Well, once again I've let too much time slip past without adding a little something new to the old blog. You faithful visitors are going to get fed up with me but I beg your pardon again. A couple of things happened towards the end of the year that are worthy of note the first being another successful trip to Our Daily Bread in downtown Baltimore. A number from our Battalion were blessed to serve meals to the less fortunate of our city and again experience this amazing ministry. Day after day(365 days a year!), hundreds from Baltimore are served a hot meal in a comfortable and dignified setting. The dedicated staff always make this outing a memorable one for us and I marvel at the coordination of volunteers who cook and serve and clean each day. Thanks Bruce for heading this up for us! Secondly, we enjoyed a bit of good natured competition as the squads and adult leaders pitted themselves against each other in a food drive to help a local pantry. You all really worked at it and in the end, collected ~1800 servings of food! I was so happy with your generosity that I didn't really mind that the adults lost the competition and had to provide the goodies and entertainment for our Christmas party. I think you'll all agree the Captain and his Lieutenants should keep their day jobs when it comes to singin but we had some laughs. Third, Sports All-Nighter is coming! Lastly, our new President was inaugurated today and I hope you'll continue to pray for him and our other elected officials as we did the other night. I praise God for those who have stepped up to lead knowing there is an account to be given. I pray you guys will continue to exercise and stretch your leadership skills as we continue in Battalion. The Church and your country needs you.
Blessings,
Capt. Hayden
Friday, January 23, 2009
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Backpacking Freeze Out Trip
Wow! It would have been hard to pick a better weekend for our freeze out than what we had January 16-19 on the Appalacian Trail. I found it interesting that many people I talked to before we went would simply shiver and tell me how miserable we'd be. Many just thought we were crazy and said so! I would tell them we weren't going on the trip to be miserable but to experience comfort in a hostile environment by practicing what we've been learning about. The truth is they still thought we were crazy. You know that when someone says you shouldn't do something how it makes you want to do it more? Well that's what I sensed from our intrepid group of eight as we left our cars behind and headed up the trail Friday night. (There's a lesson in how the Law exposes our sin in there somewhere but that's for another time.) Soon we reached our camp and settled in for the night. We learned the temperature dropped to -6F during the night but everyone slept well and when we hit the trail again Saturday morning, it was a balmy +3F. It generally warmed up as the weekend progressed and by the time we hit the hay Saturday night it had reached all the way to 20F. We had a few complain they were too warm that night! So our preparation was good and our fellowship even better as we enjoyed one another's company on the trail. We learned how fast a water bottle will freeze when the temperature is in the single digits and the pleasure of a warm, melty cheese and pepperoni sandwich next to a fire. That's livin!
Blessings,
Capt Hayden
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