This winter we are blessed to have five people serving as Seasonal Staff. When you come this winter you will see them working everywhere! We thank God for them.

Tonight a fire in our maintenance area destroyed a shed and all the firewood in it. But there is much to praise God for: no one was injured, the fire did not spread to any adjacent buildings or equipment, recent rains kept the surrounding areas from catching fire, and both the staff men and the Fairview Fire Department responded quickly. We have lost 40 cords of firewood (one cord is four feet wide, four feet tall, and eight feet long) which represents many hours of labor, and many dollars of savings off of heating fuel. Tonight we are just grateful for everyone’s safety.

This is how the woodshed looked in August.

PRAYER REQUEST

Lee and Eleanor Brown serve as Resident Missionary Staff at Camp Barakel.

They joined staff as singles in the mid 1970s, married in 1978, and have faithfully served full time since then.

Lee is in the hospital with subacute endocarditis (inflammation caused by infection in the heart) and this Monday (November 8) will have his mitral valve replaced.

This means open heart surgery, and the final decision about whether he will get a mechanical valve or a pig valve will be made after the surgeon has his chest open.

Lee and Eleanor (“Petie”) welcome your prayers. Petie wrote in a recent email “We know that God has it all under His control and we are grateful. We will rest in His perfect will for us and especially Lee. We are at peace about the situation. Thanks for your prayers.”

Lee says if they give him a pig valve he will eat pork right away to make the valve feel at home. The Browns give permission to pass along this message. We will post a note giving some results from the surgery on this web page and our Facebook page.

Elizabeth was born in December of 1937, and publicly confessed Jesus Christ as her Savior at a summer camp in 1950, when she was 12 years old. Today she is with her beloved Jesus face-to-face. She married Howard Wideman in 1957, and in 1969 they moved (with their five children) to Camp Barakel. Together they served as Resident Missionary Staff until their retirement in 2000. Hundreds and hundreds of people knew Liz as the East Side Camp cook, many of them referring to her as “Mama Liz.” She battled cancer for the last 10 years, and began resting from the battle today, July 16. For funeral arrangements see the above link. Cards or letters may be sent to Howard in care of Barakel’s address: PO Box 159, Fairview, MI 48621-0159

For Viewing/Funeral details and obituary click here.

Dr. Jim Grier came and taught two sessions in our Summer Staff Workshop. He enlarged our appreciation for the grand story of God’s redemption. The recordings and his notes are available on our Chapel Podcast page.