The Brain returns to the lab!

With all the extra sun-exposure and super heat-indexes, I likely absorbed more radiation, and am more powerful--or more mutated--than before! Mu-haha-hack! cough! gasp! wheeze!

Good week of camp, despite my presence there. Everything went pretty well, except for the vespers speaker! Holy cow! Could that guy have been any more long-winded and boring?!

112 5th & 6th grade students + triple digit heat index every day + no air-conditioning in the dorms = bad sleep. Oh well. We weren't relying on our own strength, anyway. Couldn't have. My family group quickly learned Philippians 2:14. "Do everything without murmuring or complaining..."

Most of the faculty this week were folks I knew and had worked with before. However, even the first-time "junior" staff were, to my pleasant amazement, very competent.

Of the 20-some students who decided to submit to Christ and become Christians, I got to baptize 1. Cool story to follow:

It's camp policy to call a young person's parents about their decision to become a Christian. The reason is two-fold. First, this is a huge decision, and since the parents are responsible for their child's spiritual welfare, it's only right to get their permission. Secondly, it's good news--and we like sharing good news!

Some of those phone conversations have--in the past--led to some interesting Bible and doctrinal discussions. However, I've never had this one happen. I'd called one boy's adoptive mom--his aunt--and she had joyously agreed that we could baptize him.  A while later, his uncle/adopted father called me back. "I heard that (child's name) is getting baptized. Would it be okay for me to come out and be baptized as well?" The gentleman in question was 64, had been in church much or all of his life, and had never been able to--as he put it--"pull the plug" and fully submit to Christ in baptism. When his wife called him about his nephew's decision, he told me, it finally clicked--the time was right.

So, the young man was baptized by his 2 family group leaders--for one of them, the first baptism they'd ever performed. And, at the same time, right beside him, I got to baptize his uncle! I've never been part of two-fer like that before. Pretty cool!

Gotta get caught up on lost sleep in the next day or so, because this Sunday is Christmas In July! Got a favorite Christmas sermon/homily you'd like to share?