Porch rocker or swing, chaise lounge, hammock, or camp chair—whatever is your favorite sort of summer evening or vacation seating—you may want something easy but biblical and uplifting to read as you sit back and relax during these lazy summer days and evenings.  Over the years Dean Ohlman has written several RBC Discovery Series booklets on how to celebrate the wonder of God’s handiwork.  You can order these from RBC, print them out, or read them online.

They are also made available to you in print form with no obligation to pay—only for your consideration of a donation.  In this form, they are handy for a summer vacation or campfire Bible study.

Below is what RBC president Mart DeHaan has written about these handy booklets, just 32 pages short:

[Click on the title to find the booklet online.]

[Click on the title to find the booklet online.]

CELEBRATING THE WONDER OF CREATION

Like autumn leaves, our bodies bear the marks of our mortality. But do we disrespect and neglect our bodies in the present because they will be replaced by incorruptible bodies in the future? In the following pages, educator and naturalist Dean Ohlman helps us to see that as we care for our own bodies, we also have reason to care for the world around us. Both are products of God’s handiwork, both require our faithful stewardship, and both share the promise of future restoration.

Martin R. De Haan II

CELEBRATING THE WONDER OF SOIL

Why would anyone write about something as common and as unwelcome as dirt? It’s for good reason that we sweep our floors, wipe our shoes, and wash our soiled clothes. There are, however, other ways of looking at the stuff of which the Bible says God made Adam. In the following pages, RBC writer and naturalist Dean Ohlman does what he so skillfully did in earlier booklets about the wonder of trees and of water. Dean compels us to dig a little deeper into the nature and significance of the good earth that was valued far more by his grandfather’s generation than by most of us today.

Martin R. De Haan II

CELEBRATING THE WONDER OF THE WILDERNESS

In these times of industrial and commercial expansion, wilderness regions are often seen as low-rent real estate. Some see undeveloped land as untapped potential waiting for a developer’s big idea and investors’ money. But not RBC research writer and naturalist Dean Ohlman. With a weathered face, hiking boots, and a sun-shielding hat, Dean’s searching eyes scan rocks, weeds, soil, and whatever moves or doesn’t move in the rustling leaves and grass. There’s wonder and significance in the regions of our world that many of us have looked at without ever really seeing. I hope you find this booklet as inspiring as I have.

Martin R. De Haan II

CELEBRATING THE WONDER OF A TREE

A world without trees would be a vastly different place.  Neighborhoods without trees, fields without woods, and continents without forests would mean the end of life as we know it.  As RBC staff writer Dean Ohlman points out in the following pages, in a world without trees the Bible would also be a different book.  Beginning in Genesis we find the story of trees that define the spiritual nature of our existence and survival.  May the wisdom of these pages renew our ability to see the wonder and significance of one of God’s great gifts to us.

Martin R. DeHaan II

CELEBRATING THE WONDER OF WATER

Science labels the stuff H2O.  It’s so common we hardly pay attention to it—until it loses its balance: raging floods, searing drought, stifling humidity, paralyzing blizzards.  Reflecting the light of a setting sun or flowing gently through a mountain meadow, water gives us great delight.  Seldom, however, do we consider the unseen properties of water that make it the one thing that gives the earth its uniqueness among all the other planets in our solar system—and even the newly discovered planets farther out in space.  In this booklet, RBC writer Dean Ohlman urges us to contemplate at a far deeper level the significance of water to the human body—and to the soul.

Martin R. DeHaan II

Also available:

Also available:

GOD’S GOOD EARTH

Dr. Paul Brand, writer of God’s Forever Feast, lived through all but the first 14 years of the 20th century. During those years, many of them spent as a missionary doctor in India, he was able to witness the hand of the Creator working to heal the disease-wracked bodies of lepers. But because he was also fascinated by birds, plants, and ecology, Dr. Brand was able to observe the Creator’s hand at work in the natural world. In this booklet, an excerpt from his book, he draws an extended analogy between the natural gift of good soil and our spiritual growth and nourishment as followers of Christ. Enjoy this delightful devotional study.

Martin R. De Haan II

Our Daily Bread Special Outdoor Edition

Our Daily Bread Special Outdoor Edition

This special evangelistic edition of Our Daily Bread is designed for those who love the outdoor sports of hunting and fishing. Our Daily Bread Outdoor Edition includes devotional thoughts written by a variety of authors, and features two well-known outdoor journalists, Tracy Breen and Charles Alsheimer.

This booklet is perfect for wild game dinners and other ministry outreach efforts to those who love the outdoors as it brings the truth of a loving Creator to those who love creation.

Since 1956 people have found Our Daily Bread to be a source of encouragement, comfort, and hope. Through devotional readings that apply biblical principles, Our Daily Bread has become a great help to many in their daily walk with God.

Minimum order of 50 copies: $25.00 plus shipping.

When I was three—in 1945—my dad helped to form Camp Michawana in central West Michigan.  This was the camp that was first begun in the late thirties by Lance Latham, the founder of AWANA clubs.  Dad continued on the board for at least thirty years, staying with it long enough for me to eventually join him on the board—which I considered a great joy and honor.

Bible camps were a vital part of my education and my spiritual formation from age three until my senior year in high school (by which time I was counseling).  Part of my love for the outdoors and God’s creation came from my camp experiences.  But I have to confess that learning about the natural world in those camp settings was mostly by osmosis: it’s what I was able to soak up unintentionally.  Thinking back on those experiences, I find it disheartening that there was virtually no deliberate outdoor education offered, and as I recall, nothing was ever said about the natural setting of these camps as a “revelation of God.”  Certainly nothing was taught about our being good stewards of God’s creation.  In those days the outdoors was seen by the vast majority of Christians as little more than a collection of “natural resources” that we had a right to use in whatever way we wished.

