Camping in the Boonies--Preparation for the Mission Field

When the Lucas family goes camping, it is very good preparation for the Mission Field. 

Not only do we have to make do without quite a number of things which we manage to forget,

and not only do we have to cram into small and boring spaces when it rains (which it does almost daily in the mountains), but we also have to figure out how to even get where we are going.

This is, of course, when Jonathan is driving--and parking. 

Now if Anna were driving, the travel trailer would be parked right up near the road without trying to navigate S-shaped curves between both living and dead trees or trying to get the travel trailer through dips that are too deep for a 30-ft. trailer. 

But when Jonathan goes to the mountains, he and the children are determined to find the best places to camp, and somehow they manage to get there even though that process is an adventure in itself!

This is how we got in and out of Monday's campsite!

The campsite was idyllic...

but we had to pile logs in the dip, and both the older girls and older boys knelt by the tires, pulling out this split log and that one and hurrying to put one after another in front of the tires, while the driver inched along,
with certain parts of the hitch or leveling devices scraping ominously in the dirt at times.

I wandered restlessly off under the trees and into the nearby meadow, thinking that perhaps this once the driver should have listened to me, but little by little, he and the children made it back to the campsite they had chosen. 

"We don't have anything else to do!" Jonathan argued nonchalantly.

So I stayed away for a couple minutes and then came back to watch and "help," then left again when the scraping of parts of the trailer and juggling of logs got to be too much for me, as the endeavor stretched into nearly an hour to get back through the trees.
Challenge, folks! Men--and boys--and tomboy girls--need challenge!

I peered under the travel trailer after it was settled in place, expecting to see it torn to pieces or scrunched in some sort of way, but it seemed to still be in one piece, and I breathed a sigh of relief.

Boys will be boys, you know, even the grown up ones.

And we girls just have to let them be; after all, it's just a travel trailer, and once it was leveled, we had such a lovely evening, because it was SUCH a perfect spot.

It was right next to a stream, with trees and meadow, wild roses and other flowers blooming, and many willow shrubs all along the wide stream. A deer splashed through the stream or nosed through the willows more than once.

 Yes, when the Lucas children go camping with their parents, they automatically and joyously get some good missionary training. They hike long miles, curl up with good books, make do in multiple ways, sleep out in the open if they choose, eat new foods such as various kinds of fish, and get tired and dirty.


We see beautiful sights and learn new things and worship God over and over.
 
We listen to Rose pick out "The Old Rugged Cross" on her mandolin, sing patriotic songs, and roast marshmallows.

I read story after story out loud from one section of Dorcas Smucker's book, Sunlight Through Dusty Windows, (a three-books-in-one) about how their family of eight decided to spend four months helping at a boys' home in Kenya--

and ended up adopting one of the boys into their Oregonian Mennonite pastor's home.

And Crystal remembered over and over things she herself experienced in Africa on her trips to sell and distribute Bibles with "Uncle" Pete Marais and Aunt Esther, "Oom Piet," as he was affectionately called. 

The Bible-selling group had camped out for weeks at a time in Africa. 

Crystal found out from a phone message that "Oom Piet" went to be with the Lord Monday morning while we were camping in the mountains, and Crystal cried.

All day she kept remembering and telling us about Oom Piet. 

She kept remembering things about him, especially since she just got back from spending a week in Pheonix with her cousin Amaris who is at a clinic there for Lyme treatments. While there with Amaris and Candace, the three cousins looked again at photos of their three trips to Africa and watched the videos they had taken there.

Just recently "Oom Piet" appreciated music videos the cousins had sent him of the Morley cousins and some parents singing hymns. Those videos cheered his last days that were so full of weakness and pain. His wife, "Aunt Esther," expressed deep appreciation. 

And I wonder, will one of my children sense God's call to take God's Word to those without it?

Will they be willing to lay personal comforts aside to share the gospel and to take God's Word to hungry hearts?

Perhaps our excursions into the wilds of Colorado mountains will help to prepare them.

Perhaps the stories we read of others who sacrificed and went to other lands will help to guide them into their future life work, whether here at home or abroad.
Perhaps "Oom Piet's" death will spark a blaze that will not go out.