Dave’s Blog

Kamp Kidney is for kids with dialysis and kidney issues. It is part of Camp Cavett, an orginization for kids 10 and up with chronic or life threatening conditions. It is a chance for them to network with other kids with similar problems. It is also a chance for them to just have some fun.

What a great time we had with the strings. I arrived early and looked over some of their craft projects and artwork. I also had lunch with the kids. They wanted to know what the “String Man” was. All they were told was that “They would love it.”

I told them a story using the strings then we made things. Since they were at least 10, we were able to move along fast and work on lots of things. We stopped midway so they could relax and just see some of the things that I could make, then back at it. All the staff joined in for the fun.

The staff, counselors and volunteers were great. Taking so much time to give these kids a “normal” experience. Some of the kids were just getting back from Dialysis and they were in various physical conditions…but all kids.

We got some wonderful pictures that I am going to put up on www.StringMinistries.org. It will take a few days for that to happen. Lynna is still setting up her new computer.

I was given a calendar that the kids did the artwork for. One of the sayings in it by J. Billings was… “To the world you may be just one person, but to one person you may be the world.”

Dave

I went out to Camp Y’Shua today to work with a girls camp made up of children of prisoners. I, of course, did strings with the girls. Along with conselors there were about 30 young people. Some I have worked with at their schools or other programs or previous years at camp and they were acquainted with string figures. We had a good time and now they have strings for their quiet times at camp.

Dave

I am at the Stillwater Public Library Summer Reading Program today. They have about 1,200 kids enrolled in the program and we are doing three programs, 10, 2, 4 o’clock. About 200 kids in each program.

I am not doing strings with the kids…too many little ones. I get to dust off some of my favorite stories with the audience. Kipling, ‘The Elephants’ Child, and a story that was the first story that I learned…The Little rooster and the Diamond Button by Eulalie Stinmetz Ross. Boy that was a long time ago.

I was new in the position and we were having a storytelling workshop. She was an old lady by then and when she started telling the story with her high and worn out voice, I thought that here was a story by a has-been. Was I surprised when I got caught up in the story and never heard her voice. I was so totally involved that the next day I told it almost word for word as she had told it and have been enjoying it with kids 42 years later.

There is power in telling a story in its “pure form”. No book, no pictures, no string…just telling the story. The words can carry it. Such power. It is days like this that I regret not being able to do more of this, but the strings are also powerful in a different way and have captured almost all my time.

Dave

www.RayBird.com I had a great time with the kids yesterday at the Trading Post. I taught a number of new figures to them. A few had lost their strings and wanted new ones. We had decided that they need to keep track of their things. so did not give them an extra one. Today I have given out a couple to VERY LONG faces.

Demonstrated a couple of things at the morning show for them and am doing the Trading Post time again. I am also part of this evenings games. Race Dave in making Jacob’s Ladder. I am told that I will loose to some of them.

Boy, I did not have to fake anything. Some of these campers are awesome at making Jacob’s Ladder. They out did me by a long shot. They have been practicing all day for a week. What fun we had. Two out of three and some of them had to come back for a number of tries but they all won something. Great kids.

Dave

I am spending a couple of days at Camp Ray Bird. www.raybird.org My son and his family work here and live at the camp. I get to visit them and sit by the lake or walk in the woods. The added benefit is that I get to see all the kids enjoying their strings.

They have been doing strings for a number of years here at the camp. When they have their morning show with a lesson they teach one or two string figures to go along with the lesson. Jake and Rachel, my grandchildren, have also taught the staff some extra figures. With returning campers and staff, a number of figures appear. It has been so much fun to see the kids going from activity to activity, making string figures.

I was on the morning show today giving the string figure for the days lesson. I also gave a teaser for the afternoon work I will be doing. It worked. I have had a number of kids stop me and want to know how to do it. I just say, “Later.”

I am going to be at the Trading Post this afternoon, 45 minutes with the boys and 45 with the girls, teaching some new figures. I will also be teaching the staff so they can teach the next lines of campers.

Went out to lunch with my son Shawn and Susan. We went to Bob Evans’ Restaurant, a favorite of mine and one that we do not have in Oklahoma. One of the perks of traveling is to have favorite regional restaurants.

Dave

Monday June 30th. Did two programs for the library summer reading club. The first program at 2:00 had about 280 in attendence. Some were little children that did not get a string…but all the adults did and joined in very well.

