t w e n t y - f i v e c e n t s

1st let me say GO PHILLIES!!!

Gotta love this one!

2nd gas was 2.44 a gallon in good ole' NJ before I left for DC yesterday AM.

From the book of Proverbs chapter 24:

Know also that wisdom is sweet to your soul; if you find it, there is a future hope for you, and your hope will not be cut off.

I once read in Proverbs and James to pray for wisdom and understanding. To ask for wisdom from heaven and then as I continued to grow in spirit I would read more of God's word and I kept seeing God's instruction to pray for wisdom and to pray for understanding and I started to follow that instruction and the Lord considers wisdom to be far more valuable then gold and rubies so I pursue wisdom and understanding and I pray that God should see fit to bestow these things upon me.

As should you-

I was in Pentagon City mall yesterday doing what I do (work) and I was approaching an escalator going down as I observed a young 8th grader from Ohio ( my stores cater to field trip tourists and this young man was one of them) take a coin and roll it down the escalator to cause chaos and confusion to those riding the escalator to which it did....as the escalator carried me down I could see the coin at the bottom step getting pushed back and forth stuck at the end of it's ride. I was impressed to see that the coin was silver in color. Wow, I thought this young man tossed a nickel or dime and as I got closer I could see that it was much more then 10 cents! It was 25 cents....I was awestruck as my foot pushed the quarter out of the clutches of the escalator and pocketed it. What has become of us to throw money as if it were a stick?!

We, Americans are rich. The bible says the rich will have a hard time getting in heaven...Luke 3 says; "The man with two tunics should share with him who has none, and the one who has food should do the same." do me a favor, k? just don't throw your possessions down the escalator.

Today....

It was great to be at camp this past weekend....lots and lots of brothers and sisters in Christ were present. At camp everyone has the same purpose, everyone is on course with God.
Then we get out in the world and start to lose touch.

Surround yourself with like-minded people. People who LOVE the LORD.

...and also do this:
Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. Philippians 4
Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. 2Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. Colossians 3

SYG Stand Your Ground

Greetings!

This Sat @ Camp will be the annual Stand Your Ground rally.

SYG starts @ 10 AM and goes till 8 PM.

This will be ANOTHER amazing day @ camp.

Whenever we have a gathering at camp it is an amazing time and this is no exception.

I will be there breaking down the canteen for the winter and my lovely wife will be preparing the food. Looks like TACO nite will be in full force a camp fave!

The speaker is Adam Ellis....it's going to be good I just checked out his blog---some pretty cool stuff check it out at---http://adamellis.blogspot.com/

till then---peace

Ted is gone...

I started formal guitar lessons Tues nite. By formal that means I pay someone to teach me to learn. We talked more about music theory then anything else and I really enjoyed it. I had to trek my acoustic guitar all the way to W Philly for the lesson.
I have become a public transportation junkie of late so that's what I did...

went to work from SOUTH JERSEY to Old City Philly---Old City Philly is near the river--think geography. Then about an hour before my lesson I left work, guitar in hand....I ran into Yolonda the homeless lady whom I talk too and she was impressed I played (she hasn't heard me!) and we found conversation on Ted the homeless guitar guy, it was common conversation ground. Well....she said...."they took Ted away yesterday." A warrant had been out for him and now he's gone. No one knows if and when he will be back and all I could think about was that he would now have a clean bed and daily food. Apparently being on the street must be better then prison food and shelter. Freedom is precious. I digress....I had been wanting to play guitar with Ted for a long time and I just never got around to it---now Ted's gone.
My opportunity has been wasted.

I then took the the Frankford El to 52nd street and walked the six plus blocks to 50th & Pine.
WOW....was I ever out of place walking here. I would like to think I have no fears when around people etc...but I was definitely out of my element and sticking out like a sore thumb....when I asked for directions the fella giving me them advised me to stay on the MAIN ROAD and not digress....he was trying to say----you will be much safer white boy if you stay in the public areas.
And this was during brite shining sunlight!
I took his advice and found my place of lesson and when the lesson was completed I added a new train to my repertoire----the TROLLEY of which the best part is the 1st trolley just passed me by and let me tell you---he KNEW I wanted him to stop...he just kept on trolleying so I asked a passer-by what I had to do to get the trolley to stop and he said "sometimes the drivers are just like ignorant like that". No worries...I caught the next one.

Take advantage of time friend......who's your Ted? Mine's gone!

Thanks for reading.

Love, Tate

kids

kids, kids, kids---- w e n e e d y o u r kids!

Camp is about Christ and we need your kids this summer.


1,000 campers is the goal.


the tag line of "leave no kid behind" is easy.

we don't need no stinking tag line....we just need your kids, at camp.

send them
(it will change a life)

everybody----staff & board

get kids to camp.

steak & corn, corn & steak

it doesn't much matter....steak & corn or corn & steak. It's @ camp. The Booster Dinner starting @ 2:00, dinner @ 5:00 and ending at 8.

It's at camp....what else do you need to know.

