Location, Location, Location

Our May project was a wonderful one. It had to be. Why else would we return to the same camp for the third straight year: Little Galilee Christian Camp in Clinton, Illinois.

One reason we like this camp so much is, like they say in advertising, location, location, location. For one thing, Bill has extended family close by which allowed us to host a family reunion (Bill’s mother’s side) at the camp on the Saturday before Mother’s Day. We also like the location because it’s on our way back to Wisconsin for the summer months. With all the beautiful scenic places in these United States, you might not think that central Illinois would be a priority destination. Although the land is pretty flat, there are many beautiful areas and places to visit;I particularly like being in the Land of Lincoln. So much fascinating history. Later on, I’ll share a bit more about some of the places we visited. 

But, one of our main reasons for loving Little Galilee is that they do an amazing job with the variety of God-centered camps they provide and it is an absolutely wonderful place to work. This camp has only three full-time paid employees. They do hire some summer staff, but provide excellent Christian camping experiences using many many volunteers. And then there’s the work we do. Volunteering at this camp is a dream. There is always plenty to do and the person in charge of the work we do knows how to use volunteers to the best of everyone’s advantage. He’s got the projects organized and the tools and materials ready to do the job. Upon our arrival, both Bill and I received a long list of work that we could do with our team.

Knowing Bill to be an experienced welder, one of the jobs for him was replacing a dump box on one of the trucks. While Bill and one other worked on the truck, the rest of the guys put up metal frames for interior walls in the building of a new dining hall. 

 The women painted and painted and painted. The good news is: I like to paint. First, we painted many many pieces of wood cut by our guys that would be put together by them later to make six partitions on wheels that measured 6 by 8 feet. After we gave them several coats, we added a final one after they were put together. Another painting job we got to do was outside and for that we had to wait for good weather conditions (lots of rain and wind and storms). But we succeeded.



The men also had to wait out the weather in order to install the soffit and fascia on the new dining hall. Bill loved being high. J

Thank the Lord there were no major accidents or injuries. I had a minor one when the saw table decided it couldn’t handle the panels we were leaning up against and it fell over. Why, oh why, I thought I could catch it. Obviously, it was an automatic reaction. I couldn’t move the table by myself, why would I think I could catch it as it was tipping over. Good news is: I only had a small bruise on my arm and was able to continue working, no problem.

I’m also happy to say, it didn’t stop me at all from enjoying our time visiting places of interest in the area. As I said earlier, there are a lot of great places to go. One not so pretty Saturday afternoon, we decided to check out Lake Clinton. Well, it’s not that simple. It’s spread out and has lots of inlets, a spillway, and random places to park, hike, and fish. As we were parked along the road side, a car pulled up alongside of us and asked if we needed help. We told the nice lady that we had made a few stops along Lake Clinton and weren’t sure where to go next. She gave us excellent directions to a beautiful setting. There were several large camping areas, a lovely beach, and, according to one of the camp hosts that we spoke to, the beach side restaurant has excellent and reasonable priced food. We will go back, hopefully, when the weather is a bit nicer.

Another Saturday took us to the Hieronymus Mueller Museum (don’t ask how to pronounce it, I can’t remember). Hieronymus had seven children all of whom, in one way or another were involved with his enterprises. He was a pioneer entrepreneur who founded several business including Mueller Co. which still exists today and produces many of the original patented products including the water pressure valve and the iconic fire hydrants found all over the U.S. It may not sound like it here, but his story is quite interesting and the museum was so very well done.

That same afternoon we made a few more stops. One was to Blessingdales. I just like the name…it’s a thrift store in Decatur IL. Cute, huh? The other stops were two area breweries. Ya know Bill, if there’s a dark beer he hasn’t tasted, he’s all for giving it a try. He’ll go back to 4 Door Brewery as he really liked the one named “Revolution.” I actually tried a cider (which I don’t usually like) and found the Cherry one fairly tasty. Not really my thing. We enjoyed the camaraderie at the Golden Fox Brewery as we were there at the end of the Kentucky Derby but Bill found their beer choices lacking. He ended up having one that shared the name of one of our granddaughters. Strange, but true. J

