Jonah and the big tile job

Lately, life seems to be more fast paced than normal. This past September, Dan, and many others, began to work on the staff house that would become our new home.

God faithfully brought us through Winter Retreats. We even had snow most weekends. In fact, until a few weeks ago, we still had snow piles in our yard.

Here’s a little peek at some statistics for this past winter:

We had a grand total of 2,727 paying guests this winter (in nine weekends).

1,937 people attended one of our eight teen retreats in 2013 (almost 1,000 of them came in the last three weekends).

Both these numbers (total and teen) are the third highest numbers in the last ten years and are almost exactly the same as last year.

Dan played guitar for Chapel during three of the weekends which he greatly enjoys.

The program staff make a video for each high school retreat. This video link is from the weekend that our sending church, Five Points, attended. If you watch this on a hot day, it will cool you down!
http://vimeo.com/60928442

We finally moved into our “new” house February 14^th. We are grateful that God would provide a home with more space for us. Dan has spent many work and non-work hours so that we could live here. I am incredibly grateful for the time and ability God has given him to do this for our family and hopefully many families who will live in this house after us.

Nothing we have is ours. Lately, I have felt this strongly because our home belongs to Barakel and ultimately to God. We are thankful to God for providing through Camp Barakel.

Here at the house, we still have pictures to hang on the walls, but the boxes are put away and all of the major projects are done. My mom and dad came up several weekends before our move to help clean, organize and watch our boys. They were a huge help and saved me great emotional and physical distress. My mom, while we were on our hands and knees scrubbing floors, pointed out that Dan and I have moved for every baby so far and that it would be okay if we didn’t do it again if we have more kids.

Bruce and Kris Schedlbauer joined us in the fall as Resident Missionary staff. They are running the East Side kitchen and have moved into our “old” house near the entrance of Barakel. Bruce will also be a big help in the main office. It has been such a grace to have them join us and a reminder of God’s perfect timing. The Propers have overseen that kitchen since 2000, but have stepped down due to health issues. Dave and Betsy just recently moved back down to Clarkston and will be involved in ministries at Five Points Church.

 

(Dan writing)

The months of March and April are significant here because big construction projects are done. On March 5^th, we began demolition on the floor in the East Side Dining Hall. Everything was torn down to the joists in the main dining area, kitchen and dish-room. Being the resident “tile guy”, I spent 5 weeks laying 18×18” tiles with the help of Brad Smith, a Seasonal Staff guy, and a weekend volunteer group (time lapse video http://vimeo.com/61357619 ). The other regulars on the Dining Hall job were Mike Baker, Mike Alchin, and Wayne, a full-time local volunteer that was born somewhere during FDR’s presidential term, but stays busier than most of us. I’m thankful that we have such a great crew of Maintenance Staff guys that complement one another so well. It becomes more apparent when we work side by side as we have on this job.  It was close, but we just put the finishing touches on it in time for a Mens Retreat this weekend.

View Full Album

(Sarah writing again)

As a staff, we have spent much time thoroughly cleaning our buildings and preparing for summer. Please be in prayer that God would work in hearts to fill our need for guy counselors, nurses, lifeguards and more campers.

As you probably know, our newest son, Jonah Benjamin, was born on April 30^th. We are thankful that we were able to make the 105 miles and 2 hour drive to the hospital in Saginaw and that I was able to have another successful VBAC, which was a big answer to prayer. Jonah isn’t very exciting yet, mostly eating and sleeping. His brothers think it’s great that he can hold their fingers and they enjoy talking to him in a high-pitched baby voice. We are grateful to have another healthy son. Our prayer, as with the other sons, is that he would follow Christ and live a life for Him. Please pray with us to this end.

We are thankful for your support of us as we continue in this ministry at Camp Barakel. This spring we look outdoors to see the new life around us, we hold in our arms a new life before us and we continue to look to Christ alone for life eternal.

In Him through Christian Camping,

Sarah for Dan and the boys

JBH

Jonah Benjamin Haines.

I am quick to over-think naming a child.  I can think at least a dozen factors that I like to consider, including a Google search to make sure that no serial killers have that name (Avoid Jack Ripper Haines).  What we like most are Biblical names and then we factor in the meaning and the heritage behind them.

The character of God is seen boldly in the story of Jonah as we see God’s instruction, His sovereignty over his creation, and His ability to change hearts, both in Jonah and in up to the 120,000 (Jonah 4:11) lost Ninevites who “did not know their right hand from their left.”

Benjamin was the patriarch Jacob’s final son, the son “of his right hand”.  It will be no surprise to you that we really enjoy the Old Testament and the constant theme of God setting apart and redeeming His people.  I don’t know that we’ll get all of the 12 tribes in our family, but we have kept up a  bit of a theme so far.

