Wednesday, June 03, 2009

CAMP Snakes and SNOW Snakes


Recently I had the opportunity to officiate a wedding over on the shore in Delaware. As a result, my family went with me and we enjoyed a couple of cold, yet fun days at the beach. Ken and Kathy Keener were invited to the ceremony as well and we spent a good three hours one morning just sitting around the beach house we stayed at talking and laughing with this wonderful couple. If you are not familiar with the Keeners, Ken is one of the missionaries supported by our church as he serves full-time with Camp Conquest.

One of the funniest parts of the morning is when Ken, who admits he is deathly afraid of snakes, told us a story of a time at camp when he thought he was having an encounter with a reptile. The story actually takes place in a port-a-potty at camp. If you have never heard the story, you have to get Ken to tell it to you. But be sure he does the “dance” and everything when he tells you the details.

It made me think of one of the funniest stories I ever heard dealing with a snake. Perry Noble tells the story. He pastors an amazing church in Anderson, South Carolina that God is using to impact literally thousands of people. The story is about when he was a kid and there was one of those very rare times in South Carolina where it snowed and school got cancelled.

Perry wanted to go outside and play but his dad really didn’t want to mess with it so he told Perry he could go outside but he had to watch out for the “snow snakes”.

Perry asked, “Are there really snow snakes?”

Yep,” said his dad.

Perry asked the next logical question, “Do they bite?”

No,” said his dad, “They crawl up your butt and freeze you to death!”

As you can imagine, that was enough for Perry to stay inside. The next day he was at his Christian School and the teacher asked how many of the children had gone outside to play in the snow. Everyone raised their hand except for Perry. The teacher noticed and asked Perry why he didn’t go outside and play in the snow like everyone else had.

Because of the snow snakes,” Perry said.

The teacher than asked, “Perry, are there really snow snakes?”

Yep,” said Perry.

Then the teacher asked the million dollar question, “Do they bite?” Perry answered just as his father had answered. As a result, Perry got two additional days off of school.

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