Men’s Fishing Retreat

For a couple years now, men from Community Wesleyan have been organizing a fishing retreat in the Adirondacks on July 4^th weekend.   This year, Rhett LaForte asked me to bring the message at their Sunday morning service, so I decided to go with them.  The retreat was at Forked Lake and required us to boat or canoe to our campsite.   I love to canoe and fish and just be in the Adirondacks.  Just smelling the atmosphere—that hemlock, pine and spruce laden breeze—adds a week to your life, I think. 

This was a real joy for me.  Canoeing on a new lake, new mountain vistas, bird watching—I glassed a pair of yellow-rumped warblers, and just relaxing made the retreat well worth the effort.  There was also the joy of growing friendships, sharing meals, working together, chatting around the fire, getting to know each other better, and building bonds among the six men who went (Rhett LaForte, Shaun Harrington, Bob Kipping, Ben Mackey, Dave Schwarz, and me).   Perhaps the greatest joy of all was working with the four boys that went along; helping them fish, teaching them about boats and canoes and tenting and outdoor life; the joy of passing down what you know to the next generation.  

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Part of a retreat of this type is meeting the challenges.  The very first day we had a big challenge.  When we put one of the larger boats we were depending on into the lake, we discovered major leaks.   We pulled it out and I headed for the hardware store in Long Lake for some J B Weld that Shaun recommended to make the needed repair.  Ben and I scraped paint and applied it and waited for it to dry while Rhett and Bob made extra trips to get everything to the campsite.   The repair worked and we were on our way.  

The boys, Ryan, CJ, John and Thomas had fun reeling in and releasing panfish while adults took turns looking for big bass.  They were so successful; they quickly ran out of worms and could hardly wait for Dave Schwarz to arrive on day two with a re-supply.   Rhett proved to be the prize-winning bass fisherman pulling in enough big ones for us to eat one meal of fresh bass.  

Sunday morning was an inspiration.   We gathered at Kipping’s campsite, looking out over the lake.  Dave led us from his prepared songsheet in patriotic hymns celebrating the 4^th and a hymn celebrating God’s creation.  The boys read Psalms and we prayed together in conversational style.   I then gave a meditation on the Psalms that speak of God and creation.  Our theme verse for the morning was, “Praise the Lord, O my soul. O Lord my God, you are very great” (Psalm 104:1 NIV).  Outdoor services have their own special atmosphere; after all, Jesus used them most of the time.

Usually a foray into God’s world like this is blessed with at least one serendipity. Well, we surely had one.  When many of the crew went swimming on Sunday afternoon, a small group of ducklings who seemed to be motherless, adopted them.  They allowed the boys to hold them in their hands while the ducks sat contentedly.  One would even sit on Rhett’s head.   Ben and I got out the cameras. But no mother duck ever showed.  We had seen them around earlier, again without the mother, very unusual for ducklings.   Finally we gathered all we could of them up and took them to the ranger, who placed them in proper care.  Some thought they were wood ducks; the ranger initially thought they might be baby loons.  I guessed that they were common merganser chicks and Monday, as we talked to the ranger again about them as we were leaving, she confirmed my identification.

To get back to the dock on Monday morning, we decided to organize so that we could get there in one trip.  We now had two larger boats completely operable plus three canoes.   So I piloted Shaun’s canoe with Thomas as my front end paddler and brought the loaded canoe back across the placid lake easily.