Camp, camp, camp, camp.

c-u there!!!!

don't be square....be there!

homeless part 29

I am not sure why I blog so much about the homeless...

So I have befriended Ted....a guitar player. I gave him some strings and I love contributing to anyone playing...hearing their music kinda hits home for me....besides Ted plays a mean Old Love....which is a great bluesy tune.

So today I see Ted and say hi and his eyes kinda lite-up as he stops playing and he says; "do you know a woman", sure I say, my wife. Well I have stuff here she might kinda like as he pulls various weird stuff from a bag....stuff like a plug in deodorizer and hands me the stuff with this amazing happiness....'cause he is GIVING to ME.

I say it all the time. GIVE TO GIVE

when you give----it is a beautiful Christ like thing....and isn't that who we want to be like?

a day @ camp

The Booster Dinner is this Sat.

Since you ALL LOVE CAMP....this is a chance, an opportunity if you will to love camp back.

It starts @ 2 and ends @ 8 with dinner starting @ 5.

Lots of choices--right?

Well let me say this.....there is only one choice!

Where and what will you be doing on Sat? If you can make it I implore you to do so.

If anyone wants to go and does not have transportation....email me. I will make sure you get there.

I look forward to hugs and prayers and love abounding as we gather in the name of Christ for this meal....it's a long time till summer sessions begin next year....this will help tide me over.

Join me.

the exciting topic of V-i-s-i-o-n

Many of those who sleep in the dust of the ground will awake, these to everlasting life, but the others to disgrace and everlasting contempt.
daniel 12:2

OKAY---not the "vision" you expected is it???

Here is vision---knowing that when your physical body dies---your real ife begins.

quite simple, but then again Jesus Christ is simple stuff it's us men ( & women) that complicate it!

:)

having v i s i o n

stay tuned for this exciting topic.....

(while you are waiting...think about YOUR vision)

staying balanced

Here we are up on the Challenge Course on Manatawny Mountain or Rabbit Hill whichever you best know it by. We were trying to stay balanced on a very wobbly platform. There were many things going on while we were balancing making it more and more difficult.

Today I need to stay balanced. This morning I could not find my pocket bible----so I felt like I was going to miss my reading....then, then I remembered that the Internet is a wonderful thing and I clicked over to www.biblegateway.com and completed my reading.

Now---I have some heavy duty meetings today in DC---things that have been weighing on my mind and it is time to confront them and deal with the consequences. Folks--this is not going to be fun. So my mind and mental state have been not as confident as I would like (life's like that sometimes).

But just like balancing on that big platform with all kinds of things going on---STOP & focus---I did, I read Proverbs and then I reread my reading....then I talked with God and thought about what I read and wow....I am in a much better place.
You can be too.

read His word!!!!!!!

splendor of a King

Wow!! That special, incredible time we call camp has ended for '08. AND what makes it special?? YOU---the camper!!!

Well....we miss you already, all of you campers, WE MISS YOU!!!

thank you for making 2008' Camping Sessions the

BEST

EVER!

Camper of the Week

The coveted award of Camper of the Week!!!

Funny how those who don't covet winning Camper of the Week seem to win....

Anyway this is the Girls Winner---I think you can see why she won....

see it in her eyes

the joy of the Lord

Fight the good fight

Consider it all joy, my brethren,

when you encounter various trials,
knowing that the testing of your

faith produces endurance.
And let endurance have its perfect result,

so that you may be perfect and complete,

lacking in nothing.

Book of James

I have been known to fight the fight just to fight. These are photos from last week @ camp during the tug-o-war. It is no joke, people line up to watch and cheer....you really don't know to much during the tug except to tug and pull and P-U-L-L !

and when it's over/done, you are spent. You have given what you have to give. The battle does make you stronger. The trials DO make you more faithful.

this is not our world, this is not our time. that's where the joy of the Lord is found.

the moment

I have seen all the things that are done under the sun; all of them are meaningless, a chasing after the wind.

I am heading to DC to find out who stole some cash deposits from not just one store last wkend, but also from three stores this AM. The evidence is coming out as to who may have done this. My knees are infected from the Tug-O-War last week @ camp and my forearms are bruised from bellyflopping not too mention the countless bruises up and down my chest and arms from being involved in the picture above. I had to forgo my Radiohead ticket for tonite as I have no clue how long I ill be in DC today.

So what does it all mean??? NOTHING! The moment pictured above is as close to real life as you may get---living for the moment, nothing is guaranteed, nothing is forever except the love of Jesus. Will you die to yourself and live for Him? what else do you REALLY have?

Take the moment---right now! Thank Him!!! Talk to Him---He listens, He loves and He is real, really real.

Go ahead and chase the wind.....chase it OR stop chasing the wind and stop dead in your tracks and get on your knees and praise Him; for He is good!

Do you not know? Have you not heard? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood since the earth was founded?
He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth, and its people are like grasshoppers. He stretches out the heavens like a canopy, and spreads them out like a tent to live in.

Inter II 8/2-8/9

This week we will be coming to you LIVE from Cabin 5 in Boy's Town

Check us out @ http://ourcampweek.blogspot.com/

See YOU there!!!

