The Blog

Happy Hanukkah!  A belated happy Hanukkah, that is, for although Hanukkah ended yesterday, it did not make it to the blog until…now! Hanukkah is a celebration which receives only one direct mention in the Bible, and interestingly enough, it is in the New Testament: John 10:22 speaks of Jesus being in the temple during the “feast of dedication,” and Hanukkah means dedication.  The Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary notes:

“the feast of the dedication — celebrated rather more than two months after the feast of tabernacles, during which intermediate period our Lord seems to have remained in the neighborhood of Jerusalem. It was instituted by Judas Maccabeus, to commemorate the purification of the temple from the profanations to which it had been subjected by Antiochus Epiphanes 165 b.c., and kept for eight days, from the twenty-fifth Chisleu [Kislev]…the day on which Judas began the first joyous celebration of it (1 Maccabees 4:52, 56, 59; and Josephus, Antiquities, 7.7.7).“

There are many lessons to be learned from the historical Hanukkah story, which are interesting for all believers.  But since I told some of you that I would be posting pictures from our own Hanukkah celebration today, I’d better stick to that for now, lest I run out of time!

All eight days of Hanukkah were really a lot of fun, but the big event of the week was our Hanukkah party for our home fellowship.

There’s always a lot to do, especially in the way of food preparation!  Thanks so much to our good friends, the Sherrys, who were a tremendous help in preparing everything.  Even the preparations were a lot of fun.

Just to prove that I could do it (no, not really), even yours truly got in on the food preparations.

Anyone hungry?

I don’t know what you consider a “large gathering” in your house, but 36 people packs our house pretty well!

Some of the “younger folks” had a musical presentation.

Joel and Conrad had some excellent arrangements.

For the first time, we had a special (humorous) visit from “Hanukkah Man” (”no, I’m not a Jewish Santa Claus”).

The dreidel game is a Hanukkah tradition - above, some scenes of showing the younger children how to play.  When 3-year-old Davy saw the group of young ladies playing dreidel, he asked, “Is that a girl game?”

And of course, we had to include a little bit of ping pong (above, we’re doing the “round-the-world” version), even though it’s not necessarily a traditional Hanukkah activity!

Welcome to Horn Creek!

Horn Peak majestically overlooks the camp outside the town of Westcliffe.

Above: Little Bear and his wife Marilyn.  A highlight of the camp is always the evening session, with a message from Little Bear. 

In the picture above, Little Bear is in World War I uniform, giving a presentation on Sergeant York. 

Joel performed the prelude music each evening before the main session, accompanied on piano by our good friend Conrad Triebold.

Weapons and tactics trainer and former police officer Steve Ringer joins Little Bear in presentations on practical outdoor survival skills. 

Cindy Cone and her daughter Stephanie have lead special sessions for the women at each camp.  Although I don’t have any firsthand knowledge about their sessions, I always hear great reports about them!  (I didn’t take these pictures!)

Joshua Goforth (left) shared an excellent presentation on courtship, and also told the often hilarious story of his own courtship.  Here is Joshua, Noelle (his wife and Little Bear’s daughter) and Little Bear.

Volleyball is a Horn Creek tradition, and this year we enjoyed trying out a variation on this familiar theme: “walleyball.”

There is also plenty of free time to participate in various recreational activities and just get to know people!

We stopped to see some sights outside Colorado Springs, on our way to Horn Creek. 

On our trip out to Horn Creek, we had the privilege of stopping in to visit with missionary and author Wilhelm Baum outside Kansas City.  We had read his incredible life story, A Jew, A Miracle, and a Mission, this past year, and since we were passing near his home, we couldn’t “pass up” the opportunity of meeting him!

Mr. Baum was born in a Jewish family in Dortmond, Germany in 1915.  His family fled Germany for the United States shortly after Hitler came to power, and just before the intense persecution began.  Mr. Baum ended up in the U.S. Army during World War II, and while in the service came to believe that Jesus (in Hebrew, Yeshua) was his Messiah and Savior.  After the war, he became a missionary to a war-torn nation, but not Germany as he would have expected.  Instead, he was led by the Lord to Japan, where he worked to diligently to learn the difficult language, and slowly but surely, his ministry there began to yield fruit.  After almost thirty years in Japan, he “retired” in order to have time to travel and preach behind the iron curtain during the height of the Cold War. 

With such wide-ranging life experiences, God has used Mr. Baum in a multitude of different roles, provided for him in remarkable ways, and blessed him with a long and fruitful ministry.  His book was a great blessing to us, and we counted it a privilege to have the opportunity to meet him. 

Joel played some hymn arrangements on the violin for him, and Mr. Baum produced a Japanese hymnal and was delighted to hear some of these songs, familiar to him from years ago.