It’s good to be home after just under 4 weeks “on the road, in the sky, from sea to shining sea.” Blessed beyond with so many beautiful places and beautiful people, my words and photos will only begin to convey how soul-refreshing these four weeks have been.
This journey began on July 20, when we flew to California a few days early for our week of speaking at Forest Home’s Family Camp. While enjoying the delightful hospitality of our dear friend Wendy Turney, we were able to spend time with some treasured mentors and friends.
The first night of our time in CA . . . what a warm welcome!!
It’s always a joy to grab some hours with John and Grace Tebay, who have been walking with us for over 50 years now. John turned 90 in February, but his chronology has not informed his body, mind, or spirit to date. Though Grace is having a more challenging road healthwise, she is sharp and still lives up to her name with her sweet, kind spirit. Our time with these two mentors was inspiring and instructional as usual and we left the two-hour lunch sharpened, encouraged, and oh so thankful.
John and Grace Tebay are such gifts as they continue to mentor us along the way.
We were also delighted to spend an evening with these two wise women. Carol Kraning and Wendy Turney have been in our lives for over 40 years and though both are now widowed, they are fully committed to fulfilling God’s purposes for their lives. We had a most delightful dinner together in Wendy’s lovely home and we never lacked for energetic conversation.
Carol Kraning and Wendy Turney are two of our wise mentors. How we loved spending an evening with them!
We were so happy that Kelsey O’Keeffe was willing to meet us in Santa Ana for a fun evening of food, fellowship, and a concert featuring “The Pawnshop Kings” (the band of Scott and Joel Owen—the latter being Wendy Turney’s son-in-law). Check them out! We love their music and are waiting for them to make a recording of hymns (they double as worship leaders for Grace Fellowship Church in Costa Mesa). It was great to catch up with Kelsey who has been in our hearts since she was a 5-year-old at family camp.
Kelsey O’Keeffe has our hearts and Costco has Paul’s. :) His shirt was a Father’s Day gift from his savvy daughters who know him well.
Very quickly, Sunday July 24th came and we headed up to Forest Home for a week of family camp.
Doing what we love best.
There will never be enough words to express how much we love family camp and we are so grateful for our ongoing partnership with Forest Home which gives us the opportunity to fulfill this deep love we have.
The sold-out camp was filled with wonderful people, many repeats from past years at Forest Home or Campus by the Sea (CBS), and many new, “wish we had known them sooner” folks. We loved working with the team including Anthony Prince (host of the week), Aaron McRae (the evening speaker), and Jordan and Jesse Anderson (the worship leaders). We had a blast together.
This is the first year at Forest Home that our children/grandchildren were not with us (except Lisa, who joined us Thursday for the last two days), and as much as we missed sharing the experience with them, it did free us to be fully available to the campers and that deepened the richness of the week. Every meal and almost every hour of free time, we met with different families/couples and that’s really our jam. We truly loved every minute of it.
During the week, we had a sweet visit with Dick and Nancy Beggs who have shared our camping history since the beginning. We met them in 1976 at our first Christian Camping International Conference (they were directing Camp Maranatha and we were at CBS) and that sparked a lifelong friendship. We “get” each other and always love spending time together. We were so grateful they were willing to drive up from Idyllwild so we could connect.
We also reconnected with Dan and Debbie Finfrock, who served on IVCF staff for a short time in the 70’s, overlapping with us the first two years of our marriage. We hadn’t seen them or heard about them since then, but the positive side of social media enabled us to connect and they joined us at camp for a catch-up visit one afternoon. It was so very encouraging to hear about their years of faithful ministry over these past decades and God’s blessing on their desire and commitment to raising their children for Him. All praise is His!!
Anthony Prince did a great job hosting the week of family camp.
Aaron McRae did a great job teaching in the evening out of Revelations, and managed to tie in our morning talks by grabbing important quotes.