We also liked how it sounded.  That’s another big factor.

Thanks for your friendship and care as we do our best to raise up a family that knows and follows Christ.  We have especially enjoyed our visitors so far.

Check out This site for some professional baby Jonah pictures taken by Thor, a good friend of mine.  Thanks, Thor for doing such a great job.

Jonah 2:7-9

When my life was fainting away, I remembered the LORD, and my prayer came to you, into your holy temple.  Those who pay regard to vain idols forsake their hope of steadfast love.  But I with the voice of thanksgiving will sacrifice to you;  what I have vowed I will pay.  Salvation belongs to the LORD!”

In Him,

Sarah Elizabeth

Daniel Joseph, Asher Daniel, Isaac Judah, and Jonah Benjamin Haines

Good timing.

So, what have Sarah and I been up to lately?  Good question.  I was up late  last night working on finishing up a blog written about what we’ve been doing when Sarah walked out from our bedroom.

“How do you figure out how to time contractions?”

Now that was a good question.  I was half-way through Google-ing it when I realized she was actually having contractions!  After a few minutes of me franticly running around the house making sure we had everything, we embarked on the 104 mile trip to Saginaw just after midnight.  Once we got to the hospital, our baby was ready to come!  An hour and a half later, at 3:38am, our third son tasted air for the first time.

We still don’t have a name (why mess with tradition?), but here are the important facts that women ask about and men instantly forget:

 

 

 

 

Baby Haines (Some have suggested Manasseh Lee Haines – Man Lee Haines for short)

6lb 12oz

18.5” long

Healthy, pink, round headed and a good eater.

Dark blue eyes

Sarah is doing well.

I could use a nap.

 

 

We’d love to get a visit today if you can make it to Saginaw.  Just give us a heads up.

We are grateful for all of you that were praying for this day and all the complications that could have come with it.  We look forward to introducing our new little guy to his big brothers.

I will finish the blog I was working on last night, but it’s taken a back seat for today. 

-Dan

The next Haines. It’s a…

It’s a… fun thing to find out the gender of your baby.  We are “finder-outers” as I’m told is the phrase.  Some of our friends don’t find out the gender.  Some know the name and the gender, but keep it top secret.  We like to be between the two.  We find out the gender, tell others about it, but don’t really decide on a name until the baby is about a day and a half old.  We think it works well. 

 

 

 

This morning we traveled our 103 miles to the doctors office (explained in the October 2010 blog) to get an ultrasound and were excited to find out that Baby Haines is healthy and active.  As you can see, we even got the fancy 4-D (Because 3-D just wasn’t cutting it) ultrasound picture.  So, here is it.  This coming May, Lord willing, we will be adding another Haines boy to our already man-filled home. 

 

We are all excited, but Asher and Isaac will be more so when Little Brother can finally swing a Nerf sword or roar like a T-Rex.  If we have a girl in the future, she will likely end up doing the same.  

 

 

Sarah has still been pretty nauseous just about every day, which is less than common this late (18 weeks) in the pregnancy.  Please pray for her as she takes care of the boys in the midst of not feeling well, while trying to keep up with this busy time of year.

The major Maintenance Department project for the last few months has been renovating one of the oldest staff homes on Camp’s property.  In the early 1950’s, a home was build for and by Hi Johnson, a great builder and the brother of Barakel’s founder, Holman Johnson.  Hi lived there for several years with his wife, Joye.  The home has now seen several families and has historically been the home of the West Side cook’s family.

  

“Hi’s house” is about sixty years old and needed quite a bit of remodeling.  We got rid of the pine paneling on the walls and ceilings and vaulted the ceilings in two rooms, which made them seem much bigger.  We also, moved a hallway wall, put stone over a brick fireplace, moved a few closets and took out a wall.  This involved lots of framing, electrical, drywalling, painting, and carpentry.  I’m also refinishing the oak flooring that had been under carpet for many years.

 

Sarah and I were graciously given the option of moving into “Hi’s house” and decided it would be a good fit for us, especially with our growing family.  Since I was working there anyway, I was able to have some input as to how to put the place back together.  I have updated staff houses in the past and will in the future.  It has been nice to be to spend “on the clock” hours working on our next home.  

It will probably still be called “Hi’s house” or “The cook’s house” for years to come, but we will be thankful to stay there during our years at Barakel.  The hope is to finish it and move in before winter campers arrive, but that will probably involve some long hours on my part to get to that point.   

 

Another son.  Another home to live in.  We are thankful for both and are working hard to prepare for them.  God has been so good to us this year and we are blessed to see His hand present in our lives and His hand building new lives, to His glory.

