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Entertainment Topics
Hidden Benefits of Family Camping
Crisis Management from a Tent
When a family returns from a camping excursion, ask them, "Did you have a good time?" If they shrug their shoulders with a casual, "Yeah. It was fine," you can rest assured the trip was uneventful and left few moments to recall.
However, if you ask them that question and they respond with, "OH, MAN! IT WAS GREAT! You wouldn't believe what a weekend we had!" What would that tell you? I guarantee you they experienced at least one crisis, and possibly more. For some reason, the low points during the trip become the high points afterward. It's the black bear outside the tent, foraging the backpacks, that causes us to hug one another. It's the slip of the foot, the slide down a bank into a cold river, a fire to dry the clothes, and talk of the close call that sticks in our minds. The crisis becomes the point at which we bond.
When Heidi and I talk about our first trip to the Appalachian Trail, our minds immediately go to two unforgettable moments along the way. One was the unending climb up Whitetop Mountain. We started in very nice weather and then it turned cold and nasty. The wind caused the dense fog to soak into our clothes clear to the skin and we thought we would freeze to death. We started looking for a place to hunker down for the night, and finally about dark, we came to a stand of heavy cedars. We hurriedly set up our tent under a leaning tree before noticing that the tree was actually cracked.
Then the second crisis began. Too tired to force ourselves to move our site, we crawled inside our two-man tent and tried to rest. Our bags were warm and dry, but we didn't sleep a wink the entire night. The large, broken cedar above us swayed and creaked in the wind, and we were kept awake by the fear of being crushed.
As the sun began to rise, we crawled out of our tattered tent and were delighted to find that the storm had passed and we had survived. Somehow, tired as we were, exhilaration strengthened our steps down the other side of Whitetop. We had come through the ordeal together!
What reason is there to hug and rejoice when an experience is bland? When they ask you, "Did you have a good time?" a survivable crisis or two always puts an explanation point at the end of your "YES!" May all your dilemmas be safe ones.
Steve Chapman
Adapted from A Look at Life From God's Great Outdoors, copyright © 1999 by Steve Chapman. Used by permission of Harvest House Publishers, Eugene, Ore. All rights reserved.
Steve Chapman and his wife, Annie, are award-winning musicians who have taken their message of Christ-centered family to fans all over North America. Steve proclaims his enthusiasm for the gospel, for family and for hunting in A Look at Life From a Deer Stand (more than 100,000 copies sold), Reel Time with God, What a Hunter Brings Home and With God on a Deer Hunt. To read more about Steve and Annie's ministries, visit their Web site at www.steveandanniechapman.com.
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