Camp Joy and Beyond

Sometimes a book will wait for a reader for many months, or, beckon one back. It will wait for it's own time. I'm thinking of the woman at the "Celebrating 30 Years of Camp Joy" Banquet this weekend. After the dinner was over, she came up to me to say she had just finished "Journey With Jeff; Inspiration for Caregivers of People with Special Needs ," and liked it very much. Her husband had brought it back to her from a synod-wide Lutheran meeting a couple of Junes ago. (I thought he looked familiar!)~~~Today a note came from a pastor friend who, a few years ago, had helped me decide the title of Jeff's book. He said, "I have been re-reading 'Journey With Jeff.' I was just thinking that if I was teaching pastoral counseling or clinical pastoral eduction it would be required reading. It's a wonderful book." ~~~Having this book be required reading in a college course would be ideal!!!~~~And, back at the Camp Joy Banquet, a woman read her poem about Camp Joy being a pool and the staff the ripples on the pool. Afterward, I mentioned to her that I was planning on sharing how Jeff's life had a ripple effect on the people in the pools around him. She asked where to find "Journey With Jeff" so she could read it for herself. (see Liftbridge Book Store in Brockport, NY, or Amazon.com.) The photo is Jeff enjoying his tube at Camp Joy.

Advocates for Jeff and Friends

Today I'm wearing a tee-shirt with the words, "Celebrating 30 Years of Camp Joy" emblazoned on the left shoulder. In 1981, Joan Van De Wall and I wrote a grant for a week of Faith-based Camp for people with special needs like Jeff who had aged out of other summer camps. How he loved Camp Joy!! At the Banquet Celebration of these 30 years of growth, and struggles, and blessings, Joan asked the 2011 Camp Joy Staff to share some of their stories of healing and blessings they'd experienced this year. The staff shared story after story of how they'd gained more from the campers than they'd given. Joan ended her thank-yous to all those who had served on the Camp Joy staff over the years by asking me to speak about Jeff's last days with Leukemia at the hospital. Since she had been there, too, she recalled that Jeff had been adamant about going back to his group house, even with a possibility of hospice care. Finally, "Yes, Mom!! Go back to Group Home!!" melded into, "Yes, Mom, I'm ready to go and see Jesus now." ~~~ Jeff has been gone 23 years in Ocotober. I haven't cried in a long time, but I cried at that Banquet. Thank You, Lord, for the people who cared so much for Jeff, and helped him be ready to go to see You!!

Surprise Advocates!

"Please bring a copy of Journey With Jeff to the gathering for me to purchase for my daughter," wrote a far-away friend in an e-mail. Claudia and her daughter, who was visiting from North Carolina, gathered with the state-wide Lutheran Women at the Notre Dame Retreat Center in Canandaigua last weekend. When I handed her a copy of "Journey With Jeff; Inspiration for Caregivers of People with Special Needs," her daughter said a friend of hers also might want a copy. As Claudia purchased a second book she said, "I keep my copy on my coffee table in the living room, where people pick it up and ask about it." Here was another illustration of my friend Lynne's exclamation that "Journey With Jeff" has a life of its very own!" How wonderful to find Surprise Advocates!!