Worship and Watermelon on a Sunday

Glenn Breazeale | Jul. 07, 2024

Sundays are special around here, a celebration. The start of the week. It’s a day set apart and we enjoy some special activities and treats. This afternoon Roderick, our 2nd Term Program Director, sliced fresh, cold watermelon the the athletic field. After lunch Moosetracks Ice Cream is our traditional dessert of choice on a Sunday. Food takes center stage on Sundays. I’ll share more later in the post.

We held a worship service in the morning led by our camp minister for the summer, Mac Holt. Mac is an ordained pastor working with Reformed University Fellowship (RUF) on the campus of the University of Tennessee. RUF is a wonderful college ministry that I highly recommend if you know someone heading to college (we have no official affiliation and there are many great college ministries). They are on many campuses across the country. We are thankful to have Mac and his family at camp all summer. He preaches on Sundays but his main job is to care for our staff, through Bible studies, one on one meetings, and prayer.

Mac brought us a good news message from Philippians 3 this morning. Paul is reminding the church in Phillipi and us today that whatever we have accomplished on this earth, our earthly resume or report card, is nothing compared to the eternal resume we get from faith in Christ.

A great tradition at Alpine is the wearing of Sunday whites to church. Everyone, my family included, wear all white. Counselors and campers wear the old school neckerchief around their neck, secured with an Alpine leather slide. While we “dressed up” we took the opportunity to get professional photographs of each cabin and your camper individually. These are taken by well known Chattanooga photographer Lane Park. There’s no additional cost for these and each camper will come home with his cabin and individual photos.

We end Sundays with a hymn sing in the gym, altogether, and an evening devotional in each cabin area. It’s special to hear over 400 boys and counselors singing hymns like Be Thou My Vision and Come Thou Fount together at the end of the day. Sandwiched in between each age group gets to play fun team games on the fields or in the gym for a bit after dinner.

Now for our meals on Sunday, another tradition long held and set apart from the other days. For breakfast Mrs. Gail and company always serve piping hot platters of her homemade pancakes with sausage patties. Lunch after church is the beloved fried chicken, green beans, rice and gravy, rolls, and sliced pears. Supper, though the least talked about of the three, is some folks favorite meal of the entire week. Chicken sandwiches, very similar to Chick-Fil-A, are served along with tater tots and brownies for dessert.

Thanks for reading and good night for now, Glenn

Glenn Breazeale
Glenn Breazeale

Like his own father, Glenn grew up as a camper at Alpine for six summers, coming from Jackson, MS each summer. He has served on staff at Alpine since 1997, working full time as Assistant Director from 2003 to 2005 and Director since 2006. Prior to that he gained experience serving in various capacities including cabin counselor, Head Counselor, Head of Project Adventure (Ropes course), Horseback instructor, and Program Director. Glenn’s love of camping and his desire to preserve the traditions of Alpine drew him back to camp to offer young boys the same opportunities he experienced. He met and fell in love with Carter during a Square Dance with Camp DeSoto.