Aundria Dishman

I have known Aundria for a long time.  Since I was much older than she was, I wasn't really close to her, but I did know some things about her.  She was a hard worker.  She liked to make things happen. She loved the Lord.

A few years ago I found out we had something in common.  We had both been to a Feed My Starving Children mobile pack in Chattanooga, and we both fell in love with this ministry.  We both thought this would be a great event for Dunlap.  So when I approached leadership with the idea of holding a pack, I found out that she had asked first.  Neither of us had success in getting this event off the ground.

In late 2016 I still had Feed My Starving Children on my mind and decided to try again to get this event going.  My first call was to Aundria, and she was committed immediately.  We decided to hold an initial meeting to begin planning the mobile pack.

Before we could have our first meeting, Aundria found out she had cancer.  She was able to come to the meeting and pledged to be whatever help she could, but she was unsure of what she might feel like doing.  She was able to persuade her extended family to make the first large donation to the pack.  

Aundria never made it to the mobile pack in April of 2017.  Between her rounds of chemo, she spent lots of time with Derrick, her girls and other family members.  Time was precious.

Aundria passed away back in April after losing her battle with cancer.  In order to remember her and honor her, I got permission from her family to call this next Feed My Starving Children mobile pack the Aundria Dishman Memorial Pack.  I hope it will be a way to remember her love for the Lord, her love for her community, and her service to others.

Special Campers

 Just as when I was a teacher, there are always kids at camp who stand out, who touch your heart in a special way.  Let me tell you about two of them.

The first year Maddie came to camp she was eight years old.  She didn’t smile much, and she never wanted to participate in the games. She always just wanted to watch. I was sure she wouldn’t come back.

But come back she did. She’s been coming ever since, and she loves it all.  The next two years she and her cousin Sophia would always walk with me on the hikes. The challenging part of that was that they always wanted to hold my hands.  I’m not a real touchy-feely person, and my hands would get so sweaty that I would want to take my hand away.  But I never did because these girls were just the sweetest, and it was a special gift for them to want my company.

Maddie has grown, and that’s not how it works anymore.  But that’s ok.

This year she asked for a Bible and her cabin leaders got her one and signed it for her and marked a lot of good verses for her to read.  The last night of camp she brought her Bible to me and asked me to sign it.  “I saved a page for you,” she said.  I filled the whole page up with words I hope she will want to remember.

Something else happened this summer.  Another camper came along who wanted to walk with me and hold my hand.  Emery is another one of those special kids.  She wants to be my pen pal throughout the year this year.  I’m looking forward to it.

I put some of these thoughts into a poem.  It seemed the right medium for saving this memory.

Maddie

Five summers ago you took my hand

And hiked each day of camp.

You talked and laughed to my delight

Until my hand was damp.

Two summers more your face lit up

When first we’d meet again.

And still you held my hand on walks

And with me you’d remain.

But as you’ve grown these past few years

My time with you is passed.

My hand and company are not required. 

I have been surpassed.

This year another camper came

So like you in many ways.

Kind and sweet and talkative,

Smiling and eyes a-blaze.

She held my hand and hiked with me

And did so with great delight.

She shared with me such special things—

And all was then put right.

She won’t replace you in my heart.

There’s room for both (and more).

You’ll always hold a special place,

Always be adored.

But time flies by (as it must),

And life moves on (as it should).

And you grow up and I grow old

And life is very good.

  

 

Saga of a Storyteller

Every summer one of the things I really enjoy doing is taking the kids on hikes and telling them a story.  Since our theme has been “The Amazing Race” my stories have all had the tagline “Winners in the kingdom of God look different from other winners because…”  I’ve told the story of Elisha and his servant from 2 Kings 6 who had his eyes opened to the army of God surrounding them and several other stories.

Schuyler before he gets in the lake

 I asked one of our summer staffers to tell the story of Naaman being healed of leprosy.  Schulyer is a very good story teller in his own right and has done a great job with this story.  Also, it saved me from having to get in the lake each week.  It’s a win-win!

