Hey everyone, it’s been a bit longer than I intended for this post, but we’ve been pretty busy this spring and winter! We’ve had an influx of activity that we normally don’t have at this time of the year because we’ve moved some activities that we usually do in the fall up to the spring. Most notably, we had our annual 5k trail run,”Race to the Cove”, moved to the end of February, and we’ve moved our golf fundraiser “Fore the Kids” up to mid April. So, between that, our scheduled work week, an open house event, and our annual Women’s Weekend Away, we’ve been pretty busy. Obviously, we also have summer coming up soon, so planning for that is always a priority as well.

But besides being busy, it’s also been a very productive winter/spring. We had our highest turn out for the 5k race than we’ve ever had in the past, with over 120 people run this year, and the weather was perfect. It was also much less work on me this year, personally, since I wasn’t fighting the leaves off the trails every week. Overall, I think I only had to walk and leaf blow the trails about 4 or 5 times this year, as compared to the 8 or 9 times that I’ve had to walk it when we had it in the fall. That may seem excessive, but we like to have our course completely ready two weeks ahead of time, so that we can have runners test it before the actual race. So, after we have the initial set up done, we have to then re-mark with paint and fix any tape that comes down during that two week period.

We also did lots of general clean up around camp in preparation for our open house event in March. This is the third open house event that we’ve tried to host here at camp, and once again, we had it rained out. It was disappointing, to be sure, but at the same time humbling. After all, we have tried to do these events to try to expose more people to camp, show them what we have to offer, and, by bringing more people to camp, have more of an impact on more lives. But, we have not had any of those events actually happen. In fact, last year, every one our events that we have tried to host to raise funds for projects, raise funds for scholarships, or bring more people to camp have been canceled because of weather related events. And yet, through all of that,  God has provided for us here at camp, and money has come in to sustain those programs and our ministry here. We have tried to schedule our efforts in order to bring more people in and witness to them, and yet we must go back and understand that it is not us who truly does the work, but it is God. He is the one who truly has the impact on lives, and sustains us. That is not to say that trying to do an open house event was a waste, it just had a different purpose than what we had intended. Coming out of the winter season, we don’t have very many people come through, and so some of the our facilities tend to be a bit more run down,  or at the very least, are not as much of a priority in that season. But, with an open house event, we want to present camp in the best light possible. So, it gives us a hard deadline to work with for getting things ready for the spring.

With that in mind, it reminds me of a verse in proverbs in relation to God’s will, our own, and His sovereignty. Proverbs 16:9 simply says, ” The mind of man plans his way, but the Lord direct his steps.” Though we meant it for one thing, God meant it for another, and so I’m inclined to believe that it was all for the best.

Aside from all of this, I’ve had quite a few projects in the works. Some of these are for the summer activities and others for general use around camp.

Our theme this year is “Power-up“, so we’ll be doing some retro graphics for decorations, and doing some activities that relate back to some older video games. The chest is for a hiking activity in the woods, where the kids will go on a quest that works similarly to old adventure style games. I’ve put a lot into this one in particular, so I may make another post later that deals specifically with it, but for now I don’t want to ruin any of the surprise.

We also have some general maintenance and improvements for areas, of course. This year I made a rack to hold all of our zipline equipment, so that we aren’t just laying it on tarps on the ground anymore. Also pictured is our Registrar, Reagan Lail, as we set up for a group coming over to try out the zipline.

I also made a pulpit for camp, as we’ve just been using music stands for the past couple years whenever people are speaking. There’s nothing wrong with doing that, but sometimes the stands can’t take much weight, so they just slide down or tilt unnecessarily. So I put a little time in on the side to make a more permanent solution. It also gave me an opportunity to try out some things I’ve learned about making curved feet.

Beyond that, I’ve got a few other projects before summer gets here, but I’ll post some pictures when I get to those. And actually, I’m planning on posting more pictures to facebook specifically about projects instead of just posting here. That way it’s not just all of the picture at once, and probably more pictures of the projects as I’m actually working on them.

As always, thank you all so much for the support you show me, whether that’s encouragement, financial support, or prayers. If you have any questions, feel free to contact me through any of the information on my contact page, and check hickorycove.org to stay up to date on events here at camp!