So we survived the weekend campmeeting, August 10-12, at Camp Lorraine on Vank Island. (Click here for map. Vank Island is the bean shaped island in the middle of the map. Camp Lorraine is located in the north of the island, where it looks like someone chewed a piece off the bean.)
Mitkof island, where Petersburg is located, is directly north, and the boat launch is located directly north of Camp Lorraine. The boat launch is about 28 miles from the center of Petersburg. The last eight or so miles are on dirt and gravel roads and some places are quite rough due to the ongoing construction. It takes about 45 minutes to get from the city to the launch.
Friday morning, we picked up the speaker, Stan, and his wife at the airport. They were supposed to arrive on Thursday, but due to airport delays, they didn't make their flight and ended up staying a night in Juneau. Their luggage had already made it on Thursday. We waited for the passengers to come through, and then waited for a couple to retrieve their luggage and look lost. The problem was that since their luggage was already here, they just got it and made their way outside. We waited until most of the passengers had retrieved their luggage and left the building. Since we didn't see anyone that needed picking up, we wondered what happened and went out. Which is where we finally met the couple.
We had lunch at home, and then took them over to the church to sort out the luggage that they would leave behind. Since we had a little bit of time, we walked into the city. We walked Sing Lee Alley and onto North Harbor where we watched a crewman doing maintenance on a fishing tender (tenders collect catches from smaller fishing vessels, and then take the load to one of the canneries), and watched a few people catch herring (used as bait for larger fish).
We returned to the church, loaded up, and went to the ferry terminal to wait for the other people going to campmeeting. At about 3:45 p.m. we left for the boat launch. There were a total of fifteen of us that headed south.
Once at the launch we unloaded the cars and loaded the boats. There were too many people and gear to fit into both boats, so several of us waited for one of the boats to make a return trip. The boat ride itself takes about fifteen minutes. The water feels quite solid when traveling on an aluminum skiff. It feels almost like a roller coaster with the bumps, drops, and jumps. It was 6 p.m. when all of us finally made it to the camp.
The camp consists of a main lodge (kitchen and dining, rooms upstairs), a bathroom building, camp director's house, and eight cabins. This camp is on the rustic side. All electricity is provided by a generator. None of the cabins have power. And once the generator shuts down at night, there is no power at all. During the summers though, that isn't too much of a problem since twilight lasts until 11 p.m. or so, and the day begins to light up around 3:00 a.m.
We located an empty cabin (on the boys' side) for our family and then headed off to supper. Supper consisted of hotdogs (vege and beef) and chili provided by the Craig church.
We were responsible for the music. I chose not to bring an electronic keyboard. I kind of wish I had, because the piano was in pretty poor condition -- sticking keys and out of tune notes. We sang songs during all of our meetings.
The theme chosen by Stan was Waiting. The first evening's message was about waiting for the Second Coming of Jesus and the importance of keeping that hope alive while we wait. Sabbath morning's message was about how Jesus voluntarily chose to wait 20 years in order to fulfill the mission of salvation for which he came to this world. Sabbath evening's message was about how we should relate to one another while we wait for Jesus to return. The final message on Sunday morning was about how we should welcome the waiting period that we are in, so that many more can be brought to salvation. The final challenge was for us to be active in our waiting.
Sabbath breakfast was a fairly standard cereal breakfast, hot and cold. This was followed by Sabbath School where the topic of discussion was the life of Samson. I found an error in the Sabbath School lesson guide: Samson was a Nazirite, and not a Nazarite. Unfortunately the discussion went predictably to someone saying that Jesus was a Nazirite like Samson, which has no Biblical basis. Jesus was a Nazarene, which is quite different from a Nazirite, even though the words may look and sound similar.
I also took issue (silently, in my mind) with another statement made: that at the very end, Satan would suffer much longer than any other being before finally being destroyed. This statement is found in The Great Controversy, chapter 42 (and only there or its derivatives in other books). I looked at the context of some of the scriptural references, phrases, and allusions around this statement. If any case of scriptural support can be made for this statement, I find it extremely weak. It is based on quite a few assumptions of other biblical texts that are open to multiple interpretations. What I find troubling is that this particular statement is assumed to be fact by many Adventists and is in fact present in quite a few Bible studies, and was found in one Sabbath School lesson guide. We criticize other Christians for creating doctrine out of isolated, singular statements, and here we seem to be doing the exact same thing.
What I also found rather troubling is that a number of the participants in the Sabbath School discussion appealed to Ellen White as the doctrinal, theological, and historical authority for their positions. Did they realize that there was at least one non-Adventist (excluding children) present in their midst? It was a perfect example of practice (placing Ellen White in the position of interpreting the Bible) above our stated position (Ellen White is not an exegete of the Bible). Again, the better part of discretion seemed that I should just let this go -- but should I have spoken up and created dissension...?
Anyway, off of my soapboxes...
Between breakfast and Sabbath School, and also between Sabbath School and worship, several of us Petersburg-ites made lunch preparations. We assembled the Sweet Potato (actually most of it was yams) Gratin; sliced up zucchinis, yellow squashes, and eggplants for some Fried Vegetables. Deloris sorted the lettuce, and Ronnie sliced tomatoes.
Following the worship, we dove into the final preparations and then the cooking and baking. In addition to the above two dishes, I also cooked some Corn with Mustard Seeds. Deloris finished the salad and prepared the bread.
Lunch was at 1:30 p.m. and we were able to get everything in place. Elise and I continued to fry the vegetables for another 20 minutes or so. It appeared that the meal was a hit with everyone. A number of people commented that it was an unusual meal, but good.
Sabbath afternoon was free time. With the sunshine out, most people opted to sit outside and enjoy the sun. A number of the children donned wetsuits and went out for a swim. Several people took out kayaks and canoes for a short jaunt in the ocean.
Supper was haystacks followed by the evening meeting, which was moved outside for everyone to enjoy the last hour of sunlight.
Sunday breakfast was pancakes, potatoes, and eggs. This was followed by the final meeting, camp cleanup, and then loading onto boats for the travel back home.
Our Petersburg group required two boat trips back. After getting back to Mitkof Island, the boat owner discovered that his wife, who was given his truck keys after the first trip, had left. This meant there were three people and a boat stranded. Cell phone coverage is spotty and intermittent at best in this part of the country. I called and left some message on answering machines.
I took three kids that were left and the speaker and his wife and headed back to Petersburg, leaving Elise and two others behind. This was turning out to be another rather warm day, and noticing that the kids had a couple of water bottles, left them for the people left behind.
I raced down the road, dropped off one child, then the speaker and his wife, and finally ended up at the home where the truck keys would likely be. At the same time, the wife discovered that she had the keys, phone calls were being made, and preparations made to go back out to the boat launch.
I volunteered to go back. Taking their car and taking Shelley with me, I stopped by our house, dropped Shelley off, got several water bottles filled with water, and then rushed off again to the boat launch. I discovered that in loose and deep gravel, there is a huge difference between two-wheel drive and four-wheel drive. Control with a two-wheel drive vehicle on gravel is much more difficult. On the same road I was able to go 55 mph in my pickup with 4WD, but in a FWD car, I was lucky to do 40 mph.
I made it back to the three stranded ones, handed out the water bottles, made sure the boat got back onto the trailer, and then Elise and I returned to Petersburg.
It was quite the weekend. I think the worst part about going away from home is the going away part -- the travel. If there was some way to avoid the travel and get to the destination without it...
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