Team

This picture appeared on facebook this morning. You've gotta love all those red shirts and shining faces. This is our team, this week attending SPEC at the Graceland campus in Lamoni Iowa. (Click here to see what it's all about!)

We were having a conversation just yesterday around our lunch table. It seems some of our children have heard about this "thing called Graceland" and were asking what it's all about anyway. It was one of those all-too-familiar conversations about these children of the children we knew way back when. Tim, the newest member of our team, recounted how he had traveled to Lamoni in the summer of "70-something" and had the most spectacular experience! All his kids have followed in his footsteps.

My own kids never did the SPEC thing, but we did fall under the spell of Graceland as two sons' academic careers tracked through that campus. And now I'm delivering one of their kids to junior high camp to see if there's a place for him on this team Canada. Of course there is!

The gang meeting that bus had such a fun time connecting back through the generations. Three couples waiting there had met at camp, years ago. Three others had directed camps this summer and were now putting their own progeny on that bus.

Picking them up again was a whole other matter. Excited campers (high on sugar and camp!) poured off the bus to give everybody one more hug while sorting out luggage and bags and sombreros and pillows from the mix. They're a team now, for sure. They may not yet realize that they're part of a bigger team than meets the eye. Who knows how many will make it to SPEC at some point.

We look at that picture and try to find the faces we might know. The archives are full of such pictures. But the heart of the team beats beyond those red shirts, as moms and dads, and grandpas and grandmas and former camp directors and counselors recognize a look or a smile or a goofy expression that looks just so familiar. It's our team!

Posted by Marion