 

Through Christian Camping ministries,

Dan, Sarah, Asher, Isaac & A BOY!

2 years at Camp Barakel and other exciting news!

A little over two years ago, we packed up all of our earthly possessions in Rochester into a green and white semi-truck with the words, “Camp Barakel”, written on the side.  September 21st, 2010 was our first full day as Camp Barakel Resident Missionary staff.  Sarah and I had wanted to work at Barakel since our dating years and were excited to finally be on staff.  Asher had just turned two and transitioned very well into our new life at Barakel.

Asher is now four years old and has lived here longer than anywhere else.  Isaac is 18 months and knows no other way of life.  Sarah and I are doing well, always adjusting, but enjoying our lives serving at Barakel.  God has continued to provide our family with good health and full missionary support.  He is the provider of all things and we are thankful.

This past summer was busy for me with mostly outdoor projects, new skills learned and a great deal of time spent with Part Time Staff guys that came up for a week at a time.  Here are some of the things that I got to work on this summer:

 

 

 

 

I finally finished the stonework at crosscut lodge

 

 

 

 

 

I got to try my hand at another type of stonework as I repaired the chimney that used to be in the band-shell, but was partially knocked down when the roof structure was removed.    

 

  Why keep a fireplace in the middle of the woods? 

Good question.

It will be mostly used for Vespers (evening praise) and as a nice stop for Lee Brown’s nature walks.  Our family celebrated  finishing with some roasted marshmallows.

 

 

Our next project was to build what we called, “the shed”.  After the woodshed burned down last December, we started putting wood in the shed used for maintenance equipment like tractors and trucks.  We needed a place for those things, so we built one.  It was about 70 feet by 30 feet.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It has turned out to be really useful. 

We also replaced the steel roof on the Carpenter Shop, which is another building that needed a lot of work.

I ended up once again leading the praise and worship for the Techs and Engineers this summer as well as leading a few Bible studies.  We love the Summer Tech and Engineer Program (STEP) because it encourages teenagers to serve in various ways for the cause of Christ and many friendships are made in the process.

Sarah was busy in the summer with the boys, but oversaw the nursery for the Memorial Day and Labor Day family camps.  Now that we are back to the fall season, she is again busy two mornings out of the week with food preparation for the campers  and helps out with some of the meals during the weekend retreats.  She also babysits some of the other staff kids and has a cleaning assignment.

                                                                                                                                                                                                   

 

 

The fall for me once again means lots of dishes, helping run the Zipline or archery range and other necessary jobs like checking the bathroom supplies during chapels. 

I really enjoy the fall season, which is filled with retreats like Mother/Son, Father/Daughter as well as retreats for men, ladies, couples and families.  They are what we call relational retreats with the goal of bringing a group such as a father and daughter closer to one another as they learn about Christ and are brought closer to Him.

The fall retreat season will soon be over for us, but we will still be working full-time, preparing and repairing the various buildings around Barakel.

We as a family are also preparing for something new.  We are expecting another Haines baby, due May 8th, 2013!  Asher isn’t great with time yet, so we have told him the baby will be here after winter comes and goes and the ferns start growing again.  We had been wanting more kids and are really excited.  Pray for Sarah, who has been feeling pretty lousy here in the first trimester and for good health for both the baby and her.  We were able to see an early ultra-sound this past Monday where the doctor said the baby’s size and heartbeat looked great.

Asher and Isaac are growing up so fast.  Isaac is to the age where he can play with many of things that Asher can, which means he often wants what Asher has.  Asher will usually share, but impresses us even more when he lets Isaac climb all over him as he sits down, trying to watch a cartoon .  Isaac is a great walker and runner, but has some kind of wood magnet in his head that causes collisions with the coffee table every few days. 

I’m hoping he grows out of it before his senior pictures.

We are so thankful for you in the body of Christ,  working alongside us through the prayer and financial support that keeps us here.  God uses so many of His people to keep this ministry going and we are glad to be a small part of it.  

 

Dan – Sarah – Asher –Isaac – New Baby

Our mission is to give a thoroughly Biblical declaration of the glories of God among the entire Barakel community, with a view to gathering worshipers who magnify God through the gladness of radically obedient lives. All to the glory of God!

Looking up

 

Summer camp is in full-swing and we are thankful to be a part of it.  Tomorrow will start our fourth week of camping!  I recently met with one of our guy counselors that told me that one of his campers put his hope in Christ Thursday night during an overnight in Huron National Forest.  He and I talked about how God uses things like being in His creation, hearing the Word of God preached and then having a great conversation together over a campfire.  I remember many of my best discussions as a counselor during those times.

