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Couples Camp Summer 2007

Here is the photo gallery for our summer 2007 Couples Camp. While not as extensive as it could be, we have here a collection of photos of our summer campers enjoying the fellowship of Saint Peter Presbyterian Church during our annual Ice Cream Social and barn dance. As usual, the crowd is so large that a typical barn was not sufficient to hold the crowd. We instead used the facilities of the Damascus Volunteer Fire Department for our festivities.

From left to right: Bud and Muriel Smythe, Savannah McMurray, Kimberly and Chris Windham. An hour and a half before the ice cream and dance, our campers met at the fire hall to have dinner. They are waiting patiently for the food to be prepared.

Jim and Donna Carlson, from Kansas, downing some homemade ice cream. Instead of traditional lodging, they instead stayed with the Tremayne family. We hope they enjoyed their stay as much as the Tremaynes enjoyed them.

Charlotte Smythe, Delaney Sproul and Grace Bailey dishing out the ice cream. Grace looks a little sheepish that she has to dish out the store bought stuff. Lindsay Owens makes a face in the background.

Bud and Muriel Smythe, summer campers, with their two grandchildren. Their children, Dan and Kimberly Smythe, were also previous campers, who eventually moved here from - of all places - Hawaii. Having 11 children, it is nearly impossible to not photograph a Smythe (See above picture).

Here is Muriel Smythe with Tirzah, her youngest granddchild, number 11 of Dan and Kimberly.

Peter and Marian Wilkinson enjoying ice cream and the fellowship of the other campers.

There's one in every photo gallery. One of the only photos we have of campers Steve and Savannah McMurray, with Savannah doing a blind taste test of the homemade ice cream. Actually, she is recently pregnant with their first child. She has every right to be on her 4th bowl.

David and Julie Hodges. These two took a much longer time to get to Couples Camp than anyone else. Not because they lived farther, but because they encountered more complications than anyone in camper history. They flew in to Atlanta, expecting to rent a car and drive straight here. However, their luggage was lost, the rental car company would not rent them a car without a credit card, they had to drive around the city to find a cell phone charger, then wait for their doctor to come back from lunch to get a prescription filled. They arrived in Bristol, not at their intended 4pm Thursday, but at Midnight Friday instead. There, they found that the local hotels wouldn't give them a room without - guess ... right, a credit card. All told, they missed the first night's talks and were pretty tired by Friday morning. But they persevered and had a great time.

Chris and Kimberly Windham. They flew in from a dry part of Texas. (At the time of the camp, certain areas of Texas were experiencing record breaking rains and flooding. They were still dry.)

Just prior to dinner and two hours away from ice cream, the fire hall was empty and quiet.

With ice cream all tucked away in their bellys, more than 150 Saint Peter Presbyterian Church members, Couples Campers, and other friends cut the checkered tile with the opening dance, the Grand March. (Don't try and count, not everyone was dancing. The outside walls were lined with folks who were waiting for a more complicated dance, the Patty-Cake Polka. It even sounds complicated!)

The other picture of the McMurrays together, this one during the second movement of the Grand March. Chris and Kim are doing the bridge, and Peter and Marian follow behind.

Here the Wilkinsons and Windhams hold up a bridge for fellow dancers. Chris, rubbing his eyes on his sleeve, is apparently recouperating from a flash bulb in the face (previous photo).

Our favorite folk band, Maker's Mark. Once again they played well and the folks really enjoyed them. Epecially Lauren Windham, center.

He is world renowned for his professional calling skills. The one and only Blake Saunders. Okay, maybe he's not world renowned. Yet. But now that we have his photo up, how long could it take?

Among those who deserve a tip of the hat for their help in making this dance great, we have Tom Tate. He provided the sound for us again this dance, as he did the last. He is a fine man, who, being retired, spends his free time making a little money renting out his sound systems and his skills for a ridiculously low price. And he enjoys watching our church community celebrate God's blessings.

Also joining us were pastor Virgil Hurt and the girl who played in the Spiderman movies. No, the girl pictured is his daughter, one of his six wonderful children. His other children look like other famous actors, musicians, and former world leaders.

Here is a man that has a face for blogging - Brant DeBow, with his wife Janet. Some of you may remember that Brant "liveblogged" four of the lectures from our So Let Your Light conference, which we featured on our home page. You can still read them here.

Visiting us from Idaho for the summer is Alexander, pictured here with Blake. Blake joined us for the summer some years ago, and thankfully no one told him that that summer is long over. Hopefully, Alexander will have the same firm grasp on understanding the seasons as Blake and will stay for a bit longer as well.

Here is proof positive that our Couples Campers have fun. Dave Hodges and Savannah McMurray working on coordinated patty-caking during that polka dance.

Campbell Sproul is the epitome of cool. Here he displays his perfect patty-cake polka form for Donna Carlson, who is most impressed.

Between dances, Blake organized folks into respective groups for the next big dance. Here, Charles and Jennifer Humphrey, two pair of children, and the Wilkinsons group up for a new dance, which likely has a name as impressive as "Patty-Cake Polka."

This is what we have been trying to say every time we teach. This is building the kingdom.