Index

The "Camp Cush" Experience | WCC Poet Publishes Book | WCC Softball 1998 Season | Mission News | Who Created God? | Take Me to the Water | The Pastor’s Desk

The first call sounded in early January announcing that there would be a Vacation Bible Camp (VBC) in the summer and to stay tuned for more information. Additional calls were made on Sunday mornings providing such information as the name of the camp, Camp Cush and the program theme, God's Hands in My History - Part 3.

Many heard the call including children, teens, JAM members and adults. Children began to ask their parents if they could go to camp. Teens began to talk among themselves about camp. And parents started making plans to send their children to camp.

The dates for this year's camp, July 27-31, 1998, were listed in the Sunday bulletin along with the location, the Chesapeake Retreat Center in Columbia, Maryland. Prayers were being answered and the program carefully and skillfully began to take shape in the minds and hearts of Pastor McKinney and DeLoris McKinney, the camp director.

Meetings were held on Monday evenings at the McKinney home where camp workers met to plan the VBC program and schedule the daily activities. Under the direction of Mrs. McKinney, themes were developed and woven into an agenda with the purpose of sharing the Gospel message with children 5 years to 18 years of age.

The selection of camp reading materials was geared to reinforcing the camp theme, God's Hand in My History and grounded in the scripture from Acts 10:34-35:

Keys for Kids and the Campus Journal were the two booklets chosen as daily devotional booklets for juniors and teens. For the younger campers, Bible stories were told to them about the birth and work of Moses. These stories were brought to life by Chebbie Winter and Ambo Tazanu with pictures drawn by Myron Mayo. For the youngest campers, their counselors combined simple words and pictures to convey Bible truths.

This year, a new book was introduced to the camp's reading materials. The book, The Samuel Morris Story, told us about the life of a young African boy who came to America in search of the Holy Spirit. During his journey, he endured hardships but kept his focus and his desire to know more about God and the Holy Spirit. Samuel Morris impacted many lives for God and wasn't afraid to let his light shine. He prayed to God openly, honestly and often. Parts of this life story were read daily to the campers during the "Mission Moments" and again at night by their counselors.

All the planning that occurred in advance of camp was done to provide a fun, safe and healthy environment were campers would be exposed to the Word of God. Campers where identified by age groups: the pre-schoolers were the Cushites, children 6-8 were the Kassites, children 9-11 were the Ethiopians, and the teens were the Hamites.

Counselors were the first link to the campers. At a minimum, one counselor was assigned to each cabin. In the cabin setting, the counselor was able to relate one-on-one with the campers with the goal of establishing trust and friendship. The counselors ate with the campers, stood with them as they recited the pledge to the Bible, sang with them, skated with them at the Laurel Skating Rink, read to them, prayed with them, and interpreted the Gospel to them.

God really blessed us with wonderful weather the week of camp. The first day got off to a great start with a trip to Adventure World and a picnic dinner. On Day 2, we had a special guest speaker, Joel A. Freeman, the co-author of Return to Glory and the chaplain for the Washington Wizards. Day 3 was a full day complete with quiet time, story telling, the mission moments, arts and crafts swimming, and the viewing of the movie, Angel in Ebony, about the life of Samuel Morris. The teens also enjoyed a night of swimming and life entertainment at the McKinney home. Day 4 found me jumping out of bed around 6:30 a.m. to prepare myself for another full day of activities. On the last day of camp, we continued to read about Samuel Morris, finished our craft projects, and rehearsed for the closing program. The closing program featured special presentations by all including Cushites, the Kassites, the Ethiopians, and the Hamites. Parents, family members, and friends got a taste of the Camp Cush experience in song, poetic reading, rap, and in the form of a dramatic skit.

