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My
Weekend in the Mountains
This weekend I attended the Beulah Land Ministries reunion
weekend held by Rodney and Kim Van Pelt in rural Nevada in
the Tahoe National Forest. After 10 years of serving in rural
Illinois, providing medical care to those in need, Beulah Land
Ministries closed this chapter of its life in July 2005. Through
this clinic, many friendships were made and many lessons were
learned. After serving together for four clinic weekends per
year for 10 years, we became very close to the other physicians
and team members who so graciously volunteered of their time
to serve in this area. |
Kim and Rodney Van Pelt |
After two years
of not seeing each other, the Van Pelts called us all together
again – but this time, not in Illinois,
but in rural Nevada. Yup, their cabin is not even located in
a town. Talk about remote! AND, talk about beautiful! I have
never done much traveling to the west coast, so I really didn’t
have any experience with mountain life. My family has never
been one for camping, so I really don’t have any experience
with camping or “roughing” it either.
The Van Pelt
cabin, named The Solid Rock, has no electricity, but runs on
a diesel generator. In order to conserve fuel, all 25 of us
attending the reunion were allowed to take showers and use
electricity for 30 minutes each morning and each evening. At
night, it was pitch dark out, but we used lanterns and candles
for our light source. We were unable to “flush” except
when we went “number 2” in order to conserve water.
You needed a four wheel drive vehicle in order to get around
on the “roads”—if you want to call them
that. This was rugged terrain! |
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Who are these people? Some of these
people are from Harrison Street Bible Church in Oak Park,
IL. Two families, the Phillips and the Blakemores,
faithfully served in this ministry each and every time.
Why? Back 15 years ago, when our pastor asked Ross and I to find something that we could do to serve others,
we looked at all the options, and we were not much
into remodeling the church kitchen or teaching 4th
grade Sunday school, or working in a food pantry. What
we were good at was running a medical clinic. So back
in 1991, we started providing free medical care to
those in need, right in the basement of our own church—Harrison
St. Bible Church. These two families were there when
it all started—as they were the core members
of this church.
We were eventually led to southern IL where some of the highest
levels of poverty exist. It’s a long story as to how we
got there, but I’ll save that for another time. The core
group of us were these 25 people who attended the reunion this
weekend – made up of four doctors, an electrician, an analytical
chemist, a medical transcriptionist, a dental hygienist, a dietitian,
an administrator, two school teachers, lots of students, moms,
dads, kids, and even really young kids. Some of the team came
from California (the Van Pelts) and others came from Tennessee
(the Johnsons), and yet another from Minnesota (The Wheatons).
Some had relocated to Florida (the Blakemores) and some were
in college in other states.
On those clinic weekends, we somehow managed to pull together
and see 300-500 patients each clinic weekend for 10 years. We
have a very special bond that is indescribable. It’s a
bond that you can only get when you work on a difficult project,
through difficult circumstances, all for the glory of God. You
see, the reason we all wanted to work at this clinic was to service
others as Jesus Christ of the Bible did. He said that anyone
who gives a cup of cold water in His name does so to the glory
of God. This is what we wanted to do. Offer a cup of cold water
to those who were thirsty—in other words, help those in
need as Jesus would.
Why did they get together? It’s
hard to describe who gathered together this weekend.
Nearly every one of these people I have known for nearly
20 years. We all grew up together. Each of us were just
starting out in our careers, some had young children/babies.
But we all had a common purpose. We became very close
through serving together. We reunited this weekend to
share again the friendships that were built, reconnect,
and re-establish that bond that we had. It’s amazing
when you get together with great friends and you can
just pick up where you left off. It was as if we just
saw each other yesterday! These are some of greatest
people I know!
What did we do? The Van Pelts were just
the greatest hosts. Although the conditions were rugged,
they made it very comfortable. The cabin is very homey
and comfortable. Kim planned out all the meals to a tee.
They were healthy, fun to make, and delicious. This was
no easy task, as the house does not even have a refrigerator,
so all of the food was stored in coolers with ice packs.
The stove used propane and most meals were at least partially
cooked out on the grill or on the propane griddle.
Rugged Adventure: Yes, sir! Rodney and
Kim wanted to show us all a great time, as well as reconnect
with all of us. They took us on many adventures that
we will most likely never experience again. We climbed
over mountain passes, jumped into frigid cold lakes off
of cliffs, hiked through beautiful mountain forests,
kayaked in crystal clear spring fed lakes, sat around
a camp fire talking, mountain biked through some pretty
big mountain passes, jogged through logging camps, toured
an abandoned mine, and took a drive through a mountain
pass that was enough to scare the pants off of even the
most adventurous!
We also cooked all the meals together, ate and laughed together,
talked for hours about each others struggles, dreams, and goals.
Some of the kids are now grown young adults pursuing careers
in medicine or attending college now. Where does the time go?
What did we learn? In no particular order…
• Good friends are forever friends.
• Forever friends are hard to find, so when you do have
them, nourish those friendships.
• Get together with them more frequently.
• Living without electricity IS possible.
• Flushing less frequently is probably something that we
should all do to conserve water.
• Appreciate God’s natural wonders whenever you can.
• Stop to smell the roses more often.
• Many people cannot wait to receive a copy of the Hauser
Diet book (unfortunately there has been an unavoidable delay
at the printer at the time of this article.)
• Many people need to and want to learn how to cook from
scratch.
• Many people still use convenience foods and don’t
realize what they are doing by putting chemical foods into their
bodies.
• Regular exercise takes discipline; many people want it,
few have it.
• I am still afraid of heights.
• Mountain stream water is colder than Lake Michigan.
• Mountain air is very dry and the temperatures vary drastically
in one day – sometimes up to 30-40 degrees difference.
• I love kayaking and really should do it more often.
• I love to cook and share cooking tips and ideas with people
who want to learn (good thing).
• Friends come in all shapes and sizes, ages, backgrounds,
cultures – it’s great to have such a variety of friends.
• Most of all, God loves each and every one of us. He loves
to see Christians get together and share the love they each feel
for one another, as well as Him. |
Ross and I atop a rock formation looking down
at one of the many
beautiful lakes. |
Ross and I after hiking through yet another
mountain pass. |
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