If we had canoes out on the water now, we could walk out to them!!
Registration for summer 2012 is now open. You can access our forms or register online through our website. Click HERE to see what’s happening this summer at Shetek!
With the end of Day lights savings time this past weekend, time has been on the forefront 
of my brain. Recently I was hanging out with a group of 1st graders at an area congregation. There weren’t enough chairs around the table we were gathered at so I grabbed a chair from a nearby corner and sat down. In a taunting voice, a little boy said “You’re in the time-out chair”. Time-outs certainly don’t have the greatest reputation when you are in first grade, but I think adults (and I would say even kids ) need a time-out of a different sort every once and a while.
Time-outs are about recomposing yourself and taking some time to just be. Time-outs allow us to think about our actions and attitudes and give perspective on a situation. In this sense, time-outs sound kind of like what it means to go on retreat. As we approach chillier temps and November sets in, retreat season is in full foce at SLM. Youth and adults alike come to camp and take a “time-out” from everyday life. Here people can simply rest in God’s presence and leave refreshed and renewed to go back to the pieces of their everyday life. I recently read a great post from Paul Hill, Vibrant Faith’s executive director, which asks the question “Did Jesus ever get on that retreat?” and points to how outdoor ministries play a role in retreat ministry.
Maybe you can join us for a retreat this winter and take some time to just be and in this stillness be renewed by the Spirit. In your everyday life, how do you take a “time-out” in which you are renewed by the Spirit?
<>< Kristin (Program Director)
Need a new tune to listen to? Summer Ministry Team Members Calvin and Luke are blessed with amazing musical abilities! They brought their God given gifts together and wrote a sweet song. Want to listen to the song that Calvin and Luke wrote together? Click here :In the Arms of My Father
Want to read the lyrics and follow along? Check out camp’s newsletter which has the typed lyrics: http://www.shetek.org/thesignal.php
*Not the best quality recording but that’s what you do when it is the very end of the summer and a person is about to fly across the world(to Maylaysia) to go home. 
You have to take that last chance to get it done! Plus, a crummy recording doesn’t change the heart or meaning.
This past spring, a group of pastors gave of their time, planting ivy bushes along a fence line at camp. The plan was that when these bushes are full grown they will help
provide more of a natural looking barrier over the chain link fence which helps from those loose kickballs from intense games of Norski roaming onto the road. Over the course of the summer these plants have been watered and looked after, and are creeping their way
over, around, and through the fence.
When I see these ivy now growing in full force and the way they are intertwined, I hear the words “Iam the vine, you are the branches…” (John 15:5) This piece of scripture and the growing ivy are reminders that God’s love is abundant!
It is God who gives life, nourishing and sustaining us and empowering us to be workers in the kingdom. Where do you see reminders in your everyday life of God’s abundance? Maybe it’s as simple as ivy growing on a fence.
Just a quick note from camp – remember in June when we were inundated with water from the sky? We started looking for designs on how to build an ark? Our docks were under water and our boats were close to floating away – right off the lifts (they were as high as they go!).
Guess what – now we can’t get the boats OFF the lifts because the water is so low!
Hope you are enjoying the transition to fall and the cooler weather. Come to camp for Fall Fantasy on Oct. 2, or learn about bats on Oct. 9 or come to Octoberfest (4-6th graders) on Oct. 14-15. Get more info. and register at www.shetek.org
25 Like cold water to a weary soul is good news from a distant land.
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Golf 13 finally happened!! After being postponed twice in June because of flooding on the course, we played golf on August 29. The weather was perfect! There were 37 golfers who enjoyed the day on the course and supported Shetek by having fun. No one got the hole in one to win the new golf cart but perhaps next year. Join us next year on June 18. (providing the weather cooperates!)
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The 4-6 campers here at Shetek have been having so much fun getting to know each other and God! Water Olympics has also been a great activity for this week! We had spoons full of water being dumped in buckets on top of counselors heads, we had hoola hoop dive through, pass an apple with chins, and sink your counselor in a canoe. Everything was full of water!Water is a great symbol of baptism and with baptism we can identify with Jesus Christ. Jesus separates us from the lost and gives us new life by having faith in his death and resurrection. The Bible states in 1 Peter 3:21-22 ”… and this water symbolizes baptism that now saves you also – not the removal of dirt from the body but the pledge of a good conscience toward God. It saves you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at God’s right hand – with angels, authorities and powers in submission to him.” Water is great for fun games at camp, sustaining God’s creation, and a remembrance of a new life through Jesus Christ! Thank you God!