It wasn’t until I visited Timber-lee Christian Center decades later that I had first-hand experience with a camp that incorporated outdoor education as a part of its camp curriculum—a program instituted in large part by outdoor educator and fellow creation-care advocate Mike Manke.  Yesterday I surfed on over to the Christian Camp and Conference Association Website and learned that there are at least 165 Christian camps and conference centers listed there that offer outdoor education.  That’s great!  But that’s still less than 20 percent of the 900 camps and conferences that are members.  And that’s sad.  It’s my feeling that every Christian camp and conference center should have some sort of outdoor education as a part of its program.  They offer the ideal setting to teach about both of God’s “two books”: the Bible (His special revelation) and the creation (His general revelation).  Read the post about “God’s Two Books” from November 1 here.

If you or the young families in your life have never sent a child to a Christian camp, this is the right time of the year to make plans to do just that.  Check out the camps that are members of the CCCA or those that are a part of the denomination you are affiliated with.  And I would encourage you to find one that incorporates Bible based outdoor education as a formal part of its curriculum.  If you already have a favorite camp and it does not have outdoor education, why not send them a note or email and request that they add it to their program.

You might also send them these links to our RBC Discovery Series booklets on “Celebrating the Wonder of Creation” and let them know that they can order these in bulk as handouts or for small group Bible studies dealing with the theology of nature:

• Celebrating The Wonder Of A Tree
• Celebrating The Wonder Of Creation
• Celebrating The Wonder Of Soil
• Celebrating The Wonder Of The Wilderness
• Celebrating The Wonder Of Water

NOTE TO GRANDPARENTS: One of the most important things you can do for your grandchildren is help send them to camp.  If the parents can’t afford it, you might be able to help them financially.  That would be a gift better than a dozen toys!

See you outdoors!

Dean

There are several new ideas on the “Wonder Kids” page
from the pages of Richard Louv’s book,
Last Child in the Woods.
Take a look.

It’s our desire to see the “Wonder Kids” page become a sort of community for parents, grandparents, and other caregivers where there is a good deal of idea sharing.  We have added a response box at the bottom of the “Wonder Kids” page where you can suggest ways to help children learn about God’s creation and develop a biblical worldview regarding the care of creation.

Click on the “Wonder Kids” menu item at the top of this page, and when you get there, scroll down to the bottom to find the comments box where you can make these suggestions.

Yesterday, November 13, I put up a quiz on identifying conifer cones.  Check the previous post for the photo.

Here are the answers:

1.  Sugar pine. I collected this years ago in the foothills of Mt. Lassen, the southernmost volcano in the Cascade Range located in Northern California.  It is the largest pine and can be 200 feet tall.  It’s cone is the longest: up to 20 inches!  The name comes from its sweet pitch, which John Muir liked better than maple syrup.  John had lots of good opinions, but come on—better than maple syrup?  Sugar pine provides some of the finest knot-free lumber available, but it is declining rapidly because of a blister rust.  Sad.

2.  Ponderosa pine. I actually collected this here in West Michigan, where it is not a native tree.  It is one of the most common of Western pines.  If you’ve traveled in the West, you would have seen many of these with its distinct orangish bark with dark crevasses.  It too can grow taller than 200 feet.  It’s bark has a nice vanilla smell to it.

3.  White pine. I picked this one up in a nearby natural park.  And picking it up is not what you want to do unless you have something to wash off the pine pitch that collects on the tips of all its scales.  This collection of whitish pitch makes this cone easy to identify.  It is a relative of the sugar pine and that’s why it’s cones look similar.  This was the pine that built many of the original homes of the upper Midwest.  I’ve heard it said that enough Michigan white pine was cut into lumber in the late 1800′s that you could have floored both peninsulas of Michigan with it.  Our lumber barons, the elegant homes of whom are found all over this region, were terrible stewards of this resource.  Only after 100 years are they finally coming back—but are not yet a major source of timber in Michigan.  Only one percent of the original white pine forest is left.  In its prime, many white pines also topped 200 feet in height.

4.  Giant Sequoia. This one I gathered in the mountains above Hume Lake that rests between Kings Canyon and Sequoia National Parks.  Of course we know this one as the world’s largest tree.   If the shape of the cone looks familiar, it may be that you’ve chatted with a US National Park ranger in uniform.  The medallion on the ranger hatband is the sequoia cone.  And the familiar arrowhead arm patch has a sequoia tree on it.  The oldest sequoia is around 3500 years old.  Imagine the history that is included in that lifespan!

5.  Douglas fir. I picked this cone up on my way to work yesterday from a small grove not far from our RBC building.  It does okay in a few spots in the Midwest, but it is primarily a Western tree—the workhorse timber tree of the US.  It is the “cadillac of Christmas trees,” being the most common tree for that use.  Its prime trees can top 400 feet—the tallest one, cut for timber in 1902, was 415 feet tall.  The cone is easy to identify as well: it has three-forked “snake tongues” sticking out from under each scale.

6.  Coast Redwood. Surprised?  The smallest cone is from the tallest tree.  I picked this one up at a redwood seed farm on Whidbey Island in Washington—right across the road from the Pacific Rim campus of the Au Sable Institute (check out Au Sable in the links menu).  Actually, most of the tall redwoods now are around 360 feet, so a few Douglas firs can overtop them; but in numbers the redwood averages out as the tallest of our trees.  The oldest one known is about 2,200 years old.  The photo above shows how the redwood cones grow at the tips of the bough.

So how did you do with the quiz?

When you consider how small the seeds of these conifers are (the seeds found beneath the cone scales) and how big the trees are, you again have to be amazed at the wonder of God’s creation.

See you outdoors,

Dean