My parents, along with Andy and Edna Lee Borders from my church, drove to Camp Cumberland Pines today for Mountain T.O.P. Friends Weekend. This is an event in which past Mountain T.O.P. participants, most of them veterans of our Adults In Ministry program, do repairs or renovations to our camp as we prepare for the spring and summer camp seasons. The volunteers this weekend will renovate the bathrooms at the lodge and will expand the kitchen in the dining hall.

They should have a fun time. My parents have been to a fall AIM weekend, but I’m still hoping to get them up for a full AIM week during the summer, maybe not this year, but some time.

In any case, they’ll have fun this week. Some of my favorite Mountain T.O.P. friends will be there, and it should be a great camp community. Friends Weekend isn’t heavily-programmed like one of our camp weeks, so there will be plenty of free time.

I wish I had been able to join them. Between my California vacation this month and the Bolivia mission trip this summer, I have to be parsimonious with my vacation days. I won’t make it to AIM this summer, especially since the Bolivia trip will be right in the middle of the camp season, but if things go well I may be able to catch an AIM weekend this fall.

I will go up to Pines on Saturday afternoon for our Mountain T.O.P. board meeting and for a tribute Saturday night to our founder and retired executive director, George Bass, and his family. I plan to get there a little early Saturday so that I can check out the work going on there in camp and see how my folks are doing.