PCG Then and Now

I was up early this morning and still thinking about the 23rd Anniversary of the PCG on December 7. I have been attending since 1993 so have seen a lot of the progress.  Here are some before and after pictures from the early 90s to now.

Our 13th Anniversary...our story

This week on December 5th was our 13th anniversary. Since I am English and Kenny is American, we often are asked how we met. So here is our story which I hope will also be encouraging to many who are single and see if you catch an interesting correlation in the story. 

Let's start way back in England in the WCG days. I attended in London at the Indian YMCA in Fitzroy Square (incidentally there were 200 of us). A friend in the congregation met a Canadian at a feast, they married and moved to Toronto and we kept in touch. Fast forward to 1993 when I visited my Aunt in Toronto and by that time my friends had joined the PCG. I was in Toronto for 3 weeks and a few days before I left for home, my friends and I had dinner. I asked them about the PCG and in a few weeks 1993 I was attending myself. 

For 5 years I lived in London and had 2 feasts in the US, 2 in England and the last one in Tobago. After returning from the feast in Tobago in 1998, my Canadian friends called me and mentioned that they had met a nice guy from New York and asked if he could call me. I said sure and I think he called me that same day. We got on well immediately and found we had a lot in common in our lives and personalities. We spoke on the phone for a few weeks before we met face to face and the rest is history!

Wonders of God's Creation - why migration?

I just watched "Wonders of God's Creation: Animal Kingdom" on Amazon Instant Video. Apart from providing inspiring insights into the complexity and ingenuity that God has put into living creatures, it also made me think about a repeated theme of the animal kingdom - migration. It seems that migration occurs in much of the fauna - birds, flying insects, fish, sea mammals - all have a cycle of migration, why is that? Why has God put that theme of migration throughout creation? Maybe it's to remind us humans, who are the ones observing this trend, that we too are on a journey. Each species is equipped with the necessary attributes that make traveling thousands of miles possible, sometimes without stopping such as in flying over oceans - another testament to that there had to be a creator!

In the video it shows how Atlantic Salmon exhibit great strength and perseverance as they migrate out to the Atlantic and then back to their home to lay eggs and then die. They have to survive predators all along the way and literally jump over obstacles (they can jump as high as 10 feet). The salmon have extremely sensitive sense of smell which guides them back to their home waters - apparently every body of water has it's particular essence (another fascinating fact of creation).

I don't have the answer to "why migration" but it's something interesting to ponder at night when sleep eludes one!

Lessons from our Shiba Inu

Our dog Petra is a Shiba Inu which is a Japanese breed known to be reserved and independent. Recently he has taken to coming into our room at night whereas he usually stays in his bed outside.  The other night when he came in, I woke up and while I was getting back to sleep I began to think about dogs and how they are a unique animal that seems to be have been created to be "man's best friend". I wondered about the characteristics of dogs and what they could teach us maybe about our relationship to God. Here are a few of my thoughts. Bear in mind that our dog is an inside pet and I'm not a dog expert by any means and this is the first dog that I have ever had so these are just my ideas. I'd love to hear what others think.

Dogs rely completely on their owner - unlike cats which roam outside freely and can catch their own food, a dog seems to me to be totally dependent on their owner for everything. They eat when we say, go out when we say etc. This is how we need to be with our Father, relying completely on Him for everything. 

They love to be close to their owner - eventhough my Shiba Inu is independent he still likes to be around either me or my husband. He'll sit in the same room but just isn't the type to need to be petted, as long he is in the vicinity of either of us he's content. If we      move to another room he'll follow. I know other dogs are very much more affectionate and need a lot of petting. We need to love to be close to God.

They love to eat what we eat - this may be bad training on our part! but our dog knows when we have some juicy beef bone or possible left overs and he will wait until he's certain that he's not getting any before he'll eat his own food. When I come in from shopping he looks eagerly at the bags to see if  I'll pull out any goodies for him. We are given so much spiritual food straight from the mind of our Father and we need to be eager to eat it.


They can be stubborn - As I mentioned, Shiba Inu's are by nature independent. Sometimes he will be lying down and I will call him and he'll just ignore me. I might have to call him three times and make my voice sharp for him to even look up! We need to not have this characteristic and be receptive and quick to respond to God's direction.

