Day Camp, Day One

We had 35 kids join us for our first day of Summer Day Camp! We went to the zoo (actually half of the Portland Metro area was there with us) and had a fun day in the sunshine, finishing at Wortman Park with games, crafts and a Bible lesson.

We had a number of kids there who don't normally attend New Hope, and we look forward to spending more time with them the next couple days! I hope to have some pictures up soon, so stay tuned...

Quick thinking...

Summer Break was over and the teacher was asking the class about their vacations. She turned to little Johnny and asked what he did over the break.

"We visited my grandmother in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania," he replied.

"That sounds like an excellent vocabulary word," the teacher said. "Can you tell the class how you spell that?"

Little Johnny thought about it and said, "You know, come to think of it, we went to Ohio."

A Quote

"End of construction: Thank you for your patience."

- Ruth Bell Graham's suggested epitaph for herself.

I'm going to heaven*

I flipped on ESPN last night about four minutes after Barry Bonds hit home run #756, and although most of the coverage through the evening was very positive, there was always the specter of Bond's alleged illegal use of steroids to make it all possible. Over the last couple weeks many fans in opponents' ballparks have been holding up small signs with nothing but a large asterisk, indicating that when Bond's feat is recorded it should include an asterisk with a message that this record is suspect, broken during the "steroid age" of baseball.

As I laid in bed last night, I was reminded of 1 Corinthians 3:12-15 (Dewey taught on this passage on July 8th), where it says:

12If any man builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, 13his work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each man's work. 14If what he has built survives, he will receive his reward. 15If it is burned up, he will suffer loss; he himself will be saved, but only as one escaping through the flames.

There's so much I don't know about heaven, but I know I don't want to be like the guy in verse 15, "suffering loss" and barely "escaping through the flames". There's something sad about being saved from condemnation and enjoying all the blessings of salvation, only to spend your whole life on things that will just "burn up" in the revealing fire.

I don't want to be in the Lamb's Book of Life with an asterisk next to my name--Well, it's good to see Brian here, but he sure stinks like smoke. Statistically I'm about half-way through my brief time on earth, and in another 40 or 50 years I'll be starting my first billion years in heaven. I want to make this time count for the Lord's glory and kingdom! How about you?

Seen on a restaurant wall in Maine...

Sunday Update!

Kelly and I missed our New Hope family today, and after we played cards tonight we called Dewey and Rebecca to see how the day went over there in McMinnville. Rebecca answered the phone and said, "Well, it's been an interesting day!"

First, from what I hear, y'all had a good Sunday morning there without me, with good worship and a good sermon (I look forward to hearing it later), not to mention good attendance and even a good offering--in August, no less! (Kirk, I'm sorry I missed your song, but I hear you did a great job with it)! I prayed for the Sunday morning service, and I'm so glad God answered in a positive way. I'm also glad I'll be back to worship with you next week.

Unfortunately, the softball game later in the day was eventful in the wrong way! A week ago (on Monday) Dewey got in an accident while riding his motorcycle in town. He was feeling a little bit of pain in his right arm/shoulder, but he thought it was a minor injury. Well, Sunday afternoon, after pitching a few innings with our softball team, Dewey threw the ball to second base and apparently everyone in the infield heard a "ping" sound of some kind. Turns out his right arm actually broke in the crash and the bone separated on the play to second--ouch! So off the Bertolini's went to the hospital where the good doctors drugged him up pretty good and gave him a temporary cast. Alas! I'm sure Dewey would appreciate your prayers for some speedy and effective healing.

By the way, Bruce Scanlon stepped in to pitch, and even though he walked four batters, the "New Hope Hitters" still won the game! (So for those of you scoring at home, I'm still the only losing pitcher we've got--swell)!

Greetings from Maine!

I'm on vacation this week! My parents flew the family to New England to visit my sister's family. They live in Epsom, New Hampshire, but we're spending the week at a timeshare in Bethel, Maine.

It's Sunday, and if you heard Dewey's sermon last week you know how important it is to be in church with God's family each week. I couldn't agree more. I think a key part of my relationship with God and my desire to serve in the church today is the fact that my parents brought my sister and me to church with them every time it was open. It's just plain a priority (like it tells us in Scripture)! Of course, going to church regularly doesn't automatically make you a good Christian--but I'm a little suspect of someone who claims they are a good Christian and doesn't make it a priority to be in church every week.

So, even when I'm on vacation, I try to go to church. I just figure God never takes a vacation from me, so why should I skip church just because I'm away from home?

Of course there's no place like good ol' New Hope Christian Fellowship, but after looking online and asking around at the resort's front desk, we decided to go to Bethel Alliance Church (CMA). We all enjoyed it very much! It's about the same size as New Hope, which I think makes it a mega-church here in Bethel, Maine (population 2,500). They didn't rock out as much as we do, but they sang a good mix of hymns and choruses, we got to share in communion, and Pastor Kevin Bellinger (a self-proclaimed big Yankees fan) preached his message fully dressed in a Boston Red Sox uniform--apparently somebody bid plenty of money in a church fund raiser to see him do it! He was pretty apologetic about dressing down for church, but our whole family thought it was great, and he preached a really good message on Matthew 5:8. Three of the four elders up front prayed during the offering and communion, and Kelly and I chuckled a little bit that they all sounded like Cliff from Cheers with their New England accents--awesome!

All in all it was a pleasure to worship God with these folks that I'll probably never see again here on earth, but I look forward to joining them for more worship one day in heaven.

So if you've still got some vacation trips planned this year, find a worship gathering to attend. And let me know how it went--I'm always curious to hear what other churches are doing!