When whoever's in New England ...

(from Bobby)

Brady and I were blessed this past weekend to travel 1,800-plus miles to attend the annual men's retreat at Gander Brook Christian Camp in Raymond, Maine.

The trip was closer to 2,000 miles if you consider that we flew from Oklahoma City to Houston to catch our first connecting flight Thursday morning, then on to Newark, N.J., finally to Manchester, N.H., where we picked up our rental car and drove about two hours to the camp. (We had a much more direct route -- with just one stop, in Detroit -- on the way home Sunday afternoon.)

We met some awesome Christian men (and women), including two folks that I have known by e-mail for quite a while: Charlie Harrison, minister of the Brunswick, Maine, church, who is pictured below with me, and Park Linscomb, minister of the Manchester, N.H., church, who is pictured with his wife, Linda, after worship Sunday morning.

The weather at night was in the 30s. Fall is my favorite time of year, so I loved leaving the summer temperatures of Oklahoma and finding myself in the midst of an overnight frost. The Gander Brook folks put Brady and me in the director's cabin, so we had our own bathroom and even wireless Internet access -- so much for roughing it!

There was no heater, though, so I slept in my hooded sweatshirt. But I loved it. Monte Cox from Harding was the speaker for the retreat and did a wonderful job. By Friday, the long day on Thursday had caught up to Brady, I think. He dozed off as we sang "Anywhere with Jesus, I can go to sleep..." that afternoon. I had to chuckle.

This was my first time ever in Maine and New Hampshire -- as well as Rhode Island, where Brady and I enjoyed dinner Saturday night with Bruce Bates, minister of the Blackstone Valley church in Cumberland, R.I., and his wife, Janet, and 9-year-old daughter, Annie.

And, of course, we just had to take time Saturday afternoon to tour Fenway Park in Boston. :)

I'm writing a story about Gander Brook and what such a camp means to the mainly small congregations of New England. You can sure be that I'll mention the moose on the wall prominently!