What Happens at Calumet, Stays at Calumet

I'm am way behind in posting here. It's been such a busy time, but all is well, just very hectic with lots of church work and the renovation of DD's room into our new home office. More in another post about that.

Last weekend, ten days ago now, 21 ladies from our church went up to church camp, Calumet, for our annual Mom's Weekend. It's an amazing, renewing, spiritual, relaxing weekend away, where we are pampered, encouraged, and nutured, with no responsibilities other than to enjoy ourselves. We have a wonderful Bible study on Saturday morning, and then spend the afternoon doing whatever we want, and they give us lots of options to choose from: massages, manicures, walks in the woods, trying the ropes course, making pine cones wreathes, or just being on your own to share fellowship with the other ladies or read or nap, whatever makes your heart feel light. Here we are with a few of our favorite Calumet people: Tom and Betsy Smith over on the right who are former members of our church, now retired, and living at Calumet as the Host and Hostess for retreat weekend, and Edna (standing in the middle in the white shirt), who was our musical retreat specialist. She is about to embark on a mission trip to Brazil where she will live in an orphanage for a month, teaching music to the little unwanted of that country. She told us some very sad stories of their lives there. We are sending her off with "a little something" from all of us so she can purchase supplies for her little students when she gets there. Edna is just so much fun and makes our musical time really great.

In the photo, you can see me, over on the left, holding my Calumet mug. I seem to live with my cup of tea all weekend. The Calumet mugs are very special:



Around the bottom of the mug, it says: Remember the Seventh Commandment. Now, lest you remember them in order off the top of your head from Sunday School class, the seventh commandment is "Thou Shalt Not Steal". But, they sell the mugs in the camp store, so that's why I have one which sees frequent use in my kitchen. It gives me great comfort to sip my tea from my Calumet mug, remembering all the fun times, on this annual weekend away, on our summer camping vacation in the family campground, and of all the years our children spent time at "overnight" camp there. Calumet is one of our favorite places, and also one of our favorite charities. We love to open Calumet to everyone, regardless of their ability to pay.

I have such great memories of our weekend away. Reconnecting with friends, bonding with new friends, and of course nourishing my close friendships as well (you can see Andrea and Judy, of my previous big socks post, also in the photo). We share a lot, laugh, cry, hug, tell ghost stories, giggle in the dark in our bunk beds, and support each other. Confidence and trust are a given. But, we always remember, "What Happens at Calumet, Stays at Calumet".