Maranatha 2014

Another year, another trip to Maranatha. Which means another vacation recap blog post.

Don’t read that opening sentence with the wrong tone of voice – it’s a happy time, not a here-we-go-again dour attitude. The kids love going; we look forward to it each year.

Visit 2010’s recap of our trip to Maranatha for a refresher course, or to see how similar trips to Maranatha are. We want them to be similar, because kids need traditions.

Let’s see… things to recap.

  • The Beach

    The beach was good, weather cooperated for the most part.

    I got some photos of the sunset our first night there.

    image of the sunset on Lake Michigan at the beach of Maranatha Bible and Missionary Conference in Norton Shores, MI

    image of the sunset on Lake Michigan at the beach of Maranatha Bible and Missionary Conference in Norton Shores, MI

    Given the number of phones and teenagers there, I bet there were a ton more sunset photos on Instagram too. The problem with those is that the photographers kept sticking their own heads in the way.

    And the boys had fun playing in the sand.

    image of the children playing on the beach at Lake Michigan of Maranatha Bible and Missionary Conference in Norton Shores, MI

    My camera did make the mistake of looking directly at the sun

    image of the sun in the sky

    but it seemed to have escaped unharmed.

  • The Speakers

    • The evening speaker was Ian Leitch. This week’s lesson was the whole book of Ephesians, essentially one chapter a day. (keeps the devil away (his joke, not mine))
    • The morning speaker was Rob Rienow. He and his wife run Visionary Family Ministries out of the Chicago area.

      He was highly entertaining and informative. More on him in a later blog post. But before I write that, you should look at his schedule so you can attend one of his sessions in person (Albuquerque Aug 4-5, Minnesota Sep 7-14, among others)

    • The mission focus for the week was Rafiki. They are doing a lot of good in Africa, but there is much more to be done.

      Quick question: how can you help widows and orphans?

      Quick answer: by supporting their businesses. Go to the Rafiki Exchange and buy things made by widows.

      I don’t think the orphans make anything. To support them you’ll just have to give money. Or sign up for a mission trip.

    Oh, and we learned a song in Nigerian.

    image of the Nigerian song Ni Zan Je

    Ni Zan Je da
    Yesa ko ina
    Ban damu da gargada
    hani ya ba
    Ni Zan Je
    Ni Zan Je

  • The Activities

    • Tie Dye again. This year we had 3 boys making shirts, up from 2 last year. Delta would be dangerous with a squirt bottle of dye, so we’ll hold off another couple of years for him. Besides, he can have all his brothers’ tie dye shirts as hand-me-downs.

      image of people making tie-dye shirts at Maranatha Bible and Missionary Conference in Norton Shores, MI

      image of people making tie-dye shirts at Maranatha Bible and Missionary Conference in Norton Shores, MI

    • Craig’s Cruisers It’s only a few miles away, but this is the first time I’ve taken the kids there. Out of mini golf, go-karts, bumper boats, and batting cages, the boys spent most of their tokens on the batting cages.

      image of the children playing mini golf at Craig's Cruisers in Muskegon, MI

      image of the children driving bumper boats at Craig's Cruisers in Muskegon, MI

      image of the children in the batting cages at Craig's Cruisers in Muskegon, MI

      image of the children in the batting cages at Craig's Cruisers in Muskegon, MI

    • Family Photos We tried to get some family photos at a couple of scenic places. Here is a shot of my sister-in-law trying to get a shot of just the boys.

      image of the people taking photos on the beach at Lake Michigan of Maranatha Bible and Missionary Conference in Norton Shores, MI

  • The Ice Cream

    I tried a few new ice cream flavors, as a service to the readers of this blog.

    • Salted Caramel Popcorn Not impressive.

      Points for effort, but execution was lacking. It seemed like real popcorn, which is good in theory. But what happens to popcorn that spends too much time in dairy? Soggy

      It tasted like butter pecan but with a bad texture.

    • Caramel Mudslide Sounds great, tastes average.

      If they gave it a less-impressive name, I might have liked it. But with that much hype, I was expecting an avalanche of flavor. Which it did not have.

    • Coffee Lovers I did not have this one, so I can’t officially review. But I can pass to you the second-hand review. People who like the flavor of coffee really liked this ice cream.
    • Grand Traverse Pecan Ball I really don’t remember much about this one. So don’t bother getting it.

    You may be wondering which ice cream flavors I did like.

    Royal Coconut.

    But they didn’t have that this year.

During a normal (non-vacation) week, I drink milk. At Maranatha, we eat so much ice cream that I worry about overloading on the dairy. So instead of drinking milk at lunch and dinner, I drank water. I figured that would average with the ice cream to be about the equivalent of milk. Right?
Water + ice cream = milk?

He read from it before the square which was in front of the Water Gate from early morning until midday, in the presence of men and women, those who could understand; and all the people were attentive to the book of the law.

Ezra 8:3

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This little article thingy was written by Some Guy sometime around 6:52 am and has been carefully placed in the Travel category.

2 Responses to “Maranatha 2014”

  1. Ricky Anderson Says:

    How’d they do in the batting cage?

  2. Some Guy Says:

    They did well, but they stuck with the slow-pitch softball cage. Other options were 40mph, 50mph, or 60mph.

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