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Cole writes his mom and dad from scout camp

Dear Mom and Dad,

            Out scout master told us to write in case you saw the flood on TV, because he said that you might be worried.  Don’t worry, we’re OK!  Only one of our tents and 2 sleeping bags got washed away.  Luckily, none of us drowned because we were up on the mountain looking for Chad when it happened.  Oh yeah, please call Chad’s mother and tell her that he is OK, now.  He can’t write because of the cast. 

            I got to ride in one of the search and rescue Jeeps, it was neat.  We never would have found him in the dark if it wasn’t for the lightning.  Our scoutmaster Walt got mad at Chad for going on a hike alone without telling anybody.  Chad said that he did tell him, but it was during the fire so he probably didn’t hear him.  Did you know that if you put gasoline on a fire that the gas can will blow up?!  Did you know that?  The wet wood didn’t burn, but one of the tents did.  David is going to look weird until his eyebrows grow back. 

            We’ll be home on Saturday if Scoutmaster Walt gets his car fixed.  Yeah, it wasn’t his fault about that wreck.  The brakes went out.  Scoutmaster Walt said the brakes were fine when we left, but he said in a car that old you have to expect something to break down.  That is probably while he can’t get any insurance.

            We think it is a neat car.  He doesn’t care if we get it dirty, and sometimes when it is hot he lets us ride out on the fenders.  It gets pretty hot with ten people in one car.  He let us take turns riding in the trailer, until the Highway patrol pulled us over and talked to us about that.  Scoutmaster Walt is a neat guy, and he is a great driver in fact he is teaching Terry how to drive on the mountain roads where there isn’t much traffic.  Did you know that you didn’t need guard rails on roads that don’t have much traffic.  All we ever see up there are logging trucks.  Today, all of the guys were diving off of the rocks and swimming in the lake.  Scoutmaster Walt wouldn’t let me because I can’t swim and Chad couldn’t swim because of the cast, so he let us take a canoe all by ourselves out across this big lake.  It was great.  You can still see some of the trees under the water from the flood.  Scoutmaster Walt isn’t crabby like some scoutmasters; he didn’t even get mad about losing the life jackets.  He has to spend a lot of time working on the car so we are trying not to cause him any trouble.  Guess what!  We’ve all passed our first-aid merit badges.  When Jimmy jumped in the Lake and cut his arm, we got to see how a tourniquet works. 

            Wade and I got sick, but Scoutmaster Walt said it was probably just food poisoning from the leftover chicken.  He said they got sick that way with food they ate in prison.  I sure am glad he got out of prison and became our scout leader; he said he had time to figure things out while he was in prison.  I have to go now we are going to town to mail our letters and buy bullets.  Don’t worry about anything Mom we are having the time of our lives.

Cole

That is a kid who has everything to complain about, but sees the joy.

Taken from Charles Swindoll sermon on Attitude delivered to Dallas Theological Seminary.