The Camp Cush head counselor was Mr. Michael Hart and he met us with a smile every morning in the large field near the main cabin. There the campers and counselors formed a circle and recited the Pledge to the American Flag, the pledge to the Christian flag, the pledge to the Bible, the poem "I, Am Somebody," and sang the camp theme song, "Just Look Where the Lord Has Brought Us." Then we proceeded to the main cabin and ate our breakfast as one big family. The kitchen crew composed of Sandy, Helena, Marcia, Myra, Claudette, Ivory, Jody, Milton Artis and others worked as a team serving up healthy and tasty meals.

Every morning I thanked God for the Washington Christian Center family and Camp Cush. The camp experience allowed me to serve in the role of a parent to the Ethiopian girls and a sister to Sharon Hart, my fellow Ethiopian counselor. I was also able to run and jump and squirt children and adults with a super-soaker and pretend to be armed and dangerous. For a week, I didn’t have to worry about preparing meals because all the meals were prepared for me by more experienced cooks. Now, I don't want to give the impression that Camp Cush was a vacation because it wasn't. Camp Cush for me was an opportunity to minister to children. To listen to them, play with them, sing with them, pray with them, hug them, correct them, and share my life with them.

I hope to continue practicing some of the things I did at camp. Speaking kindly to one another, singing praises to God in the morning, hugging our kids, praying daily, and eating together as a family can become a way of life. Camp Cush 1998 was a great adventure for me and one I would like to repeat.

P.S. Don't forget to sing in the morning -- Brittany, Obini, Victoria, Tamara, Shelley, Shauntae, Angel, Kelli, Katrina, and the Issac cousins.

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It was a dream that got Washington Christian Center member Anika McKinney started writing poetry. Now, three and a half years later, she will be sharing her talents, insights, and experiences with others in a book of Christian poetry called "Medicinal Verses."

The book, to be published by Winston Derek Publishers in late 1998 or early 1999, will contain about 40 poems categorized in five parts: "Scriptural Surgery" as its name denotes, is poetry based on scripture; "Biblical Bandages" will feature biblical truths; "Allegorical Anecdote" features symbolic poetry written in story form; "Historic Healing" highlights African-American heritage and talks about Blacks in the Bible; while "Therapeutic Family Tributes" is a tribute to the McKinney family and expresses gratefulness to have such a supportive family.

"I really believe it was God speaking to me," McKinney said about awaking one night and hearing a voice tell her to "write the rhyme." She jumped up, grabbed a notebook and wrote her first poem. McKinney, 24, said that dream came right before "a major trial" in her life and she believes that it was God’s way of preparing her for that trial. When the trial came, writing poetry became a way for her to vent her frustrations.

"The poems were like a diary entry," she said. "I cannot just write a poem to be writing it. Every single poem was given to me by the Holy Spirit. The Lord will literally drop the whole poem on my heart. (And) after I’ve written the poem, I just can’t write another one (right away)."

As the poems came to her, McKinney said she kept them in a spiral notebook. And about a year ago she read through the notebook and it brought a healing to her heart. The poems "were a means of medicine to me," she said, thus the name "Medicinal Verses."

When McKinney, who is a fifth grade teacher at Strathmore elementary School in Silver Spring, shared the poetry with her mother Delores McKinney, she encouraged Anika to publish it. Delores had established a working relationship with some publishers because she had based Vacation Bible Camp materials on some of their work and needed permission to use it. She encouraged Anika to contact these publishers.

So McKinney followed her mother’s advice and wrote to Winston Derek publishers for writers guidelines and took about five months to organize her poetry. Finally in November 1997, she sent the manuscript to the publisher who wrote her back in December that they had accepted her work. They also informed her that it would take about a year to get the book published.

McKinney had also given the publisher’s ideas about the book’s cover design and how the book should be organized.

While she waits on her first book, McKinney is busy working on a second book called "Raw Reflections," another book of poetry. "All the poems are me thinking out loud," she said, "It’s not traditional poetry. It’s mostly free verse."

