Summertime!

It’s almost summer and I am so ready. This South Carolina boy grew up in the heat, so a string of 90 degree days doesn’t phase me one bit. Heck, some thought there was little more than a screen door between my hometown in Columbia and Dante’s inferno!

Sure enough, the second you walked outside in July your clothes would be dripping wet. Every neighborhood had a pool, thank goodness, but come mid-July the pool water felt like bath water.

So why do I like summer so much? Being outside, for one ... and the little bit of freedom that comes along with it. To this day I get excited when Anna’s final day of school rolls around. I vividly remember hearing the bell ring one last me at Seven Oaks Elementary School in the mid 1970s, followed by an eruption of cheers. I can picture Ricky Faulk and me racing to our bikes to see who could get o school grounds first. Summer time!

Summer time is fun around St. John’s, too. Sure, worship attendance slows down a bit because of vacations and trips to the lake. But while some things slow down, other things heat up.

Think about June and July alone: three youth mission trips, one confirmation camp, Summer Strings Camp, Hands and Feet Camp, and a day-long Free Day Camp with the staff  of Agape. And that doesn’t even include VBS, which is the first week of August.

It’s busy, but it’s a good kind of busy.

Speaking of heating up, I hope you had the chance to attend Cheerwine’s 100th birthday celebration on May 20. It was hot ... but how fun to see our downtown filled to the brim with good cheer. 

And don’t you know the CDC is heating up these days. School’s almost out, which means the CDC will be welcoming back another year of “summer camp” for school aged kids. Implemented three years ago, summer camp is a blast, loaded with field trips and fun. But the biggest excitement at the CDC has to do with our new execu ve director, Courtney Bost. Courtney has so much passion, care, and talent. Read all about her in our latest Eagles View newsletter.

Another of our ministries that’s heating up: our four Lutheran camps and conference centers in North Carolina.

Just last week we sent Matthew to to be a counselor at Lutheridge. He’s been waiting for this moment since we picked him up from camp after first grade. “I’m going to be a counselor,” he said. That was 12 years ago, and true to his word, Matthew loaded up his Subaru with ratty tennis shoes, a bunch of T shirts, and a guitar. What else does a summer camp counselor need? It’s sure to be the best summer of his life, and we can’t wait to hear all about it.

I sure hope your summer is heating up, too. Maybe it just means extra me to sit on the patio and relax. Maybe you’ll be hiking up Hanging Rock or biking the Virginia Creeper trail. Maybe a beach trip is in your future, or even an outdoor concert.

Whatever summer means for you, may you rejoice in this very precious season of life. Hot though it may be, may you be warmed by the joy each day is sure to bring. 

A new home

Every time I walk past our stairwell a tiny little “ding” is heard. It’s faint, and I’ve gotten used to it for the most part.

It comes from an antique telephone Krista brought from her mom’s house last month, the kind I first saw on the Waltons, with a crank and a separate ear piece. It’s   classic. 

Following the death of Krista’s dad last September, Krista’s mom, Joan, decided to move out of their spacious log home and into a two bedroom condo. She downsized, which meant that we now have a number of little treasures like that phone … and a small chalkboard that hung in their basement … and an old flintlock gun that looks like something Aaron Burr would have used in his fateful duel. 

Although we’re proud to own these keepsakes, it’s hard for me to place them outside that old log house where they’ve lived these last 30 years. It’s where we’ve celebrated Thanksgiving and Christmas ever since I met Krista. It’s that place of quiet retreat that always smelled like a combination of Roger’s workshop, a wood burning stove, and the warm, muskiness of barley and hops. 

I’m not sure who will miss the house more, but I know my name is on that list. The night time was the best, with no ambient light or noise for miles around. Sleeping in was assumed, as was a quiet walk down the stairs if you were the first one up. 

There was nothing fancy about the house — or life in the house — although it was as sturdy and well built as you’ve ever seen. Krista’s dad built it from scratch, after all. Their dream home. A home for all of us.

But things change and life moves on. Families aren’t confined to four walls, after all, and the practical side of taking care of property and appliances and cleaning eventually wins out. It was time to move. 

Joan is now finding a new normal as she transitions into a different home and a changed routine. The large picture window in her bedroom helps, perfectly placed so that she wakes up every morning to the sun rising over Lake Keowee. The dawn of a new day.

Which is precisely what all this is, for each of us: the dawn of a new day. Different, sure, but each day kissed with the beauty of newness and grace. 

“I lift up my eyes to the hills; from where does my help come? My help comes from the Lord, who made the heavens and the earth” (Psalm 121).  

I have no idea where we’ll hang that old telephone, but we’ll find a place. And in time it will become part of its new home, a constant fixture whose “ding” seems to  announce that “all is well.” 

Blessings to you and yours, 

Pastor Rhodes