Happy reunions with the Engels and the Camarenas who have been longtime CBS family campers.
Baptisms at Lake Day were a definite highlight of the week.
Dick and Nancy Beggs are “salt of the earth” friends and we treasure any time we get to spend with them.
Such a lovely surprise to spend some time with Dan and Debbie Finfrock, who through their ministry, Intensive Care Ministries, have trained hundreds of pastors in developing countries the inductive method of studying scripture.
How we loved having Lisa with us the last two days of camp. She joined us in a panel Q-and-A on parenting and knocked it out of the park.
One of the lovely families we met: Brandt and Molly Niewenhous and their five daughters, who are off to Germany to serve in our military.
The Isaacs came to family camp from Switzerland, earning them a “Homie” for the longest distance traveled to come to camp.
The sun set on family camp July 30 and we left with hearts full of gratitude and hope.
We left very early Saturday morning to drive to Arroyo Grande to officiate a very important wedding and thankfully had time to make a quick stop in Somos to visit the White family, minus the parentals. Aaron and Janelle White were off celebrating their anniversary while Grandpa Dennis and Aunt Dorothy held down the fort. We were so happy to visit at their new family compound…Aaron and Janelle only recently moved on to this amazing property (which hosts an avocado orchard) and Dennis is leaving his Yorba Linda home to join them. How we love this family!!
Grandpa Dennis and his four beautiful grandchildren welcomed us to their new homestead.
Fortunately, we did “get to the wedding on time” and what a grand celebration it was to join Kaylee Andrews and Ryan Vosbigian in holy matrimony. Kaylee’s mom, Heather Trotter Andrews, was a little girl at CBS when we moved to camp in 1976 just after getting married, and we watched her grow up, get married, and raise their two children at family camp. Kaylee served on our program staff the last two summers we were at camp as well as at the Ojai family camp we did in 2019. We were so honored when she asked if Paul would officiate her wedding.
Ryan and Kaylee have deep hearts for the Lord and that informed their courtship and their desire to have a Christ-centered marriage. It was a true joy to do their pre-marital counseling as well as to celebrate this beautiful, God-honoring day in their lives. An added joy was hanging out with some very special friends with whom we’ve shared life at CBS for over 4 decades. We loved everything about this.
Introducing Ryan and Kaylee (Andrews) Vosbigian…bar setters for their generation as they pursue their doctoral studies in Pullman, WA.
A collection of very dear, longtime friends: Mike and Janelle Phillips, Ted and Melinda Collins, Joe and Heather Rossi (with Chesa and Andrew), Stan and Christina Capito, and Phil and Heather Andrews.
The day after the wedding, we serendipitously met up with Phil and Heather (parents of the bride) and Carla Trotter (Heather’s mom who brought Heather and her brother to camp for many years).
We spent the next few days hanging out with Paul and Sherri Masters, who not only graciously hosted us, but also some of our mutual friends. Paul whipped up a five-star dinner for the Kullman’s and the Kitzmans and the delicious food (featuring his Alaskan-caught Mahi Mahi) was surpassed only by the fellowship enjoyed with these great people.
I’d happily have a re-do of this meal any night of the week…and with these same people. Rob Kitzman (his wife Tracy was ill), Darrel and Cindy Kullman, and Paul and Sherri Masters…all delightful friends/traveling companions.
Tom and Carol Miter have been in our lives since 1980 when they began coming to family camp at CBS with a large group of families from Crossroads Church in Corona, where they were serving on staff. That began a tradition that spanned the next 37 summers, as they brought kids, grandkids, and great grandkids to camp. Every morning at camp, they could be found reading their Bibles at the beach in the early morning, continuing their commitment to read through the Bible together every year. That inspired us then and it still inspires us. It was our joy to spend a morning with them, catching up, partially filling the void that is palpable from not spending a week together every summer.
Tom and Carol Miter . . . more “salt of the earth” friends.
