happy camper

In October 1996, my family took our first camping trip to Big South Fork National River and Recreation Area, which straddles the Tennessee-Kentucky border on the Cumberland Plateau. I had never camped in a tent before that weekend (sleeping in a car at a campground doesn't really count as camping, but those are stories for another day). I chose Big South Fork for our first camping experience because my friend Amy swore that the bathhouses were cleaner than her own bathrooms, so we acquired a tent and other basic equipment and made the three-hour drive to the Bandy Creek Campground. (FYI: The bathhouses really are incredibly clean.)

During that trip, we ran into Lauryn, a friend from church who I had first met on a mission trip to Scotland five years earlier. Lauryn told us that several families from our church were camping together at one of Bandy Creek's two group campgrounds, an experience that had become their annual tradition. Lauryn then invited us to join them for their community meal that evening, which we did. That night we asked them to add us to their camping roster, and we've been making the trip to Big South Fork every October since then. 

Chaney was a kindergartner the first time we camped; now he's a senior in high school. Camping at Big South Fork is one of our family's most cherished traditions. Tomorrow our family will set up at camp at Bandy Creek once again, along with eleven other families. In accordance with tradition, we will take a group hike on Saturday, which almost always features one or more boys getting their shoes wet in the Big South Fork of the Cumberland River. Saturday night we will share a community meal (a chili supper) at the pavilion before regrouping around the campfire circle, where I will share an evening devotion (I'm thinking about Elijah). Afterwards, the teenagers (and some adults) usually head up to the field where we take advantage of the lack of light pollution and stargaze to our hearts' content. I can't wait!

"The heavens declare the glory of God, the skies display the work of His hands. Day after day they pour forth speech, night after night they display knowledge. There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard" (Psalm 19:1-3).