Brewery for Bill; winery for Share. That seems fair, right? It’s been awhile seeing as how grapes don’t grow so well in the southern states where we spend a lot of time. Not a big deal. Once again, one place we went was just okay (Alto Winery) and the next one was great (Wyldewood Cellars). First, the difference between our servers was huge; one very personable and helpful, the other just doing her job with distraction. Wyldewood specializes in Elderberry wines and I found one that was deeeeeelicious. It was spiced, and for those of you who know me well, I am a bit spicey. J The unfortunate thing was after we got home and I was putting away our purchases, I found that she forgot to include the Elderberry Spiced Wine. If there is any good news in that, it’s that we didn’t pay for it either. I was pretty disappointed but the winery was just under an hour away and we weren’t going to make that trip just for a bottle of wine. Maybe, next year. I do find the stories we hear about how these businesses got started and why they do what they do fascinating. That’s one of the reasons we search out new breweries or wineries. I won’t go into some of the great stories we heard at these places as I know some of you think my blogs are rather long (but you have to remember this serves as sort of a diary for me).

We took a day trip to visit Lincoln’s New Salem Historic Village. On our way, we stopped in Lincoln, IL (the only city named in his honor while he was still alive) to check out the Lincoln Heritage Museum. Quite unique. Instead of just looking at various artifacts displayed in cases, the upper level of the museum walked you through various aspects of Lincoln’s life using lights to lead you where to look or walk, audio providing the voices and stories from his life, and visual interpretations of various events. I’m not doing a very good job of explaining it so you’ll just have to go see it for yourself. Glad we detoured off to see it.

On to Lincoln’s New Salem State Historical Village, a recreated village that features everything an 1830’s town would have including costumed interpreters that play the role of villagers. The original town actually existed for about 12 years before it was abandoned and left to pasture. Lincoln was a resident of New Salem for six very formative years. One of the “villagers” told us some good stories about how Lincoln gained confidence and leadership skills while living on his own in New Salem. Thoroughly enjoyed it! Such a beautiful day!

Oh, I just thought of another reason we like the location of Little Galilee…the church we attend. First Christian Church of Clinton has a bit of our home church flavor. Sound teaching, great praise and worship, and very friendly and welcoming attenders. Really enjoy the Sunday School class. For two of the weeks we were there the teaching was on the Feasts of the OT. I was so inspired I bought one of the books that the teacher recommended. “Celebrating Biblical Feasts” …. Oh no, I just realized I got the wrong book. The book I wanted was entitled “Celebrating Jesus in the Biblical Feasts” by Richard Booker. The book I ordered is by Martha Zimmerman. Seriously, oh well, I guess I’ll just have to put in another order.

In the past, one of the only things I really didn’t like about the Little Galilee location is how windy it can be there. The location where we park, is directly across a road from a large farmer’s field which has a huge wind farm behind it. Needless to say there is nothing stopping the winds when they come and come they did! I’m thrilled to say, that even though the winds and storms we had this time were worse than in the past, I was amazingly calm. HalleluJAH!!! PTL!!!  On two different nights we brought our slides in so we wouldn’t have to listen to the wind blowing on the awnings. That helped a lot. I’m so grateful, that even when the rig was literally rockin’, I wasn’t freaking out like I have in the past when it wasn’t even as windy. Thank you, Jesus! Growth is so good!

Our team also had a few social times. Of course, the ladies took a day off and did some shopping but the best part of the day was having lunch at La-TEA-Da Tea Room. Very cute. Very quaint. Very good. One evening, our team enjoyed a fabulous fish fry made by our fearless leader. Another time the men attended a dinner that was being hosted by the camp. The camp asked if the ladies would like to help serve and we all said sure. Come to find out, they really didn’t need us to help serve but they wanted to feed us too and figured we wouldn’t come to the men’s meeting just for the food. Aren’t they clever? The Sunday before Memorial Weekend and our last Sunday night there, the camp invited us all to a Pizza Party to kick off the summer program with the just-arrived summer staff. It was so nice to be included and hear a bit of what was to come.

As I began this blog, we do really love this camp and that is why we have signed up for another project next May. We are so very grateful to be wanted back and we are so very grateful for all that God continues to do for us. PTL!

Be blessed and be a blessing!