The second program was in the evening at 7:00 and had about 100 in attendance. One great thing to note was a mother and her teenage daughter in Muslem headscarfs and dresses and two smaller chiildern.

At the end of the program some of the parents and kids were looking at the books and videos. The Muslem lady was looking at String Fun with the Parables and Sharing with String. She said she couldn’t decide on which one to get. I said that they were very Christian and she said yes, her best friend was a Christian and she wanted to get her a thank you gift for something she had done. Talk about open relationships. I love it.

Dave

We left for Bolivia from Oklahoma City, OK on June 19th. Friday was a day to try to aclamate to the altitude. Friday and Saturday we did a little shopping, a little sightseeing and a lot of stopping to catch our breath. The airport is on the Alto Plano (High plains above La Paz) It is 14,000 feet or so. La Paz is in a deep bowl that is at least 1,000 feet lower…as if 1,000 feet makes a difference.

The first Indian bishop of the Methodist Church died on Thursday night and they had the funeral on Friday so a number of us went to the service. There is a close and long standing connection with the Oklahoma Methodist church and Bolivia. The service was conducted by an American pastor and much like services here. We then went to the cemetary. It was a beautiful setting on an outcropping with mountains all around. Almost every grave had fresh flowers on them. I was told that this is very common and people do keep up things.

Sunday we took the bus up to El Alto to the church we were working with. El Alto is on the Alto Plano and where people from the country come to settle. It is very poor with few services. The church was held in the home of a widow who is letting the church use it. She lives in the back part of the compound.

As part of the service, we walked to the field where we were going to start the church. Everyone picked up a stone and the foundation was started with a hole and the stones placed in like the memorial the Israelites made at the Jordan river. Quite moving. We walked back to the church for the rest of the service and lunch.

Lunch was prepared by a couple of women who cooked for us each weekday and extra things were brought in by the congregation. Methodists do like the pot luck. We had potatoes. Smaller than eggs. Some were fresh white potatoes boiled, some were black. These were the freeze dried ones that they prepare for storage. We also had rice, beans and some chicken. And of course big bottles of orange pop and 10 plastic glasses. When someone finished with theirs some one else got it. God protect us, please.

We recognized some of the potatoes as being like ones lying on the Church field drying out. They were hastely gathered up when the foundation was started. 7 of the team worked on the foundation and 5 of us worked with the Bible School. After we finished with the Bible School we went over and helped move rocks, tie up rebar and whatever we could do.

After digging for 3//4 of the day on the foundation, one of the men asked what it would cost to have a back hoe come in. They gasped that it would be over 700 B’s…about $100. He gave the money and they had the foundation dug by the next morning. It ended up being about $80 and allowed the team to finish much more of the work.

Bible school started with about 20 on Monday and ended with about 45 on Friday. Every one had a good time and they loved the string. We would start with some string things, put them away for later and have lessons and crafts then finish with some more strings that went along with the lessons.

Sarah Bodenstein, a pastor at Chapel Hill in OKC loved the strings and went on a tare to learn everything she could. She is going to offer a 6 week class at the church for some of the leaders to use in various ways. It was fun to teach her the heart figure and then watch her teach the heart to the youth pastor and then see him teach his wife. It just gets passed along.

The next Saturday we went on a bus tour of some of the ruins and stopped at Moon Valley, a place with fantastic rock formations. We were near lake Tittacaca but did not go the rest of the way to see it.

I made several contacts and they want me to come back for a month or two to go to a number of villages. I would be traveling by myself and need to perfect my Spanish. Maybe that will happen next year.

We stayed in a hotel in La Paz that was like an old Holiday Inn. Nice and clean but not fancy. Food in the restaurants was very good and safe. It was also very inexpensive. A steak dinner with all the trimmings for $6.00. It is a tough life I lead.

We returned on June 29th. Our plane from La Paz went to San Paulo and our seats and luggage were checked for drugs. Then on to Miami. Our plane was late leaving Miami and we only had about 15 minutes to get from our gate in Dallas to another terminal. American Airlines had a gate agent there who took us down the outside steps to a bus that took us to the other gate and in the back way. We made it and caught our flight to OKC.

I got home to Lawton about 1:00am on the 30th. Had to be back in Norman, OK later in the day for a booking.

Dave