But then something else happened that hasn’t happened here since I’ve been telling stories.  Another woman showed up who wanted to tell stories. Brenda is the mother of one our long time staffers and is about my age.  She has been a story teller for a long time and was very good at it.  In a lot of ways, she reminded me of myself.

That being said, this week has been about some introspection and self-evaluation.  It made me look back to the first few times I came to camp and kind of step outside myself and think about how I was perceived by the people who were here then.  I came in and took someone else’s place who was the storyteller before me, and I was able to write to him and tell him how gracious he had been to let me in.  So then I was able to open the door for someone else to come in and tell a story.

The thing is, though, that it’s not really just about the story.  It’s about the relationship I have been building with kids through my stories over the years.  I am so thankful for the opportunity that I’ve had to share things from the Bible that will help kids live a better life if they will listen and apply it.  And there are certainly those who do.

So this week I’m back to my full range of duties with games and hikes and stories.  The camp will be full to maximum capacity.  It’s going to be a great last week of camp.  I can’t wait!

The things you learn.  For years I've always stood at the top of the
hill to tell my story on Three Hills Trail.  This time I told it from the bottom
and for the first time realized that all the times in the past the kids
couldn't look up at me because the sun was too bright.
 I had a hard time looking up at them.  Now I know this is where I
should always stand to tell stories at Three Hills.

The Amazing Race COTW 2018

I have been unusually quiet about camp this summer.  That’s what my sister tells me (my brother, too).  And they are right.  I have been unusually quiet about camp this summer and mostly it’s because it’s very much the same as usual.  Not much to say that hasn’t already been said.  But at their prompting, I will share this update about what’s going on up here in the Great White North.

This year’s theme is The Amazing Race.  This was the theme for the summer of 2010 when I first came to Camp of the Woods. I designed a “race” back then and they saved all the pieces and we resurrected it this summer with many improvements.  Each day we “travel” to a different continent and do tasks related to that place.  Here are some of pictures of what it looks like:

Zimbabwe: Carrying water

Argentina;  Polo

US Virgin Islands:  Pancake Flipping Race

USA:  Barrel Racing

Canada:  Building Innukshuk

I have been telling stories about winners.  I tell the campers that winners in the Kingdom of God look different than winners in races might look.  I tell them about how Elisha’s servant had his eyes opened to the army of God that was surrounding them and protecting them.  I want them to see that winners in the Kingdom of God see things that others can’t see.  I want God to open their eyes to see that there is a God and he cares for them.  

Adam has been doing the evening chapels.  He has been speaking on God’s Amazing Grace, and he has been using the life of Paul and his journeys as the basis for his talks.

The team that came for Mission Week back in June did an amazing job decorating.  There are so many little details in the lodge that I have been playing “I Spy” for the evening entertainment to get them to pay attention to all the things that have been put in there.  Kudos to Tracey Sarris for the imagination to pull this off.

So that’s some of the surface stuff about camp.  Soon I’ll try to talk about some of the deeper things going on this summer.

Rebellion

Today's poem...

Prompt: write a poem about rebellion.

This morning before I went on my trip
I left my coffee cup sitting in the sink.
I know you hate that

And I did it anyway.

I knew that you would look at it with disgust,
That you would grumble about how I ALWAYS do it,
That it would mess with your "system".

And somehow
That brought a little smile to my lips.

What I Learned in Haiti

As we traveled along the countryside in Haiti and got to know the partners on the ground, there were several things that I learned.  Here are some of them.

1.  I observed firsthand the diligence that FMSC goes to to be sure the food you pack gets into the bellies of kids.  Records are kept and audited often, to ensure that food is not wasted or sold for other items.  Children are weighed and measure to check their growth.  I can also personally attest to the food getting to the children.  When we served lunch to a school with 500 students, every plate came back completely empty.

2.  FMSC has a great desire to empower people in the area where the food is being distributed. Every partner we visited was working to employ as many Haitians as possible and not just for the lowest paying jobs.  They were training people for management and leadership so that these operations can continue to run without depending on American involvement on the ground.  They are also developing partnerships with farmers in several countries to buy rice and beans in their own country without having to ship them in from other places.  This a long and complicated process but one that FMSC is committed to.

