Our three-week project is coming to an end at Shiloh Bible
Camp in Donnelly, Idaho. We will be going to Washington soon….and we are
excited to be heading back to our old stomping grounds. Our time here in Idaho
has been great, and the people we have been working with and for have been a
real blessing to us.
We add our fellow MMAPers on this project to our growing
list of wonderful Christian brothers and sisters that will be life-long friends
and ones we hope to work with on other MMAP projects.
Our MMAP Coordinators, Ashley and Gloria are from North
Carolina, and have been doing MMAP projects for 10 years. They have completed 42
projects around the country and are still going strong. They are an inspiring
Christian couple and have directed us all with great expertise. Gloria never
sees a stranger and talks to everyone she meets about Jesus. She is like the Energizer Bunny and is a walking,
talking light for God.
Ashley fell in love with the camp tractor! He used it a
lot on the project.
Sam (being Sam) with
Ashley and Gloria on our boat outing on Payette Lake in McCall. (Gloria has
struggled with the colder climate of Idaho. But after the project ends they
will be taking a trip to Texas to attend their son’s Air Force commissioning
service. I think she will have a chance to warm up there before coming back to
continue projects in the northwest!)
John & Carol, from Montana have been with MMAP for 7
years and have done 28 projects. They were with us in February 2011 at the
project in San Bernardino, CA. They met in college in
Montana and have been happily married for 48 years. They are devoted to one
another and solid in their faith. We think the world of them.
John has a quiet sense of humor and worked well with Jim.
Their assignment was to power wash the log fences, repair them and re-stain all
the logs – LOTS of logs – as well as the play yard equipment which is made of logs
as well. (These log fences and the kids’ play yard were built by MMAPers two
years ago.) The abundance of logs came about because of a freak wind shear – a
tornado-like wind that suddenly came through the area and uprooted several
large trees. As the saying goes: When
your’re handed a bunch of lemons (or in this case – logs) just make lemonade (or
in this case – log fences)!
These two
were the “reserved” guys on the project, but they still had a lot of fun.
Carol is an accomplished pianist and provided the
accompaniment at our morning devotionals. Since they primarily do projects in
the northwest states, we look forward to working with them again.
Sam & Mary (our friends for over 30 years) and fellow
Arizonans, are excited to finally be doing their first MMAP project. Sam’s
long-time background in various phases of construction is a great asset to the
project. He is talented in every stage of repair, maintenance and construction
and can tackle any job well. Mary is his biggest cheerleader and a great friend
to me. It has been a lot of fun working with them. They are anxious to try
another project in October, God willing. We hope we will be able to team up
with them next year.
Sam was drawing up plans for a new
porch for one of the staff houses
A rousing game of
Sequence with Sam & Mary and Bill & Mecaila.
Bill and Mecaila are full time RVers and have been with MMAP
for a little over a year. They have managed to squeeze 6 projects into this
short time. Originally from New Mexico, they now travel wherever MMAP takes
them, but maintain a mailing address for now in North Dakota. Although they are ten or more years younger than us, we are trying to get them to check out Sun City
in Arizona. Bill is retired from construction and (like Sam) is adept at almost
all tasks thrown his way. Mecaila is a bundle of energy – which comes in handy
when she needs to corral the two dogs and five ferrets that travel with them.
Mecaila with two of her five
ferrets, Sammy and Rascal
One of the projects for us ladies was to clean two of the staff houses. Hey, if you can’t have fun cleaning a house, when can you have fun?
Besides cleaning up the fences and the staff houses, the men
also poured a concrete slab to extend the camp basketball court, built a slate
floor and wall behind the woodstove in the dining hall and added a huge wood mantle above
it, poured two small slabs outside the doors of the facilities manager’s house,
and build a beautiful sturdy new porch on the front of the house.
Before work began,
the woodstove in the dining hall sat in the corner flush on the floor. After a
lot of prep and hard work, the guys fashioned a mantle cut from a huge chunk of
wood (10 ft long, 20 inches wide and 10 inches thick). They also added a slate floor and wall surround. The completed job is fantastic!
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| Almost ready for the wood stove to be set in place |
The porch on the staff house turned out to be VERY sturdy! Any guesses of
the total “weight load” in this shot?
Shiloh Bible Camp was
started in 1937. The 14-acre property where the camp is currently located was
acquired in 1979. All of the property and facilities have been donated and
built by volunteer labor. A lot of the current buildings were worked on by
MMAPers in MMAP projects that have been going since 2002.
Previous MMAPers helped build the
chapel/dining hall.
Our RV’s parked near the chapel across from the staff kids’
play area.
The camp offers two snow camps in January and February; a
spring-blow out in March that drew 251 kids this year; four summer camps for 3rd-12th
graders; a weekend retreat for junior and senior high students involved in a
year-long discipleship program (these kids also serve at the summer camps);
family camp over Labor Day weekend; and a fall weekend discipleship camp. For more info on the camp, check their web site at www.shilohbibleconference.com
Our three-week project was before summer camps started, so
we didn’t have campers around. This summer they expect at least 350 kids attending
the four one-week sessions. Campers usually come from small rural communities
throughout Idaho, with 70-80% from the Boise/Nampa area – although one group
comes over from Portland, Oregon each year. The camp is committed to keeping
costs for camp low, so Shiloh relies on volunteers and donations. In fact, the
program fees are not enough to cover their actual costs, so they rely on
donations to support the ministry. And since they don’t ever want to turn
campers away, they have camper assistance funds available through generous
gifts from donors. They also rent the facilities out to churches throughout the
year for church retreats.
