Northmen Newsletter
January 2005
As of this
writing we are making plans for Northmen 2006. Our theme will deal with evangelism.
If you want to suggest speakers or special topics please get them to us soon.
Northmen Ministries (What is
happening with the Ministries)
A big part of
Northmen has always been the junior and teen boys who share the meeting with
the men. Separate sessions for juniors and for teens are offered each
year. It is becoming harder and harder to
find people who are willing to share in the leading of these sessions in
teaching or music. If you would be
willing to be apart of a session(s) please let us know. We are presently seeking six church groups to
lead the four teaching and two recreational sessions for juniors. Want to help?
Drop us a line and we will sign you up. Click here
for email addresses.
Most
Northmen camp at the grounds where the meeting is held. This is primitive camping with a first come, first
serve campsite basis. You make your own campsite in the forest provided. Cost is mentioned on main
page. You will need everything for
eating and sleeping. We will give a more detailed list when it is available.
Some campers choose to stay off site at area campgrounds or at Wilderness
Christian Assembly. This is generally due to their having the entire family
along. If you desire to reserve a campsite or a cabin at Wilderness the phone
number is (231)658-0080.
Over
the last two years people have traveled to Thailand to develop Northmen and
Northwomen meetings there. The first
year only a Northmen gathering was held with about 50 men and boys
sharing. This past December both
Northmen and Northwomen meetings were held with some 70 men and boys sharing in
the camp out and about 40 women and girls at the Kids for Christ hostel.
We
pray this will be an ongoing project and leaders in Thailand are being
encouraged to develop and carry on the meetings on their own. While in Thailand those who went to share
were also involved in teaching, preaching and many projects for the hostel. Ahapa Sinlee and his wife Leah lead this work among the Lisu, thia and other people on
northern Thailand. What a challenge as they have 68 children from various
villages being trained in the scripture and other languages so they can preach
to their own people. If you desire more
information about this ministry please contact us
or the Traverse City Christian Church @ P.O. Box 682
We will take just a
few lines and let you know what is happening with the ministries.
Web sites: We are presently working
with two web sites: First is the one you’re currently on. This is the one we’ve
had for several years. The second one is a new one at www.northmenministries.com. It is
being developed by Brett Hibble of Freemont OH. We
want to thank him very much for working on this with us. This site will contain
all information about the summer’s meeting plus information about Northmen
Ministries. We also intend to have regularly
updated articles, information of import and answers to questions of this
site. We will be mailing you through
your email, if we have your address, to inform you when this site has been
updated or has new material. We hope you
will use these two methods of keeping track of the Northmen and what is
happening. We will be phasing out our Northmen paper with one more issue after
this one. We welcome email addresses to put on our list and we encourage you to
take information from the sites, copy it and use it as handout to promote the
August meeting.
Cannon
Creek Site: So far as we know now the site is still
available to us for our use this summer.
We are making plans to meet there.
As in the past we work with the DNR on this and they assure us of usage
until the law changes which will limit camping near “wilderness” rivers and
their tributaries. Canon Creek is a tributary of the Manistee River.
We intend to meet at
the same site we have used for the past 42 years. When and if a change comes we will let you
know by every means possible.
Campsite cost: We are fully
aware that many of you are disturbed by the “overnight” camping fee we must
collect for the state. It is disturbing
to us also but to use the site it must be done. If $3.00 per night per person
seems heavy we can understand after years of free camping. But as the government prevails we must
adhere. Please be aware of this cost and be prepared to meet it as you come to
the camp area. It will be up to you, in
your camp, to have the amount ready for those who may come by collecting it. We do keep track and we promise the state
that we will collect from everyone. Last
year there were over 100 camps. Highest numbered camps were in the 22-27 range.