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The WCC Coed Softball team’s third season experienced a rocky start. Continual rain in late May and early June postponed several games till the end of the season, and we lost two great women teammates to pregnancy, forcing a forfeit of two early games. But, we dug in, added new players, and ended up winning five games in a row at the end of the season. Highlights this year included the surprise hits (and catches!) of Michael Hart Jr., Sharon Pitts, and Collette Thomas. We all had a laugh when power hitter Mike Hart Jr. hit into center field and sprinted around the bases, totally passing Sharon at second base, who was running ahead of him (The upmpire called Mike out and put Sharon back on first base). Seasoned players Sylvester Davis, Mike Hart Sr., Joe Mudd, and Kenneth Thomas were always consistent at the plate and in the field, and helped encourage the team. And, despite a pulled leg muscle near the end of the year, I couldn’t resist playing a few innings of the last game. The fellowship, camaraderie and fun of the season were a blessing to us all, and we hope to entice more players next year to join the team.

The 1998 team included:

John Acker, Keiana Davis, Roderick Davis, Sylvester Davis, Francine Johnson, Renee Johnson, Mike Hart Jr., Mike Hart Sr., Annette Lee, Joe Mudd, Sharon Pitts, Mike Roach, Troy Smallwood, Darrell Spires, Collette Thomas, Kenneth Thomas, Lisa Thomas, and James Walker.

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Hi Everyone,

Greetings from England. We trust that the Lord has been good to you.

Several of you have been asking for an updated photograph and we promise you that as soon as we have one taken we will send on to you. At this point it is difficult to get all of the family together since the older children are not at home. Marceline begins her final year at Washington Bible College. She has 26 credit hours to complete plus a counseling internship. Pray for her success.

Pray for Kitts Green church that the Lord will lead them into His will for their lives, and also for the leadership.

Our new church fellowship is one just being organized from beginning. Pray for Robert Pickles, Steve Leeds and me, Charles, as we form the leadership. Steve is hoping to enroll in the Bible College when we start in Fall. Another member of the church, Claire, is also hoping to enroll in the college. She is just graduating from High school.

We are still praying for a place to meet. We are hoping to rent space in a local church which will make our meeting space more conducive. Pray that this church will make a decision soon.

This Wednesday, we go out for Street evangelism and at 3.00pm (BST) [10.00am EST] Steve and I will be visiting a Jehovah's Witness Elder to share the gospel. He has invited us to visit him. We trust your prayers for this opportunity of service and testimony.

Thank you very much for your care. We trust our Lord's continued blessing on you.

Sincerely,

Charles A. Cropper
3 Kempton Park Road
Birmingham B36 8RE
England UK
Phone & Fax: 44 121 747 1065
e-mail: cacropper@aol.com

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Not to long ago I had discussion with Dr. Brown of the philosophy department at Howard University. We were talking about God, to be more particular who created God. For myself and many other Christians this is an open and shut case the Bible says that God is the Alpha and Omega (Rev.1: 8) and that He created everything (John 1:1-3). So, of course my response was that no one created God, He always existed and He in fact, is the creator of all things. Now, before I continue let me humbly say that if you are reading this article and you are thinking that a discussion about who created God is a waste of breath, I beg to differ. We should always be ready to give a reason for the hope that is with in us (1Peter 3:15.) All right, back to the subject, Dr. Brown exclaimed that to say that God always existed is problematic for two primary reasons: (1) It violates the law of causation, for if there is an effect it must come from a cause, something can not come from nothing, therefore God must have a cause. (2) It is a circular argument (an argument that never gets anywhere) to say that no one created God. For I will ask you who created God and your answer will always be, know one, He always existed, and we will never make progress. Both of Dr. Brown’s objections are respectable and I think that they are worthy of a response.

