Hello Muddah! Hello Faddah!

Many of you know this song, set to a piece of classical music, made famous by comedian Allan Sherman in the 1960s. It's about a kid who's having a miserable time at summer camp, and wants to come home. That is, until the rain stopped and the fun started! Then he asked his parents to "kindly disregard this lettah!"

So far at Camp Chrysalis near Kerrville, it's only rained at night, and no one wants to go home. Ten wonderful young people accompanied Susan Calhoun and I for this week at Confirmation Camp. Thanks again to all you generous Lakesiders who supported the fundraising we did to make camp financially accessible for everybody. I know you'd be proud of the way our young people are having fun, making friends, living in Christian community, and learning about the faith.

During the morning Bible studies, the leadership has been shared by a different individual. We are teaching our favorite book, or portion of a book, of the Bible.

• On Monday, Pastor Steve Youngdahl taught insights from the Gospel according to St. Luke. Pastor Steve is the Senior Pastor at Shepherd of the Hills Lutheran Church in Austin. He taught Luke because from it come most of this year's Gospel readings.
• On Tuesday, Pastor Marcus Otterstad taught the Revelation to St. John. He wanted to debunk a lot of the dispensationalist (Left Behind, Late Great Planet Earth) teaching that goes on in Christian mass-media. He believes, and I agree, that this teaching is actually destructive to Christian faith.
• Today I taught Isaiah 40-55, commonly called Second Isaiah, or the preaching of Isaiah of Babylon. We considered what it meant to be the children of exiles, now comfortably settled in a new home, and then to be called to make our way back to a Jerusalem that had been left in ruins.
• Tomorrow Opie Otterstad, the son of Pastor Otterstad and a fantastic sports artist, will teach Job. If you want to see some of Opie's art, go to http://www.opieart.com. It's well worth a look.
• On Friday, Pastor Heidi Schwerdtfeger (Shepherd of the Hills, Austin) will teach Paul's letter to the Romans.

The food has been great, the staff energetic and committed, and everybody seems healthy and happy. I think it's been good for our youth to expand their horizons in the church and to encounter the different gifts and teaching styles we all have. Thank you so much for entrusting these fine young people to Susan, me, and the Chrysalis staff this week. It has been rewarding for us, and I believe it will prove to be for the youth as well.