Love,

Tate

Here we COME!!!!!!!

okay so a good friend of mine from camp invited me to be her friend on facebook and sure I get the blogs, but I haven't really been able to figure out facebook and myspace----they don't seem to do anything ( I will get it). So Jocyln invites me to be her friend, but wait---I don't even have a facebook page and so link after link and question after question and I am on facebook and lo and behold like a gazillion of my contacts are somehow told and invited to by my friend on facebook....facebook will have to wait a bit....tomorrow is camp and today is crunch time in preparation.

Need to finish a window display @ work
tidy up a few last minute things at work
rent a wet vac from Home Depot and suck stuff out of my streetside cleanout and then flood my basement to suck out the muck from the other day
pack
pack
mentally prepare campfire devos especially tomorrows!
get bandanas---can't seem to find my bag full
make sure Nathaniel is able to go to camp ( I am so last minute)
try to convince Tony's grandmother that Tony should go.....this is MAJOR last minute
figure out lgoistics to get everything-everyone to camp
go to REI---don't ask it's real last minute
try to find some christmas lights
ahhhh......camp manatawny

the only thing I will really and truly need to bring----forget everything else---if it comes it comes, if it doesn't make it, it doesn't so the only thing I really and truly need to bring to camp is my..........B I B L E
and God will take care of the rest---AMEN?

10 Things you might not know

1. The reason we don't have a diving board anymore is that Jr II breaks it and replaces it every year and then it was determined it w/b safer w/o it.

2. The CLAW is a true story!

3. If you type in Camp Manatawny on Youtube there are videos

4. Camp now has it's own travel website CLICK HERE----http://www.ytbtravel.com/devcc

5. The new bathhouse will be built this fall ( let me add spring just in case :)

6. We are hoping to have a zip line installed with a high climbing wall in spring of '09

7. The frog toilet seat came from Carol Bailey's house

8. The totem pole is gone ( i think it's in storage)

9. Doug Edwards the new fundraiser guy has been around camp so long that----he is the one who designed the Indian Chief!

10. I am not going to go into the "whys" here, but bottom line is---Camp Manatawny needs your money to continue to grow and bless every single soul that walks onto the property and every single soul that ever hears those words.....CAMP MANATAWNY

opps I forgot one----whenever Little Red Wagon is sung God sings along!


c u there!!!

MADBLOGGER

Wow!!!

Wow!!!!

Wow!!!!!!

I heard from a good friend who was @ camp last nite that three sisters got baptised in the name of Jesus Christ.....wow, wow, wow & double wow!

I just spoke with Jeffrey----Jeffrey is my mailman. He is leaving for Jamaica and South Beach Miami---Jealous, want to go??? Jeffrey is going by himself. His girlfriend died this past April and his father died last August. I had talked to him after his dad died last year. I talked to Jeffrey about real life.....Life that lasts forever (and for those that read here, here's a treat---Sat's campfire Devo is about "forever"), I really didn't think my talk meant anything major to Jeff and I still don't...BUT, what do you say to someone who lost their girlfriend just FOUR months ago?!
1st.....I am sorry about your loss. You can have no words that will fit this situation, but your verbal expression of sorrow will suffice.
2nd....after some time I explained to Jeffrey a little of how I think....
a. this world is a horrible place it is Satan's domain
b. Heaven and forever and the path that leads there.

after doing this ever so gently, but not w/o boldness....you w/b surprised how receptive Jeffrey was and others have been.
people may not let you know they think about this stuff, but they do quite a bit, don't you?

So if they are thinking about it.....help 'em along.....

So Jeffrey's response?

Apparently after his dad died he had moved in with his girlfriend (that's a whole 'nother blog session---don't go there!!) and his girlfriend, before passing had introduced him the the church, where he was baptised!

The Holy Spirit is ALIVE people!!! The Spirit is hungry.......feed Him!!!!!!!

((((( if anyone is @ camp starting today little Alexia from Collingswood will be there--TAKE REAL GOOD CARE OF HER)))))

THANKS!!!

what's going on??????

so, today on may way to work, my ever so lovely wife puts on the local newsradio station KYW, Newsradio, 1060 (repetitive commercials really do work). AND get this....the weather, what we wanted to hear/know immediately comes on and sure enough the announcer says that right now we are experiencing "dappled sunlight", c'mon now---DAPPLED SUNLIGHT?!

God is at work in my heart.....He is showing me more and more as I

---- READ that clearly now----as "I", look for Him and pursue Him....."Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it." Matthew 13:45-46

so.....whatcha think....huh???? A fine, ultra fine, super fine, extra sweet, super bright PEARL....that's H E A V E N and what would you do to obtain it??
One man would SELL everything he had just to obtain it!!

For us.....it's simple----seek Him in ALL that you do and you will discover the cost He states.
Read His word
Pray to Him
Fellowship with other people who look for and know Him

then, if you do all that....you WILL see the "dappled sunlight" every single day and it is spectacular....truly, truly spectacular.