English
Español
Happy Thanksgiving dear Met recipients and supporters!
There has been a delay today in sending out CedarS Application ideas for this week’s Christian Science Bible Lesson; so I am emailing you this note to forestall further calls generated by concerns that there is something wrong at your end. We invite your prayerful support tonight of Rick Stewart’s redoing of the Met that was nearly complete this morning in Germany before he had computer issues. Let’s affirm that there can be no loss and no resistance to the great I AM that “governs every event of our careers” (Unity of Good 3) with the power of “the all-knowing, all-seeing, all-acting, all-wise, all-loving, and eternal.” (S&H 587)
We will affirm that dear Rick’s re-do is guaranteed to be a good thing because “all things work together for good to them that love God.” (Romans 8:28). This reminds me of a canoe trip on the Niangua River years ago that illustrates this idea. (FYI, CedarS now floats mostly on the closer and calmer Osage Fork of the Gasconade River.) That day however every canoe had capsized at several rough spots and the last staff-only training canoe that had asked to lag for fishing was past due at the beach where we were all to cook out and campout. So a fellow counselor and I were driven back to the starting point to redo the trip looking for them. As soon as we got to the river, now after dark, and turned on our flashlights, we saw that a soup-like mist was rising off the river in the cool night air so that the light was diffused in the first 1-2 feet of this fog making it impossible to search each bank of the river foot-by-foot. We immediately knew that we, of our own selves, could do nothing and we put the individuals, their canoe, and ourselves and our canoe in the capable control of our “Supreme Sternsman”, divine Love. We sung hymns, followed and rejoiced as we zipped right through “all the (normally) rugged way”-sliding smoothly through rough river-bends that had sunk us all in broad daylight. After a little more than 2 hours into the trip I was led to turn on my flashlight (for the first time) towards the right bank; and I was delighted to see the glint of a canoe where it had been beached by the staff who thought they’d gone too far -but were only 10 minutes short of Prosperine Beach where we were all camping. Spotlighting that canoe was a miracle–like “finding a needle in a hay stack”-and it has been a landmark demonstration of the natural principles of God’s flawless timing and provision countless times since! We followed the trail in the grass made by the 2 CITs and their leader to a nearby farm house, joyfully retrieved them, and paddled together the short distance to where a praying Boys Camp joyously greeted us with warm dinners and S’mores that were made even sweeter knowing that “with God all things are possible” and that seeming losses can always be turned into divine gains. This same law is awaiting us to prove today.
With ever-green inspiration and “love from above” and with abundant Thanksgiving appreciation for each of you subscribers and supporters as big “stars in our crown of rejoicing!” (S&H 562:16)
Warren
PS Click here to request by email a free map of BLP locations and 10 Commandment applications and a free timeline of Bible periods on CedarS Time Travelers Trail and of characters living the Beatitudes. I custom drew both for a recent Senior Retreat to CedarS, but they are good reminders for all of us students. The main purpose of the timeline and map is to show how to better apply the Beatitudes and 10 Commandments (“written by the finger of God”-see B-11, Luke 11:20, Deut. 9:10). I hope that this free offering also serves as a useful pocket guide to show when and where stories occur in each week’s Bible Lesson. (This week we are blessed with stories about: 1) Moses near Mt. Nebo warning of the “enemies (mental) gates to possess” (Gen. 22:17); 2) David in Carmel near Engedi being saved by Abigail from retaliating in anger; 3) Absalom in Jerusalem and Hebron breaking at least Commandments 5, 8, 9 …; 4) Jesus in Jerusalem reading the minds of the Pharisees and affirming the healing power of obeying the 10 Commandments; and, 5) Paul on the island of Malta shaking off the attack of a poisonous serpent.)
PPS Yesterday CedarS Board of Trustees finished our Annual Board meeting at which we set our 2012 Dates and non-profit Program Rates along with budgets for our new fiscal year. Our work more than ever needs your funding help for camperships, capital improvements and general operations support-including a “Maintenance Musts” Matching Funds campaign that ends next month. We are a little over half way toward our $25,000 Matching Funds goal. We also need a variety of items including late-model, pick-up trucks and vans and 4-wheel drive vehicles in reasonably good condition. A registry list of needed items will be posted on an updated CedarS website in March.