Part of the summer high school camp
involves horsemanship skills classes. The camp does not have horses of their
own, but just prior to camp Amy Allen, the camp horse wrangler (an InFaith
missionary) brought six horses in that she borrows from local horse owners. Zoe
was thrilled! She thought she was back at our last year project in Pennsylvania
at Miracle Mountain Horse Ranch.
The only full time staff workers are missionaries with
InFaith who raise their own support. Gabe Stayton, the Director of Operations
and currently filling in as the Facilities Manager was our camp coordinator for
the project. His wife, Andrea assists him with camp chores and co-teaches some
of the Timothy Charge discipleship classes offered to junior and senior high
school students throughout Idaho. Both grew up in the area and both were former
campers at Shiloh. After graduation from Boise State, Gabe and Andrea went on
to missionary training with New Tribes Missions in Wisconsin.
We feel blessed to have met the Staytons. They are a special family - especially their five-year old son Titus. He is quite a guy – very articulate and totally at ease with all us “old folks”! From the moment we drove into camp, Titus took to Zoe (and she to him) and he became our official “dog walker”. We look forward to keeping in touch with the Staytons, and if God allows us to come back for other MMAP projects, to watch how Titus grows into a godly young man.
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| Gabe and Andrea Stayton |
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| Our buddy, Titus |
Titus and Helen instantly hit it off too. Whenever possible they were visiting or walking the dog. Here he clowns around with Helen during a mid-week pot luck. Helen was in her “grandma” mode and loving every minute of it!
Helen put her grandma
creativity to work and made this little woodland creature for Titus.
Donnelly (a town with a population under 150) is over two
hours drive down a steep mountain highway to Boise, so we didn’t get back to a
large city for the entire three week stay at Shiloh. But the town of McCall is
only 12 miles away. It is a charming summer and winter tourist town with a
population of approximately 3000 in the off seasons, but swells five to ten
times that number with summer visitors and in the winter with two nearby ski
resorts drawing tourists in. The surrounding mountains still had a bit of snow
on them and the first week of our project was a bit nippy and overcast, with
the added excitement of a hail storm one evening (golf ball sized hail!) But as
the weather warmed to the mid and upper 70’s and became more pleasant, we took
advantage of our days off to drive around and see the beautiful scenery and also
take a boat tour on Payette Lake. We ladies headed to McCall for our MMAP
“Ladies’ Day Out”. On Sundays we all attended the small Donnelly Community Church, and
the MMAP ladies joined the church ladies for their weekly
Bible study. On the second Friday of the project we had a special visit from Kerry and Judy Cameron (MMAP
Directors.) They made a three hour drive from their project in Halfway, Oregon (near
Baker City, OR) to visit with us. We put together an impromptu pot luck lunch –
ANY excuse to eat!!
Cascade Lake – walking
distance from the camp
Historic Roseberry is just down the road from Donnelly. In 1911 it was the largest town in the county of Long Valley, and had everything from flour and saw mills, a beautiful 5-sided Hotel, brass band, baseball team and many schools. A large Finnish population had settled the area because of the free land offers in Idaho and because the weather was a lot like their native country – short growing seasons and lots of snow in the winter. However, in 1914, when the railroad laid down tracks a few miles to the west and created the town of Donnelly, Roseberry pretty much faded away and many of the buildings were relocated to Donnelly. The General Store stayed open until 1939 and then closed its doors. In 1969 what was left of the town was purchased by one family who started reconstructing it as an historic site, moving some of the old original buildings back from Donnelly. The Store and town site today are a collection of over 20 old and historic buildings from all over the valley, including Finnish cabins from early settlers, a Finnish Blacksmith Shop, the old McCall City Hall, a Carriage House, Bandshell, one room School House and much more.
Jim checks out huckleberry honey at
the general store while Helen tries on hats.
The “Thinker”
The “Thinker”
Boat trip on Payette
Lake in McCall
Million dollar homes surround Payette Lake
Kerry Cameron (MMAP Director) discusses the project and MMAP with us
Enough talk….let’s eat!!
Ladies' Day Out to McCall for thrift store shopping, eating and just having fun together.
We also browsed the
Christmas Shop and had lunch several times at the McCall Pancake House~
Mecaila and her plate sized pineapple pancake with homemade coconut syrup
A fi
Helen with Char, the
co-owner of another great restaurant in McCall - Chef Geoff’s.
Char says folks make the
3 hour drive up from Boise just for her lattes.
If you ever get to
McCall, have Char make you her famous white chocolate caramel latte….YUMMMY!
In spite of a rough start to the summer, this has been a
great beginning for our 2012 MMAP season. Shiloh may possibly be a return
project in the future. We’ve met some wonderful people at camp, at church and
in and around town. All these experiences and new relationships are worth more
than words can explain. We are blessed to be able to continue to do this, and wherever
God takes us, we know it will be good. Following the “Son” has a lot of
rewards!
PTL!!!
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