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Survivor - CR Ministry Style


 Editor    May 17 : 17:29
 None    CR Ministry News

The Survivor series had its Pulau Tiga, the Armed Forces have their boot camps and the Chemical Recovery ministry, not to be outdone, has its Camp Merryheart.

The Survivor series had its Pulau Tiga, the Armed Forces have their boot camps and the Chemical Recovery ministry, not to be outdone, has its Camp Merryheart. Located just outside of Hackettstown, NJ, the camp is peaceful and tranquil in a rural sort of way. It has seen many groups come and go, but on this particular weekend, last April, it was time for the New York CR ministry to host its annual retreat. It was a great opportunity to have a time of teaching, preaching and fellowship with CR leaders and assistants from throughout the area.

The camp gave many of us the chance to experience "roughing it" as I'm sure the first century Chemical Recovery ministry would have done had one existed back then. It may have, but as of this writing there have been no archeological digs that have unearthed any ancient CR artifacts, such as petrified journals or scorched seats, so we will just have to wonder.

While we were at the retreat we slept in quaint wooden chalets on the hillside while for mealtimes we all took turns in the kitchen. There were rumors, that during the retreat, much snoring was to be heard in the men's sleeping quarters but I, for one, heard none of it, so I cannot vouch for its validity. It is also rumored that there were those who, not wishing to suffer like the rest of us stole off to a hotel in the middle of the night to sleep on real beds. Once again, an unsubstantiated rumor. The retreat itself, however, was an unqualified success and more than made up for what the sleeping quarters lacked. There were many lessons taught throughout the weekend and many needs were met as well. On Friday night, after arriving, there was a time of sharing and preaching from the Word. Ronnie & Annmarie Boyd, Sean and Barb Finch, Harry Mullan, David Martin and Mick and Patti Jo McCreanor led this. Having well over fifty years of combined CR experience, we were in good hands. Friday night concluded with fellowship followed by us finding a bunk to wearily lay our heads. Saturday morning, the breakfast team was up bright and early...well, at least early, ready to prepare our meal. Throughout the camp, disciples were having Bible study, going on prayer walks or just talking, some discussed the aforementioned snoring, but we won't go into that here. After a breakfast of champions, we broke up into regions to discuss how our CR groups were going. It was a great time to just open up, talk through any feelings or attitudes and, in general, get the help we needed. This progressed until lunch, which the lunch crew diligently prepared for us. After lunch we resumed in our groups to focus mainly on the journal. We set up a group within a group and had some individuals read their journals that they had brought with them. It was a great time to teach real life situations and scenarios. The feedback from this session was that it had answered a lot of questions. After dinner, Saturday night, there was time to kick back, watch a movie and make some new friends.Sunday morning closed out the retreat with a service. Mike and Brenda Leatherwood arrived with Dave and Colleen Graham. Both Mike and Dave shared during the service giving us our final inspiration from the weekend before we made our way home. We are very blessed to be able to have these times to get together and fellowship amongst the CR leaders and assistants. It is our prayer that as CR spreads throughout the churches that there can be CR retreats held in every part of the world.


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