Remembering the Miracles of the Past

“I will remember the deeds of the Lord; yes, I will remember your miracles of long ago.”  Psalm 77:11

This is one of the verses that we have had the kids memorizing this summer as part of our program.  We have been using archaeology as the theme of our lessons, talking about Elijah, Moses and other prophets that God used to show His power in the world, and then relating it to how God shows His power in the world today. 

One of my activities during camp has been to lead campers on an archaeological dig.  I made a set of plaster tablets that have a crude drawing and coded message indicating some important event from the history of Camp of the Woods.  We set up tents and placed tubs of sand into each tent.  Then I broke the tablets I had made into pieces and buried them in the sand.  Each day, campers come during the specialized activity time to dig up the tablets, piece them together and decode the message.

And so, each week I have been able to proclaim “the miracles of long ago.”  I tell just the little bit I know about the fire that destroyed the lodge in February of 1987, and how it was so quickly reconstructed.  I tell about how in 1968 Garland Cofield had to make an emergency landing with his plane and it broke through the ice on a remote lake. The recovery of the plane is an amazing story.  I tell about the many programs that COTW had including winter camp in tents, and year round Bible School programs.  I tell them about Reba Cofield  and her garden.  Then I take the campers up in the loft where we have the Heritage Room with pictures and artifacts from the past and show them some of the pictures of these events.  There were campers this year who were able to find their grandparents in some of the pictures.

I am so thankful that, fifty years ago, the Cofields came to this place with a vision of what God could do in Northwest Ontario.  The miracles of long ago are being remembered and told to the next generation.

Personally, I am so thankful for what the Cofields did in this place.  It is a place through which God still reaches people, still touches people, and still sends people out.   I will be forever grateful for what this ministry has meant in my life.  I have found a place where I have gifts and talents to offer, and my offer has been accepted as is has been nowhere else.  I have been embraced as a leader even though I am a woman, and it has made a profound difference in my spiritual life.  I will never be the same because of it.