What I didn’t mention in my last post is that I was very busy from the time between the end of winter retreats and the beginning of summer camp.  The main project was the ceiling of the East Side Dining Hall.

 

Two summers ago, the drywall glue in the ceiling of the dining hall gave us a “notice of retirement.”  It came in the form of the drywall sagging in several spots in the main room and lobby.  It was temporarily fixed, but needed a lot more work to be done in the future.

 

That future was the Tuesday after our last winter retreat, 2012.  Cody Leonard, Mike Baker, Mike Alchin, Randy Harris and I started going to town on the project. 

 

 

 

 

 

We ended up patching the holes from the old A/C vents, screwing the drywall back up, rewiring all the lights, getting texture sprayed on the ceiling by some volunteers, painting, and then adding sound panels, which helped take the echo out of the room. 

Of course, then the Program Department had to put up 2 newfangled hi-def TVs and something the kids call “wi-fi technology.”  I overheard them saying it was so that people would stop staring at the beautiful new ceiling, thus avoiding neck problems.  I was skeptical of the TVs, but they have been really useful for announcements and showing pictures from the day and videos, including one during our counselor training of Ronald Reagan giving a short speech about D-day, which was last month.  Someone must have heard that I’m sold on anything once I see Reagan’s face on it. 

 

 

Since we finished that, I’ve been working outside again.  I finished the exterior stonework at Crosscut Lodge with the help of a few Part Time Staff guys like Larry, pictured here.  I had started it last year, but it was delayed due to cold weather and more pressing projects.  It’s exciting to have it done.  This was the first time to have summer campers in Crosscut!

It’s fun to see how things change and how they don’t.  Technology and styles change, which is fine, but God continues to work through his creation and his Word.  Sarah and I are thankful for our roles at camp that mostly include fixing and cleaning, in order that campers may come this summer and hear about Christ.

We appreciate your interest in our family and in our ministry here at Camp Barakel.

   

Please pray for us as we continue in this summer season and pray that the counselors may follow Matthew 4:19 and be “fishers of men”…and kids.

Let us run with perseverance!

It was early on a Tuesday morning and we were excited to get going.  Dave Webb, my best friend, and I were headed up to Camp Barakel to be counselors for the summer!  I packed too much, but managed to fit it in the back of Dave’s fancy red S-10 pick-up.  We had our bikes, clothes, sleeping bags, outdoor camping stuff, and whatever else we thought we might need.

I was nervous at the thought of taking care of 8 or 9 kids at a time, but we had two weeks of training to go through before the campers showed up.  I had been working at UPS to make some money, but had decided to give up a good wage and benefits looking instead to what God had for me that summer.

2000 Summer staff – You might recognize some others in here.

That Tuesday morning was May 30, 12 years ago today.  It was an incredible summer where I served with many friends I still have.  I grew a great deal spiritually as I taught Hebrews 12:1-3 to about 75 campers and attended over 90 chapel sessions.  I also met a spunky girl named Sarah Bowman, who loved to talk about Jesus and soccer.  Sarah still loves to talk about Jesus, but soccer was eventually replaced with talking about our two sons.  Sarah and I spent the next several summers at Camp Barakel and learned the joy that is found in serving others for Christ.

The 2012 summer staff for are here at Barakel and have started training for the campers that will come June 12^th.  The summer verses are once again Hebrews 12:1-3.  The passage looks back at the believers that have gone before and reminds us to fix our eyes on Jesus, the great perfector of our faith.  Please pray for the summer staff that they may find their joy in Christ as they spend countless hours serving the campers needs, both physically and spiritually.  It excites us to know how much these college aged staff will benefit from their hard work this summer.  I’ll get their picture on here soon.  Don’t expect them to look as cool as the 2000 crew.

I miss the summer staff experience, but am quick to acknowledge that I’m not 19 anymore and probably couldn’t do it.  I’ll be doing construction and leading crews of volunteers throughout the season with various building projects.  I’ll also have at least one summer staff guy that I meet with every week.

Isaac turned one on St. Patrick ’s Day.  Sarah had been given the year off to care for him, but is now again busy with various tasks around camp.  She’ll also be meeting with one or two summer staff girls that she hopes to encourage.

Our boys are growing well and learning so much.  They are both amazing and difficult in their own ways.  One of my bedtime prayers with Asher is to praise the Lord (Psalm 145) who is gracious, slow to anger, rich in love, and good to all.  We can never love like our heavenly father but by His grace we can try.

We are thankful for all of you who pray for our family and this great ministry of reaching all ages through Christian camping.  We are thankful to God for sending another summer worth of workers!

Hebrews 12:1-3

Dan ~ for Sarah and the boys