So last week we were at great camp called Cross Mountain Ministries in a little town called Portesrville, Mississippi. Now when I say small, I mean really small. Like the nearest Walmart is 45 minutes away small. Some of y'all might be able to relate to that, but for me (being a bit of a city boy) that was way out in the sticks. However, I have to say, they have some of the kindest people in those small towns. This was one of those places where everyone gets up with the sun, puts on there Wrangler jeans (even though it was 95 degrees outside), and straps on their spurs to start the day. Yep, we were hangin' with real live cowboys....and girls. They were bronc bustin', horse ridin', calf ropin' folks who loved life. They were some of the most honest and sincere people I've ever met. I didn't know people like that were still out there. Anyway, back to the story.
So one night after our evening bible study, we were all hanging out and Boom comes running into our room asking if we had any matches or a lighter. Of course we asked the obvious question, "Why do you need a lighter?" And to our surprise Boom responded, "Because I'm gonna burn a snake." I'm gonna let you think about that for just a second. Now for those of you who haven't met Boom yet, he's our drummer. He is a skinny little man who looks just like Jason Stathom. If you want you can look Mr. Stathom up on line and imagine him without all the muscles and a few inches shorter....that's Boom. He is the comic relief for Austins Bridge. He's one of those guys who sleeps a lot but when he's up he's on full speed in life. Always trying to get a laugh. Moving on. So I finally look at him with a puzzled look and ask again, "You're gonna do what?" Again, same response. I'll be honest, my curiosity got the better of me so I get up and help him find a lighter. We go outside and sure enough he had a rattle snake that had been killed and decided he wanted to light it on fire. You're probably thinking that is a little bit too violent. If you fall into this category let me chase a rabbit for just a second...
The night before I went on a walk right as the sun had set. On my walk I was kamakazied by over sized, mutant horse flies, attacked by a dive bombing screech owl and was nearly gnawed on by a rattle snake hanging out on the side of the road. Fortunately, a lady from the camp was driving down the road and saw it before I was able to walk up on it. I was only feet away from crossing it's path.
So back to my story. Being the guy that I am (just a bit of a pyro) I started a fire in the parking lot and we all sat around this little fire and bar-b-q'ed ourselves a rattler. We tried to get boom to pull a Man vs Wild moment and eat that sucker but he wasn't hungry.
Anyway, we ended up having a great time at camp. We saw several students get saved and then the last day we were there we got to seem them baptized in a cattle trough. Ha ha ha. That's right. They brought in a cattle trough loaded it full of water and we dunked those new believers right there. We couldn't have asked for a better end to a long week. It was a very cool experience.