White Sulphur Springs

We had such a wonderful time at White Sulphur Springs this weekend. WSS is the eastern conference center for the Officers' Christian Fellowship, and it is located in the Allegheny mountains near Bedford, PA. WSS is one of my absolute favorite places in the world. We went there while I was growing up, I used to work there on their junior support staff during the summers, and Bob and I continue to go back with our family. It's one of those places that, although some little things change, it always feels like the same familiar place, and I guess that's why military families like it so much. We went because the Wright-Patterson OCF group was having their annual retreat, so it was a great time to visit with my parents and see old friends from W-P. The speaker was Mike Riddle, from Answers In Genesis, and he talked about the great creation/evolution debate. He was a really good speaker, and I know he really challenged some people to consider why the issue of how you believe the world came into being is important. He pointed out how many churches have compromised by saying that God just used evolution, and he discussed the ramifications of that view (such as, if you decide you don't take Genesis literally, then how can you take the rest of the Bible literally? How can you answer a person who says there are many ways to get to God, even though God clearly says in the Bible that Jesus is the only way, because you have just said that there are many ways God could have created the world, even though He clearly said he spoke it into existence in 6 days.) He also inspired those of us who are homeschooling to keep on, given the total control of the educational system by the evolutionists. People are really indoctrinated today in public schools about evolution, since there is never even a question about problems with the theory, or even the statement that it IS just a theory, and there are so many Christian schools out there that also teach theistic evolution. We went away armed with more good resources to add to our growing creation library! There were 2 homeschooled girls who were brought from Ohio by another family, and they had a great program for the kids, even tying it into what the speaker was discussing. It was so nice to have all the kids taken care of. I actually skipped a few morning sessions to take naps, and it was so, so restful. The weather was absolutely gorgeous, so we were able to do lots of outside things. The boys paddled a canoe on the lake, they did the rock-climbing wall, Nathan and Bob went horseback riding, and we took some nice walks. We had a bonfire Friday night, where we sang and made s'mores, and we had a square dance Saturday night , which was great fun. Nathan was my partner (Bob sacrificed and took the little boys back to bed), and he did really well at following all the directions! I am sure when he is old enough to be on staff there, he will have a line of ready partners for the square dances! : ) Nathan is looking forward to participating in "Camp Caleb" next summer, where he would stay for a week and do all these fun things like archery, riding, canoeing, etc. There was another family there with 5 kids, the oldest 2 being boys 9 and 7, so they all got along great. It was just so nice to get away from everything this weekend, and it was very hard to come back in to the "real world". Katrina, Justice Rehnquist's death, high gas prices (up to $3.39 here), homeschooling, laundry, my science fair meeting tonight--bleh. It's hard to not run back! At least we won't be doing any more traveling for a few months anyhow. Surely things will settle back into a groove again, and sometime I again won't be so tired all the time.