In This Place

When I arrived it was the oddest looking building nestled among the Pennsylvania mountains. The building was gray and almost as big as a barn. To the side of it was a large kind of broken down building. So this was where I would spend my summer...out in the middle of nowhere.

As I entered the front door a friendly woman with white hair put her arms around me. "You must be B.," she said! We've been watching for you! She then asked one of the teenagers in the main room to take me upstairs. "Pick any of the rooms you want! The campers will not be coming until early evening!"

With those words, I was ushered upstairs and entering one of the rooms, I dropped my suitcase down and rolled out my sleeping bag. I looked around at the six or eight bunks surrounding me. I wondered who would be sleeping in each of those beds.

I would never have believed that so many children could come out of a countryside that looked so desolate! There were hundreds of kids descending on the house. Surely they were not all staying here!

I did find that the camp was a bit larger than I had thought. The ground extended all the way up the mountain. Yet the cabins for the guys were back behind the main lodge building where the girls would be staying. I was amazed that so many children could fit in these buildings. Why the girls even fought over sleeping in "The Porch" an open porch area perched at the end of the main building which was a porch with six beds on it.

Gina and By began cooking in a little kitchen. Was she going to feed them all from in here? She handed me a bowl and asked if I would fill it with mashed potatoes and then come back
for more. We worked speedily and would you believe it...we fixed our first meal for about 200-250 campers? I was amazed. God must surely have something in this summer for me!

Heading upstairs after dinner I found that the bunks had been filled by six girls of all shapes and sizes. I saw right away there were a couple talkers and at least one that would be a challenge. Yet I was excited to see what God did.

Would you believe that I loved every minute in that run down camp! God was in that place like I have never seen! Child after child received Jesus because this family opened their home and property to reach lost kids with the gospel and love on them.

That summer was so great! One of my teenage girls shared with me that she wanted to be a missionary like me some day. Heather began a journey that day that took her to medical school and on to Bangladesh. This quiet red head became a doctor. Today she is still a missionary. Was it a summer of blessings? Need I say more?

I learned a lesson while there...that God can use whatever we have to give him if we open it up to him. He will will use it to reach a lost world.

As for By and Regina...well...this summer just as that one so many years ago...they will be found in the kitchen once again making meals for hundreds of campers. This wonderful couple of teachers in rural PA who have a heart for children have followed in their parents footsteps and opened this big old home so that children and teens can hear the gospel.

Me...well I was changed by that summer...and never again would I be the same.

Betty

The astute wife of a multi-millionaire. Mrs. Betty Lewis was an able
financial consultant to her husband. Mrs. Lewis enjoyed an impressive lifestyle.
She and her husband had power, wealth and fame. Betty's husband
George was on the cover of business magazines.

Fast forward to the present. Mr. Lewis passed away several years
ago having to live in a wheel chair and needing to be taken care
of by a round the clock nursing staff. After the death of Mr. Lewis, Betty,
was brought to North Carolina by her children as Alzheimer's began
to take control of her mind. She lives today within the confines of
her house, yard and street. Mrs. Lewis finds pleasure in puppies,
children and an occasional meal out.

Alzheimer's is a thief of the thing we all hold dear--memory. There are
a few days when patients are lucid and active. Their conversations
may be more normal. Their sentences usually garbled become clear.
A patient might be able to read or play a game on these days.

I began bringing my dog, Meah, to visit Betty almost a year ago now. Betty
finds joy in petting Meah's head and having her wet, sloppy kisses.
She loves on Meah and Meah loves her. Betty calls her a
"good girl" and Meah's tail wags wildly in response. Betty knows
a kindred spirit when she sees one.

Betty , the nurse, Meah and I make scrapbooks, play games and
cook together. Betty, though she is ill, has a discernment about
her. She knows she is among friends. She calls us "a good group".

Betty and I would never have run in the same circles if it were not for
her illness. Now she calls me her friend! Though I am often tired
when our day comes to visit Betty...I always go away refreshed.

Betty's husband, George, had come to know Jesus as His Savior before
his death. I like to think that He can see us from Heaven and that
He knows the love of his life is in good hands. Several times there has
been an opportunity for me to share with Betty as I would with children the
gospel story. I have asked God to give her lucid moments
in which she understands and can somehow respond to His Spirit.

I so want to see Betty in Heaven, free from the chains of Alzheimer's
which now imprison her.