August 1 – “Waking up”

Ah, memories of camp.  Yesterday I was able to be of assistance when one of the college students staying with us was having a somewhat difficult time getting out of bed.  I heard his cohorts "gently" encouraging him at first, then resorting to more desperate measures by mimicking the voice of his mother calling out to him, "Coooooooorbin."  How he could block that out was certainly beyond me, but I saw that it was possible he needed that final, tiny little push to get him over the edge and up and at 'em.  So I tuned up my uke and belted out my finest rendition of "I'm a Nut."  No way was it in the category of his own mother's melodious, twinkle-tongued work of art, but for yesterday … it worked.    We had another pretty full house at church.  Several visitors.  Dallas area.  Houston.  Even one pastor and his family from Georgetown.  Except the pastor was originally from Chile.  His two little girls taught the nursery kids a new song they had learned in Vacation Bible School.  Chris happened to know this one, and when she sang along and even did the motions, the six-year-old was amazed and wanted to know if she had been at the same VBS they went to.    The college group decided to stick around a few more hours if I would take them to the beach to go fishing.  So after stopping at Nate's for some seafood, we loaded up some poles, stopped for some bait, and ended up back in Jamaica Beach.  The one girl decided she wanted no part of fishing.  She is a vegetarian, and the idea of catching something that has a face with the intention of eating it was more than she could bear.  So she brought along a Frisbee and lolled around on the beach.  Two of the guys didn't do so well when it came to fish.  They casted OK.  They were using the zebco reels, so they didn't have to worry about backlashes.  Their biggest problem was baiting the hook.  It took them forever every time the lost some bait.  And they lost a lot of bait.  There were a lot of little whiting feasting on the gourmet shrimp dinners we were providing.  They eventually tired of the sport and joined the girl on the beach for some Frisbee action.  She loved that.  In fact I'm pretty sure she loved the whole weekend, being the only girl amidst the three guys.  The other guy – the infamous sleeper named Corbin – caught a few whiting, and his Dad contributed a whiting and a little croaker.  I caught some whiting and finally landed a great speckled trout.  That made it a good day.    Proverbs 21:9 says, "Better to live on a corner of the roof than share a house with a quarrelsome wife."   Father, that's always been a fun proverb to recite in jest.  But it sure makes sense.  Thank you for my wife.  I don't do so well camping, especially not on the roof.  Amen.