Summer Camp and Rain

As happens nearly every year, I seem to get lost in memories of summer camp. For 3 or 4 years as a teenager I spent about three weeks in July at what was then called Clarksburg Camp (Church of the Nazarene) within walking distance of Georgian Bay. I helped in the dining hall - we called it waitressing - but what it really meant was setting tables, filling salt shakers etc. and washing dishes. It meant early mornings after late nights around a campfire, and it produced lasting friendships and opportunities for spiritual growth.

There is so much music associated with those weeks that I could probably write several entries. The bunch of us girls washing dishes and cleaning up the dining hall would often sing to pass the time and some songs I recall are: Amen (the spiritual), a version of Psalm 100 put to music by a local musician, and He's got the whole world in His hands.

Then there were the traveling song evangelists that came to provide music for the services. I remember many of them, but one that holds a special place in my heart is Canadian Deverne Mullen. He created some of his own arrangements for the camp choir to sing and he always encouraged the teens to join. The tabernacle (meeting place) had a tin roof and you can imagine the deafening sound when it rained! We've had a couple really torrential downpours in the last week or so, and it made me think of Deverne singing "My, Didn't it Rain!" He always had this piece at the ready in case of a storm at camp.