Oshkosh Trip
Jeremy Short

We left for Oshkosh Saturday Night August 7 from the Conference office in Alvarado. We shared a charter bus with the Joshua club on the way there. Our first major stop along the way was St. Louis. We went inside the arch, which looks much bigger in person than it does on photos. We also got to see the Mississippi River, which, by the way, also happens to look at lot bigger in person than in photos.

After we left St. Louis, we discovered that it was getting harder to find Taco Bells. We drove for hours trying to locate a Taco Bell. [See The Indiana Taco Bell Incident] Everyone from both clubs were very happy to find food. We left Indiana and went on to Michigan.

We spent the night at Andrew's University. The next morning we went to Battle Creek. The Sowders, who moved to Berrien Springs, were able to spend the whole day with us in Battle Creek. We went on the Adventist History tour and met Uriah Smith, Joseph Bates, J. N. Andrews, and several other Adventist pioneers. O.K., so they were really just people on the tour who were acting out the parts of Adventist founders. It was a little disconcerting though to be talking to Uriah Smith and then see his tomb stone at the grave yard. We also went to Kellog's Cereal City and ate lunch at the Arboretum. Before we went back to Andrew's we went to the sand dunes on Lake Michigan.

Tuesday morning we left Andrews. We stopped in Chicago at the Navy Pier. I'm not sure why they call it the Navy Pier, because it has nothing to do with the Navy. It was mainly a bunch of shops, charter yaughts, strange modern art and other attractions. It did give you a good look at Lake Michigan, the Skyline, and the Chicago Harbor Lighthouse. After the Navy Pier we went into Museum of Science and Industry, which is located in a gigantic palace-like building that looks like it should be in the middle of London and not Chicago. After eating at the Pizza Hut we left to get to Wisconsin.

When we got to the Camporee our tents were already set up because some staff members went to the Camporee before the rest of the club so everything would be ready. All we had to do was go to the evening program. They started off the first night with a blast. Literally, I was taking pictures a couple of feet away from the fence that was in front of the stage when **POP** !!!! Fireworks start going off, giant sparklers five feet away from me. Once the sparklers stopped and my hearing started to return, I enjoyed the program.

They tried to make the programs as big as they could. They got Spiritual Celebrities like Terry Johnson, Brandi Chapel, and Desmond T. Doss to make appearances, as well as very good speakers each night. The programs were filled with musicians and singers. Friday night they put on a Passion Play, sort of like 'The Promise' in Glen Rose.

The Camporee was filled with events. They are four hangers at the EAA grounds that were used to house events. Hanger 'A' was mainly a bunch of booths with different people from Universities, Conferences, or businesses that were selling merchandise. Hangers 'B' and 'C' were filled with honor booths. Every Conference sponsored at least one honor booth. So there were quite a few honors available to work on. Hanger 'D' was mainly the Pathfinder museum. It had Pathfinder 'artifacts' from the beginnings of Pathfinders and AY.

Your ticket from the Camporee also let you go to the EAA museum. Our club went there Friday morning. There were replicas of the planes flew by the Wright Brothers, Lindbergh, and many other famous aviators. There were also Military WWII planes as well as planes used by all kinds of people. One plane, not including the wings, was smaller than a Volkswagen Bug.

Sabbath was probably the biggest day of the Camporee for our club. We were headed to the Sabbath morning meeting early because we had five people being invested as Master Guides. Tony invested Nathan and myself. Dr. Jan Miller from Keene invested Pamela. Penny Gore invested Becki. Desmond T. Doss, who was at the Camporee most of the week, invested Julie on the stage. Later, after the airshow, we all got to meet Desmond Doss and have our old Pathfinder Scarves signed by him. We also got to meet 'Uncle Dan' from 'Your Story Hour'.

Before the program started, though, another one of our Pathfinders got to do something unique. Of the men from 3ABN, one of the Adventist word-wide satellite channels noticed Chandler walking to the meeting with Sheri. He asked them if Chandler would like to introduce the Sabbath morning program to the 3ABN viewers. Chandler decided to do it, and was one of four Pathfinders chosen to introduce meetings from Discover the Power.

But probably the best time we were able to 'Discover the Power' was Thursday night. The staff from our club was awakened by the area coordinators. They were there to warn us about a Tornado Warning in Winnebego County, which is the county that Oshkosh is in. The first thing we did was pray with staff members from the clubs that were nearby us. We knew it was over a mile to the hangers from our campsite, and we knew if a tornado or other serious weather came we wouldn't be able to make it to shelter in time. We were able to confirm on the ham radio weather net that it was a tornado warning, but the tornado was in northern Winnebego County and about 20 miles away from Oshkosh. However, there was serious weather headed our way. The hams on the net estimated about 15 minutes until hail and lightning hit EAA. We rushed our club into the Texas Conference semi-trailer. While we were in there something miraculous happened. We heard the hams tell us, and were later able to confirm it with the Camporee director, that the storm cell SPLIT and the two halves went around Oshkosh and later combined back on the other side. We got lots of rain, but no quarter-sized hail that the rest of the county received. Also not a single tent was struck by lightening. We know that we serve an awesome God, and were truly able to "Discover His Power"!