to an end. I really enjoy myself here at camp and I really love the family that I have come to be a part of. It’s amazing all the things that God had for me to learn here at camp, I love God so much. I am of course looking forward so much to going back to Saskatoon, I’m really going to love it there, I just know. I miss all my friends there, just so many! I love you all too. Two weeks or less and I’ll be seeing ya. I can’t wait to just hang out with you all and do ministry. It’s going to be awesome. Well I can’t sit here all day; there is work to be done around here believe it or not. And you would never guess who part of the work crew is!

My Alone Time Thursday, July 27, 2006

You don’t get alone here at camp at any other point than on the weekend when your at a point when all you want is to be near God with friends, not alone, not with campers. Well, I have a cabin from hell….for the second week in a row, I’m not complaining, I’m thanking God, I know he has a lot for these campers, so I know he can do a lot as far as work in there lives can go. It can go a long way. WE had to send one of my campers home on Tuesday for striking out a third time for physically attacking another camper; he turns nine years old tomorrow! What is that!!? That’s not right, that’s all that is, I mean, where did he get it from, definitely the parents. Him and his sister came for camp this week, they both have ADHD, she is a distracted angel, he is a rage machine. I feel sorry he is gone, but I still have six campers that are total animals. Ok, ok, there boys from ages 8 to 10, there supposed to be crazy, but does picking up a flash light and whipping it at a kids head fall under the category of, oh there just kids…NO!

One of the senior staff said he would take my place for BOB time, it is a time where the kids have to do just that, BOB: Bum On Bed, it was hard to teach them this but they eventually learned. Now, how do I stop the long range bombardment? I hope Steve is ok in there; he is the Assistant Program Director. Cool guy, a total help to the staff. God is teaching me a lot though with this cabin of course, I’m as weak as I could ever be, and that’s right where he wants me. My patience ran out on Sunday, I broke down? What happened to me, but now all I got is his strength, his patience, and his love, and that’s all I need I guess. But I’m so tired physically, so tired.

My only question is, where can I get with these kids, I can’t teach them with words, I can only love them now. I have nothing more to offer, if I did, I would.

TraV

So Sick Aug 09, 2006

Well, would it surprise you if I told you that I am sick as a dog and still pushing myself as hard as a Ford truck. Man am I ever tired, I’ve got a migraine, the flu, and a cold coming on. I’m running a temperature and I have a fever, not to mention that I am freezing. So on I go, but just now the camp nurse told me that I am not allowed to work tomorrow if I feel any worse or at least not any better, and there is still 2000’ of bush to clear.