Dogs quickly bounce back from correction - whenever Petra does something naughty and gets told off or spanked he'll slink off by himself for a while. It won't be long though until he comes shyly back looking for a rub. That's how we need to be when we are corrected and realize that it's for our good and God never stops loving us.                        

They fast and seclude themselves when they need to recuperate - A few months ago Petra was attacked by a couple of pit bulls and had some fairly severe lacerations to his back, neck and leg. He was in pain and shook up. When we brought him home from the vet he spent the next two weeks barely eating, not wanting to interact with us and hiding in the bathroom or other quiet areas of the house. Exactly 14 days later he emerged back to his normal self. Sometimes we need to take time out to fast and reflect to get ourselves back to spiritual health.

What are some of the lessons you've observed from "man's best friend"?

                                     

FOT 2012 in Tampa Pictures

My feast pictures are online click here - I hope you enjoy our view of Tampa!

Why I love the LGD

The Last Great Day has a special place in my heart. When God was calling me, one of the questions that started to nag me before I knew the truth was about those who were apparently condemned because they had not accepted Christ eventhough they never had the opportunity to hear anything about him such as people in far flung places throughout all the ages. It just didn't seem fair.

Then I started reading the Plain Truth and understood about the Last Great Day and that this is not the only day of salvation. How glorious was that knowledge and now things made sense.  So every year on the LGD it takes me back to my calling and how wonderful it is to know that God's way is totally logical and full of love for all mankind.

Feast of Tabernacles 2012

Here we are on the Last Great Day, hard to believe it has arrived so soon and I'm only now getting around to posting something. We've had a wonderful feast at the new site in Tampa and I'll be doing a post giving a summary of this beautiful new site.

Wishing everyone a wonderful LGD, cheerful goodbyes and safe travels home.

Dorm Portraits

Here are the dorms in a formal pose taken on the last Sabbath. Next year I'll do it on the first Sabbath to help me remember all the campers!  The names should be in order thanks to help from Parker Campbell and Sarah Woodard who helped me out.

Mr Turgeon and Mr Burns received a thank you card from all the campers with these pictures and each camper signed the back of their dorm picture.

1B
Campers: Jared Schow, Taylor Hamby, Tyrel Schlote(C) Parker Campbell, Daniel Chaney,
Cord Smedley, Matthew Kawalek, Grant Clayton, Harvey Powell,
Jarryd Hennery, Michael Benedetti (AC),  Dogan McCoy, Cory Szabo, Brandon Gray

2B
Justice Brown, Callum Wood (C), Sterling Moffett,  David Warner, Jacob Bancroft, 
Bradley Smities, Evan Fraser, David Street, Nick Irwin, Reagan Anderson
Reese Zoellner (AC), Gianni Welsh, Matthew Barreiro, Joshua Miiler
  

3B
Adam Paul, Anthony Chibrariwe (C), Logan Yoder, Isaiah Jolly, Austin Williams, 
SJ Cheek, Aaron Helms, Gavin Fraser, Austin Cegelenski, Benjamin Sherwood, 
Drew Buckler, Justin Wainwright, Timothy Bruce, Abraham Blondeau (AC)

4B
Reniel Padua (C), Zac Bush,  Austin Flory, Robert Palmer, Brandon Szabo,
Johnathan Mansour, Lane Schultz, Michael Davis, Nathan Campbell, Michael Lewis
David Dodds, Warren Larson, Kyle Cocomise (AC),  Colin Brinson

5B
Jeff Dillbeck, Josue Michels, Tyler Verbout, AJ Williams, Jacob Adcock
Triston Gray, Josua Davison, Caleb Flory, Daniel Arnfield (AC), Jonahtan Weese,  
Bailey Crawford (C), Jesse Zoellner, Ezra Hochstetler,  Elijah Parr

6B
Laskey Hart (C), Danny Cocomise, Tristan Dahlke, Shiloh Davison, Timothy Hartley, 
Mahariel Rosario, Brett Roberts, Samuel Nicholson, Miguel Guillar, 
Nick Burns,  Albert Clarke, James Brandon (AC), William Wallace, 
Not pictured: Jed Ellis

