Between Thanksgiving and Christmas we do not have many typical weekend retreat groups at Streamside as churches are busy with holiday events. The break from the normal routine of hosting, feeding and cleaning up after groups, gives us the opportunity to do ministry in a different way. We enjoyed hosting the Monroe County Clergy Association again this year. We gathered 6 local homeless providers to join the pastors for breakfast and network together. College@Camp students traveled to Paterson, NJ to distribute Boxes of Hope to the 49 churches in Star of Hope's network of churches. Streamside is a member of this network and includes children from these churches in its summer camping ministry. The East Coast region of World Impact returned for Christmas at Camp with families from Chester, PA and Newark, NJ. We made a big push to promote "The Gift of Camp" to Angel Tree churches. Numerous churches included "Gift of Camp" pamphlets with their other gifts and we were able to join 2 Angel Tree parties in person. As an official Angel Tree Camp, churches can send campers to Streamside with the help of a scholarship from Prison Fellowship. We also hosted our 23rd annual Outreach Banquet which is free for our neighbors. The Gospel was shared by local pastor, Larry Mark, our children performed and we honored Dave & Evie Brown as well as Matt & Cindi Brown for more than 25 years of reaching children and strengthening the church with BCM at Streamside. We will return to retreat ministry quickly as a group of 175 teens arrive from Yuong Sang Korean Church on the day after Christmas.

January 2nd is the big day as our oldest daughter, Renee marries Dylon Beamer. The winter wedding will be held at Christ Hamilton United Lutheran Church. We are looking forward to the celebration and are grateful for those who will be joining us despite the winter date near the holidays and our distance from many family and friends. After the honeymoon in Georgia, they will be living in Langhorne, PA while Renee finishes her masters in counseling at Cairn University. Dylon is transitioning his ministry as a youth pastor and employment as a Valvoline assistant manager from his home town of Susquehanna, PA to the Langhorne area. He will be serving in a lay capacity at Core Creek Community Church and is currently interviewing with a marketing company in Jenkintown.

Craig will have another opportunity to travel this year, but will not need additional support to make the trip. He will be the guest of Camp America at their London recruitment fair in January. 200 camp directors are needed to meet with, interview and potentially hire from among the 3,000 students in Great Britain who desire to serve at a camp as part of a cultural exchange. Streamside typically is joined by 4 - 8 internationals each summer. This will be an especially meaningful trip as both Craig's grandparents on his father's side are from England.