Hello Mudda, Hello Fadda
Hello Mudda, Hello Fadda
You are not the kind of guy…who would normally do something like this. But here you are… traveling six hundred miles, from Ohio to Virginia, with your wife (of nineteen months), and newborn daughter (of seven weeks), for a couples conference. You take a deep breath and remind yourself that it is the Second Annual Summer Camp for Couples from the folks at the Highlands Study Center. You feel better. It will not be a video presentation in a large auditorium. It will be face-to-face conversation in the Sprouls' own home on their little mountain homestead. No name tags. The theme of the teaching will not be how to make a series of promises as steps toward "bringing back the romance," but will be three days of biblical teaching and talking about how to be a Christ - serving , kingdom - building family.
It is Thursday, and the conference begins this morning with breakfast. Your daughter wakes you up so that you will not be late. It is a bright and warm Virginia morning. The six mile stretch of J.E.B. Stuart Highway from Abingdon to the Sprouls' home is a brief tour of the beauty typical of this region. There are rolling mountains, the brisk trout streams, grazing Herefords and Holsteins, and blossoming tobacco. As you crest the hill at the top of the driveway, Socks runs alongside your car and small Sprouls burst out of the house to greet you and your family. During breakfast, you are introduced to the other three couples who have traveled here for the same reasons you have. The Smiths have come from Pennsylvania, the Hortons from Georgia, and the Barnes from Florida. As you meet them you begin to realize that you are in pleasant and friendly company. This will be a good conference. And these are good eggs!
The Sproul home is a comfortable one and daily routine does not stop for the couples camp. You are a guest in their home and you are never treated otherwise. In the sitting room, downstairs, you and Katie join the other couples for the sessions. R.C. begins the teaching and you are glad to know that he does not have any "weird Dutch philosophies" for you. For the next three days, during these sessions, he teaches on the sovereignty of God, the biblical view of the family, and the growth of His kingdom. You are listening and reading and you are involved in the conversation.
And what are you learning? You are learning to "seek ye first the kingdom of God." You are learning that the kingdom is important because it is presented in the Bible as being so important. (Why did Pilate think Jesus was a Political Revolutionary? Because He is a Political Revolutionary.) You are learning to think and speak and live in terms of seeking His kingdom first. Every last one of Christ's enemies will be conquered or converted. Eschatology is not a peripheral doctrine.
You are beginning to understand your covenantal responsibility as head of your family. That it is the smallest economic unit in a community and is the basic building block of His building of His kingdom. You are to love, teach, and sanctify the wife and family, which you have been given and are being given. You read that if you do not discipline your children, you hate them. If you do not bring your children up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, you provoke them to wrath.
You are learning more about how God as Creator is an artist, rather than an engineer. His creation is for His pleasure and His glory. He is Creator and Lord over time. He is sovereign over history. You are thankful that He is also sovereign over the details.
On Friday evening, the Sprouls host the Fourth Annual Ice Cream Social at their home. A hundred people gather, from the nearby Reformed churches, for the fellowship of friends of like faith. And ice cream. You taste Mrs. Stange's homemade blueberry ice cream, and then show your little girl your purple tongue. Eilidh can only stare back and blow bubbles. You make new friends and greet ones whom you've already met. There are baseball, basketball, and golf games being played and brand new games being created. You see that Laurence has found a friend who is wearing the same hat. A group from Laurence's Thursday Night Bible Study is sharing jokes a few yards away. "Do you know how a blonde ties her shoes?" Bekah shows you. You see Christian families of all different sizes and ages. You think that more communities need to be doing things like this.
The conference comes to a close on Saturday afternoon. There has been no trace of the "plague" which swept through here last year. You never really believed there was any "curse." Later that evening, you are invited for supper at the Windhams'. Laurence cooks up some of that Mexican food he is almost famous for. He says the peppers he bought were not hot enough. You tell him that he is a good cook…for a guy.Even later, you and Chris and Laurence step out onto the dark porch. Laurence says the weather is only going to get better for sitting and talking. You wonder how it could. You sit and listen and talk…and sit…and listen… and talk.
You and yours worship with Saint Peter Church that Lord's Day. R.C. continues his preaching through the book of Judges. After the service, you take a long time to say goodbye to all your friends at Saint Peter Church. It is difficult to leave. You take more time. As you start on your way home, you know that it is good that you can always come back here to the Highlands to learn and live more simply, separately, anddeliberately to the Glory of God and the building of His kingdom. And Lord willing… you will.