As I drove home after a week of serving with some amazing brothers & sisters in Christ in East Tennessee, I was sobbing in grief one minute and praising the Lord the next.  I mourn the loss of members of Campers on Mission who have already seen Jesus & aren’t with us anymore. My heart breaks for the friends who are unable to join us for work weeks these days for health reasons and those who will soon be stepping away. To those mentioned, I hear our Savior say, “Well done, my good and faithful servant!” You may be retiring from your encore career, but your impact will continue to have a ripple effect for generations to come.

Expressing gratitude to my Savior that he brought these people into my life, I lift praises to Him for the experiences, the laughter shared among friends, and the willingness to carry each other’s burdens to the Lord. If you don’t have a community in your life where people are willing to sacrifice their time and finances in order to serve others, you are missing out. I recommend you find a community like COM. We may not be related by DNA, but we are related by a sacrificial blood that means so much more!

Camping and serving with COM is a family reunion each & every time. Delightful conversations about life & the Lord (and since many of our members are in the senior season of their life, it’s many of the same conversations each & every year). It’s a pleasure to refine previous skills and learn new ones from wise people even if some of that learning is what NOT to do.  They serve as precious role models of Godly men and women to me and remind me of what Godly marriages should look like. Now, if I can just ask them to wear their hearing aids, they might get to hear me say, “I love you. No, I did not ask you to pass the orange juice, I said , I LOVE YOU!”