Paul and Sherri also hosted a dinner with their kids, Joey and his wife Hannah (and expected first child) and Shelby (whose husband Rolly, a firefighter, was called north to fight the border fire). It was so encouraging for us to be with their now grown up children who, with their spouses, are following Christ.
Our last social event in Arroyo Grande was with Tim and Susie Theule, longtime family camp speakers who have become very dear friends over the years. How we miss sitting under Tim’s teaching for a week ever summer! He and Susie are so valued by us as partners in the ministry as well as people we love to hang out with. The evening was too short, but we were grateful for the two hours we had.
Tim and Susie Theule (www.gracecentralcoast.com) are dear friends as well as accomplished selfie-takers.
We left the central coast early Wednesday morning (Aug 3) for Exeter, CA, to help Randy and Rachael Clark (Randy is the youngest child of Paul’s oldest sister, Sandy) celebrate their 20th anniversary. Some of you know that their 2-year-old daughter Isla has been on an excruciatingly long journey to health since Dec. 1, when she was diagnosed with HUS following an E. coli infection. We were so thankful to be able to spend a few hours with them, marking their anniversary and celebrating Isla’s continued improvement (though she has a long way to go.). We love this precious family deeply and cherished every minute we were with them.
Anniversary breakfast for Randy and Rachael, along with their crew of 5.
Next stop, our second favorite place on earth!! When our Boston friends, the Amicos, told us months ago that they were going on a two-week California vacation this summer which included Yosemite, and we discovered that our final two days in the west coincided with their dates for Yosemite, we all decided it was obviously orchestrated by God for us to share that time.
So we did.
I fell in love with Yosemite when young, as my adventuresome parents introduced us (seven children, count them) to tent camping along the Old Merced River. Many a summer we made the trek to Yosemite, hiking Yosemite Falls, Vernal and Nevada Falls, and gawking at the matchless beauty of that incredible masterpiece of God’s creativity.
Experiencing Yosemite will never get old and the days spent there will never be enough.
Paul and I hiked around Thursday afternoon in sunshine and clear skies since we arrived ahead of the Amicos.
Everyone was surprised that Friday morning brought rain showers to the valley, which is very uncommon at this time of year—so our hike to Vernal Falls was postponed until clearing came early afternoon. We were then treated to the beauty of rushing falls surrounded by exquisite beauty.
The Amicos were duly impressed. It was their first viewing of this magnificent place.
We were as well, though we have seen it dozens and dozens of time.
The iconic tunnel view gives a preview of the glory that awaits those who venture to the valley floor.
We were amazed at how much water was still flowing over Yosemite Falls at this time of year. We’ve seen “dry falls” in past Augusts.
Dawn and Paul Amico shared their beautiful Airbnb with us and we all enjoyed this glorious sunset.
The iconic tunnel view in the rain. Fortunately the Amicos spent four more days here so they did get to see it bathed in sunlight as well.
Part way up the trail we could see Vernal Falls in the distance.
Panoramic view of Nevada Falls.
The sun set way too soon on our Yosemite adventure and we can’t wait to go back.
Next and final stop in the west: Oakland!! Gabe and Kari (and Brandon, Ana, and Micah), along with the congregation of New City Church Oakland (www.nccoakland.com), were wrapping up their fourth day of “Project Backpack” at Laurel Elementary School, and coming alongside teachers who were preparing their rooms for the start of school on Monday, the 8th. We were so happy to join forces with them for the morning, prior to flying out that afternoon. We love how they are serving their community. God is using them to help people know that God loves them and has purpose for their lives.
The “fam” joining the “serve day” and “backpack give-away” at Laurel Elementary. The family that serves together . . .
Thus endeth Part 1 of the past four weeks. Our souls have been renewed by the beauty of His creation, both in landscapes, skycaps, and people. We are overwhelmed by His generosity to us, which has filled our hearts with gratitude and praise.
All praise is His!!