Sunday, July 08, 2012

Camps, Cannutes and Flying Leaps

First: Where did my novel go, you may ask? After a couple of months of posting it here one chapter at a time, it has disappeared and will resurface in some format in the coming months. If you were reading it and just didn’t finish in time, comment below and I may have mercy. My plan is to attempt to get it published (realizing that the chances are about the same as winning the lottery), and failing that, to publish it myself.

Second: What are we up to now, you may wonder? We wonder too how this will all turn out, but for now we are volunteering at Camp Imadene, to which I “cannute” each morning (that is commuting by canoe) from our little cabin in the woods across the lake.


We wake up, sit up and see calm water through the trees and eagles in the sky. Barkley has learned to take flying leaps into the water off our dock, so we are all quite happy.


What I am doing at Camp Imadene is preparing and developing a discipleship program for young adults that will run from September through April. Sound a little familiar? The Auxano program will have some elements like Kaléo, but is not connected to a Bible college and focuses on biblical training and service. That fits the 86-year tradition of Imadene very well, as the word of God is central here and this ministry produces some of the most amazing servants of God I have ever met.

As I get to know this camp (I will be a Dean this week, the equivalent of a Head Counselor), I find that there are great benefits in long-established loyalty. I am the newbie, and find myself drawn by the attitude that service without personal compensation for the benefit of all is good in itself, and needs no special recognition. I cannot say I am even a novice at it yet, but I am learning slowly to unchain my self-protectiveness and constraints. Any LIT here is better at it than I. Most have been at it from childhood.

Our hope for the fall is to have twelve students and two Resident Assistants (RA’s) living in town with us in a fairly new eight-bedroom house with four full bathrooms and three living rooms. Yes, it sounds crazy, but we are quite excited about the prospect. We have talked and dreamed of this for years. Students will spend most weekdays at the camp and will have (actually, make) most meals there, but will be around the House most evenings and weekends.

So much opportunity. We plan to start each weekday with an hour of prayer together, and I anticipate some significant evening conversations in various corners of the house throughout the year. Though classes are not accredited, there will be more actual class time than Kaléo, though very few assignments beyond some reading, and no grades. The service that comes so naturally to the Imadene crowd will fill up the rest of the time, with a few adventures thrown into the mix.

Like the rest of this year, things are unfolding slowly. Though much of the presentation and planning is done, we still have just one application so far and I am still trying to locate one more 22+ year old (female) to join me in leadership. Everyone here is confident that this will happen over the summer, and that is our hope. But again we are waiting on God.

So, if you know of someone who is 17-22 years of age and in need of “long obedience in the same direction,” send them our way! auxano.imadene.com. Or a young leader who should join us in this work. In the meantime we will watch and pray and see what God does next.

And enjoy the cannute.

4 comments:

Keerstin said...

Jim!

What an adventure!!! Wow! Blessings on you and Sarah. Miss you both.

clairedelune said...

Hope you're successful with your novel! Do you have an editor or publisher for it?

Holly said...

Jim!! Why 22+?! Two years shy =( So excited for you and Sarah and love the community living aspect!

Jesse Douglas Janzen said...

Jim I am so excited for you. Love you and miss you, hoping to cross paths with you some way soon!