"Carry Me Back to Old Virginny"

One of Tomoka Christian’s mission teams each year heads up to Virginia to help with Equipping the Saints (ETS), a nonprofit provider of necessities to missionaries all over the world. Gene McCullough, who headed up the industrious team, shared below some highlights of an extremely productive trip.

Tomoka sent 10 team members to ETS. Eight more joined us from a church in Michigan, who called themselves the Michigan contingent of the Tomoka team. It was their first mission trip and from what I heard it was a huge success for them. We all worked together Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.

Each morning started with a devotional. Then a list of the projects was discussed and team members worked where their skills were most needed.

Part of the team replaced 16, 10-foot windows on the second story of an old school building. The wooden windows leaked so badly that vinyl plastic was taped to the trim to keep the weather out. After the plastic and trim had been removed, members of the team sanded and painted the trim. We completely remodeled an old school room so that it could be used as a dorm and meeting room. Ten-foot blackboards and frames were removed from the walls, and then the walls were mudded, spackled, sanded, primed and painted by team members.

Other members were able to sort out a variety of new light bulbs that ETS had purchased at a great discount. The bulbs were sorted, counted and cataloged so that they could be sold on e-Bay. One team member helped the staff with Quickbooks. Members of the team also moved a kitchen cabinet, including the sink, from a room that was being used as a library for children’s books to another room that will become the new kitchen. Now, the library no longer has the kitchen in it.

Some members of the team packed boxes of clothes for an upcoming shipment to Papua, New Guinea. Other members worked in the electronics area repairing wireless microphones that will be sold on the Internet or provided to worship leaders who need them. The office supply room was cleaned and organized. Another group addressed and stamped envelopes. We were all blessed to work with the Michigan contingent and the staff at ETS.

We look forward to a return trip the second week of August 2010. This is an inexpensive trip that gives help and relief to a team of volunteers and the staff of ETS. We welcome new members who can commit to the trip within the next couple of months.

Thanks for providing us with the freedom and opportunity to go. It was a real blessing for all of us.

God-Style Camping

A Tomoka Christian mission team recently returned from Camp Chenaniah in Honor, Michigan. They ran a week of summer camp there. Two members of the team, Scott Hale and Ryan Houser, shared some of the trip highlights.

From Scott:

My experience at Camp Chenaniah in Michigan was unbelievable. My beautiful wife and our three kids (Jay, 12; Kieran, 6; and Riley, 2 1/2) started our trip at 4:30 a.m. in the TCC parking lot and arrived at camp by 8:30 p.m. that same day. This was their first mission trip but they were all troupers!

Now I've been on mission trips overseas before, and while I'm not at all lessening those experiences, the realization that some of the same occurrences are happening here in the states just ate me up.

After you get past the "rustic" atmosphere, I thought the camp itself was an incredible scene. The reason that Camp Chenaniah may not have the latest living conditions or best of modern technology is because the owners, Mike and Belva, do not charge much for the campers to be able to come. Part of this is due to the economy, but mainly this is because the surrounding area just does not have a lot of money. In some cases they don't charge anything. They may have kids who are allowed to attend on a volunteer work basis, say, to help in the kitchen, or take out trash. The philosophy there is that Mike and Belva would rather have the kids there learning about Christ than not.

I would have to say that my favorite part of the week was the worship. The camp's chapel collapsed last winter due to weather and age. So we met in an old Army surplus tent. It was damp, dirty, and dusty and had wooden pews nailed down to two-by-fours. But the worship was pure. These kids let it pour straight from their hearts. These kids are truly looking for Christ; they are clinging to the hope of His promises.

Being out at Camp Chenaniah with these kids reminded me that it's not about the building, it's not about the facilities, it's not about how many are in attendance. It's about offering God our hearts and getting back to what is pure.

My family and I are already trying to plan our trip back for next year!

From Ryan:

I was nervous about Camp Chenaniah at first. I had never been there, and I wasn’t sure what the campers would be like. I had to trust in God that he would use me however He needed to that week.

Chenaniah turned out to be one of the best and most “Seriously Ridiculous” weeks I’ve experienced all summer. I loved every minute of it. From the team, the campers, the games and everything else, God was under control of every aspect. By the end of the week, I didn’t want to leave — despite the spiders and moths everywhere — and I wished I could have stayed longer.

The team from Illinois and Michigan were great to be with. I am blessed to have met them and still be talking with them almost a month later. It was fun to hang out with not only the new counselors I met, but the ones from Tomoka, as well, especially knowing that we all shared the same goal of reaching the kids and showing the love of Christ to them.

One of the most incredible experiences I had with the campers was on the last night. It was about 11 at night, and some of the kids were still up. They were talking with each other and just playing around. I thought it was funny and eventually they began to talk with me about salvation and baptism for a while. They had a lot of questions to ask and I just talked with them and tried to answer their questions. A lot of them didn’t know much about different Bible stories and how to get a close relationship with God. It was powerful to see such young people desiring God and wanting to know more about Him.

The last day, we all went to the lake and saw 11 baptisms! It was such an amazing experience to see the kids I had been with all week accept Christ as their savior and be baptized! Even one of our staff got baptized!

I went away from camp knowing nothing that had happened this week happened because of us. Everything was under God’s control and it was comforting to know that. I pray that the campers and even the staff take the lessons we learned and grow closer to God each day. I am excited to go back next year and see them again, and I can’t wait to see what God has in store next July!