1G
Monica Antonio, Eleisah Saranga, Rebecca Palmer, Heather Pulis
Tori Schellenberg, Sarah Scott, Sara Bruce, Joella Tolis, Katie Schow
Maria Gutman, Stephanie Cocomise, Brenda Barquero, 
Not pictured:  Brianna Smythe, Eva Hochstetler 

2G
Amanda Scott, Rohanna Tracy, Amber Eagle, Kassandra Verbout, Autumn Wright,
Cheyenne Chaney, Lillian Harms, Laura Woods, Darby Carter, 
Michelle Cuenco (C), Erin Lexa, Emily Gill 
Not pictured: Kelcey Perry (AC), Cheyenne McGuire, 

                                   

3G
Christina Staal, Brandi Davis, Stephanie Szabo, Tabitha Burks (C), Ansley Welsh
Alicia Yocum, Nerys Shaw,  Brianna Weeks, Cami Eagle,
Melissa Barreiro,  Amber Fillers, Kayla Gill, Alayna Blanchat (AC), Sera Millar

4G
Hannah Estebat (C), Erica Amos, Starlene Gray, Berkeley Dahlke,
Jennifer Hancock, Aebra Hayes, Ashley Fillers, Rishanna Cheek,
Ariana Eames, Pansy Adcock, Cathryn Bancroft, Calela Brooks, Sharalee Fraser (AC)
Not pictured: Khadija Khan

5G
Gabrielle Haddad (C),  Callie Cocomise, Eleanor Clarke, Britney Marbach, Brittney Morrrison,
Alyssa Tunales, Julia Hayes, Sarah Woodard, Janice Seda,  Joanna Mansour, 
Jessica Brandon, Frances Ashwood, Breanna Leiferman (AC), Rachel Culpepper,

6G
Alexa Turgeon, Catherine Poplick, Arianne Olsen, Audrey Locher, Andrea Garcia,  
Tonya Wainwright (C), Rachel Flory, Montana Pulis, Sarah Icasiano (AC), Kiani Seda, 
Lori Hochstetler, Bethany Miiler, Brianna Macfarland, Julia Goddard, 

Meet the Kitchen Workers

Here is a list of the work kitchen staff that I had the pleasure of working with this year - some veteran workers and first-timers. It was great to see how we all worked together on the various tasks and in a very tight space. There was a lot of swift moving out of the way and sharing of counter space to accomplish our jobs. Everyone pulled together at the crunch times too when we had a push hard like on the Etiquette dinners and Fridays. 

Mr & Mrs Krueger

Terry Privatsky - veteran
Her son James is a Sophomore at AC

Terie Perry - veteran
Her daughter, Kelcey, is a Sophomore at AC

Leesa Beezley - veteran
Has two daughters at AC Sherry and Jessie

Danielle Lamberth - employee
AC alumni and her dad is the Custodial Manager

Jordanya Rouzer - newbie
AC Freshman

Delane Campbell - veteran
Grandmother to 2 campers, Nathan and Parker and an AC Freshman, Whitney

Cinthia Rosas - newbie

Judy Orleans - veteran

Isabella Strachan - newbie

Kim Miller - newbie

Renee Glennon - newbie
Her son, Robert, is an AC Alumni

Gracie Hochstetler - veteran
Had a brother at camp

Miranda Troutner - newbie

Maggie Hilliker - veteran
Mother of Mrs Amy Flurry and Mr Joel Hilliker

This blog's author

Esme Henery - newbie (South African)
Her son was a camper

Daniel Kessler

Zachary McCullough - newbie
Bianca Wilson - newbie

Annette Heath - newbie
Her daughter Jennifer is married to Victor Vejil 

Toni Woemmel - veteran
and First Aid

Randy Woemmel - veteran

Album 20 has more pictures of kitchen activities

Gift to the Kitchen from Workers

On the last day of camp, the kitchen workers presented Mr & Mrs Krueger with a gift of a new Vitamix which we know will be well used in preparing nutritious meals at HQ.

Since the unit hadn't actually been delivered yet we gave a card with our pictures and signatures and a picture of the unit the would be getting. Mrs Krueger was so delighted she went around and hugged everyone. It was truly our privilege to be able to assist with camp and learn some cooking techniques in the process!