3.  Every partner has an on-going long-term relationship with the children at each ministry.  When we pack food we don’t have any idea who is getting our food—they are anonymous to us.  But when it is distributed it is given by people who know Beno and Wowo, Ludienda and Blondine, Wagner and Drew, by name, and these people are invested in their lives.  I could go on and on with stories from Haiti but I have chosen just one to share with you.

Ricardo runs Hotfutbol

Ricardo runs an afterschool soccer program called Hot Futbol.  Each Tuesday-Friday about 170 kids come to form teams, work with coaches and on Saturdays they play teams from other communities.  Ricardo is passionate about this program because he was helped by a program like this when he was a kid.  (Most of our partners in Haiti expressed a strong desire to pay it forward because of help they had received when they were young.)  At the end of every practice session the kids are fed. Ricardo started feeding them because of an experience he had.

One day when this program was just getting started Ricardo took a team to compete in another community. During the first period of the game his team played great and were obviously the better team.  But during the second period they fell apart.  They ended up losing the game.  Frustrated, Ricardo spoke to the boys and said, “What happened?  You should have won that game.”  The boys replied, “We’re sorry, Coach.  We are starving.” And that’s when Ricardo knew he had to find a way to feed them. He raises funds for this program and he told us that if it weren’t for FMSC 70% of his funds would go to food. This soccer program is an important part of the players’ health but it also plays another important role. Players must be attending school to participate.  This incentive keeps lots of boys and girls in school longer so they get more education and to have the potential to get better jobs.

Everywhere we went we wanted to do more but in providing food we were freeing up funds to be used for all kinds of other purposes.

Feeding kids is important work so we are planning another mobile pack.  It will be on November 2-3.  I am planning on having it at the National Guard building again.  So it’s time to go to work to raise the funds to pay for the pack.  We raised enough money for our pack last year to have $2500 left over to be credited to this new pack.  We still need to raise $20,000.  Last Sunday Chapel kicked it off by donating nearly around $900.  I hope you will generously support this endeavor and that many of you will be available to join us to pack food in November.  

What I Did in Haiti

Last week I had the opportunity to spend the week in Haiti. I traveled there with two others from Dunlap, Melissa Tibbs and Cana Smallwood.  We joined others from Minnesota, Texas, Florida, and Illinois, to see the some of the partners working with Feed My Starving Children.

We stayed in a very nice resort made especially for mission groups traveling to Port-au-Prince. We had nice rooms, good food, beautiful grounds and a swimming pool. We also had walls topped with barbed wire and armed guards.

Each day we visited a different organization.  On Sunday we went to church which was very lively and enjoyable.  They served all us visitors Haitian coffee (delicious) and bread (hot dog buns). They were very hospitable to us.

On Monday we visited an orphanage and clinic in the mountains. They were working with mothers to try to give them the means to keep their children because often they are giving them up because they have no way to provide for them.

Tuesday we went to School of Hope where we served lunch to around 500 students. As the dishes came back, every plate was completely cleaned up, every bite eaten. The children were fun to interact with.

Beno and Wowo
Beno wants to be a translator and just wanted someone to speak English with him.

The Haitian cook stirring the pot.

Me stirring the pot
(Totally a photo op)

On Tuesday afternoon we visited a very remote village where they have a malnutrition climic. We played with and held some very sick kids and some well on their way to recovery. The family who runs this clinic has been there for more than 20 years. I think one of the important things in our visit here was to let them know that we see their good work and encourage them.

The toughest place for me was a special needs orphanage we visited. But this is where Melissa shone. She latched on to a boy who had cerebral palsy and reminded her so much of her sister Debbie. It was very sweet.  About 25 children were cared for there and although they had food and shelter there was not a book or toy in the whole place.

Our guides we're two young Haitian men who were so kind and fun to be with. They both had great testimonies for the Lord. I enjoyed both of them very much. One thing they asked of us. They wanted us to come back and be ambassadors for all the good we saw in Haiti. And so I will say what wonderful people we met in all the places we visited.