After 25+ years of listening to John-Roger and John Morton and hanging out in MSIA here’s what I’ve learned: “The good old days are always right now.” Well, hopefully I’ve learned some other things too along the way. But I’m starting to see myself as a sort of elder statesman in this Movement of ours and I begin to look back on the short life of our church and see things in a certain perspective. It continues to amaze me that the opportunities we have and the activities available to us are always changing, always new, always fresh. Even the same activities are continually new.

Last weekend (Labor Day weekend, 2001) is an example. We had a work party on MSIA’s Lake Arrowhead property. There were some albums at the Arrowhead property of pictures taken in 1976 and there I was, thin, young and I even had hair. But the experience of last weekend was just as much fun, just as fulfilling, just as productive as those work parties and retreats we have had at Arrowhead anytime in the past.

There were about 25 of us there for the long Labor Day weekend, some arriving for just a day, some for longer. David Funk all the way from Seattle to be with us. I was struck by the willingness everyone had to cooperate, participate, to get their hands dirty, to do the work that was before us. By the end of the second day we had completed all the tasks that had been thought up for us to do. Amazing!

Volunteer Peter Leighton adds:

Here you can see the crew finding the railroad ties that are not split or rotted out to shore up the trail. Everyone helps as the tie is strapped to two hand-trucks and is then pulled up the hill. We felt like we were laboring on the pyramids. Here we are moving it along the trail and positioning it for the descent. As we begin the descent, there is only a portion of a trail we can use. So, we have to bring it down the side of a mountain where the silt crumbles under us and raises voluminous clouds of dust. We figure that half the side of that mountain ended up in our shoes and the other half in our lungs. The last part of the journey was a steep plunge. Finally we get the railroad tie to the trail. We did this five more times to get enough to shore up the side of the trail and create steps up to it. The jubilant crew has brought the mountain to Mohammed. Actually the crew stuck with the pyramid motif and renamed the trail “Pharaoh’s Way.” Next the crew widens the trail and puts the new steps to the trail in place.

Meanwhile there were other volunteers that did great jobs like trimming branches, cleaning screens, inventory, and cleaning & caulking.

One of the greatest treats up at Arrowhead were the meals. Here are some happy & well-fed campers. Many, many, many thanks to our three beautiful kitchen angels who are pictured here. These wonderful ladies made us incredible delights you would have to taste to believe.

Yes, we did some chores around the property and spruced up the place for the PAT trainings, Teen Insights and Family Retreats that will take place there next summer. But what we really did was to share fellowship with each other, strengthen the common ties of our spiritual family, enjoy each other’s company and eat some of the best meals I can remember. It was as much fun as twenty-five years ago.
As the song goes, “These are the good old days!”