Let’s start by addressing objection 2 and then objection 1. It is not the case that God must have a cause, in fact it only makes sense that He does not have a cause. For there must be a Supreme Being that simply exists, that has no beginning or ending, but just is, and from this being all things that exist have their origin (Gen.1-2). So you see the law of causation finds its origin in God, but God as ultimate creator can not be subject to the law of causation; because there can be nothing beyond God to cause God. God is the uncaused. He is infinite. It is only when one insist that God has to have a cause that the argument truly becomes circular. For example: If a person says that Tim created God then the next question would be who created Tim, Bill created Tim, Oh, well who created Bill and so on and so forth. You get my point, you would always be asking the question, "Well, who created (x)" which would lead to an infinite regress (a continual asking of who?) which in turn leads to a circular argument, which goes no were. I wish I could tell you that as a result of our discussion Dr. Brown threw his arms around me weeping asking, "What must I do to be saved!" but that’s not the case. I can only hope that our discussion gave him food for thought, as I hope it does for that inquiring mind that might be reading this article.

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Baptized into our faith on July 10th were (starting back row, left) Joe Snipe, Jeanette Parker-Hatcher, Joe Lewis, (starting front row, left) Nayo Hill and Eshe Hill.

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Once again God has blessed us with another successful Camp Cush experience. This year we had over 95 campers, and over 40 workers. Everyone seemed to have enjoyed the entire week. Not only was it a lot of fun but it was a tremendous learning experience for both campers and workers alike. In addition and more importantly eighteen campers made first time professions of faith in Jesus Christ and several recommitted their lives. Praise God!

I am particularly grateful for how God has led my wife DeLoris, to write the curriculum for the camp. Over the past several years she has taken us through five time periods (dispensations). The first was the period of Innocence, the second the period of Conscience, the third the period of Government, the fourth the period of Promise, and the fifth the period of Law. During each of these periods the campers were able to see God’s plan for man, man’s failure to follow God’s plan and the resultant judgment of God. In the midst of His judgment there is always a demonstration of his grace. A clear example of this can be seen in the judgment at the end of the period of Conscience when God destroyed the world in a flood. Genesis 6:8 states that" Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord." Because of God’s grace Noah, his wife and his three sons Shem, Ham, and Japheth, and their wives, were saved in the Ark that God had commanded Noah to build Gen. 6:14-16). God used the sons of Noah to overspread the whole earth (Genesis 9:18,19). Shem was the progenitor of the Semitic People, Ham was the progenitor of Black People and Japheth the progenitor of the Caucasoid People.

There are two other time periods still to be studied: the period of grace in which we now live and the period of the millennium kingdom in which Christ will return and rule.

The theme of the camp is taken from Acts Chapter 10, verses 34&35, "Then Peter opened his mouth and said of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons: but in every Nation he that feareth Him and worketh righteousness is accepted of Him." The Campers were able to see how God has used our people , the descendants of Ham, in carrying out His plan for mankind. When man obeys and follows God’s plan they are blessed, but when man disobeys and rebels God brings judgment. This is true whether we are descendants of Shem, Ham or Japheth. One thing is clear as we study these time periods, neither of the descendants of Noah will get it right. This is consistent with the teaching of scripture that there is none righteous, no, not one (Romans 3:10). "For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23)." This is why it was necessary for Christ to come so that He could become our righteousness. First Corinthians 1:30 states, "But of Him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification and redemption."

This year we focused on the period of Law. It ends in God’s judgment being poured out on His Son who took our punishment upon himself on the cross. The law of God made clear that no one could satisfy it’s just demands, so God sent His Son to satisfy it. Romans 8:3 states "For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin , condemned sin in the flesh."

Next year we will study the period of Grace, which was issued in by the sacrifice of Christ on the cross, His burial, resurrection and enthronement. This should be very exciting as we see God’s plan unfold.

I trust that as a congregation we will be praying for the planning for next years camp. It is our hope that it will be even better than this years’ camp and that God will use it as an instrument to cause us to learn to work together better as a team to accomplish a common goal.

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