There is a Sunday School Song by that title and the tune has been going through my mind today for some reason. But it applies to Cammie. She brightens the corner, and, in fact, the whole room wherever she is.
She is doing well. Real well. Her sleep is returning to a normal length (down from 11 hours a day to 9 or so now). Her energy is back, not 100%, but back. She is feeling good. And the nerve damage in her feet is diminishing. She goes down to Houston next week for a check up.
And here is something rather cool.
Just a little over two years ago I ran into an old seminary classmate, Tim Kimmel, who was speaking at a men’s retreat at Pine Cove. Hadn’t seen him in years and we got caught up. He wanted on our emailing list, particularly regarding Cammie. And shortly after he let her know that he was praying for every day.
Tim is a Conference speaker, known out there in radio land, and an author of quite a number of books, including “Little House on the Freeway” (his first) to “Grace Based Parenting” (his last). And now he has a new “last”. It just came out and it is called “Why Christian Kids Rebel”. All his books are very readable and packed with well thought through principles. But this last one is the best as far as I am concerned and it really has nothing to do with the content. It has to do with the dedication and the last chapter.
A couple weeks ago Tim invited Cammie and me to meet him down at the seminary. He was in town and we had the time and we went. He passed over this book and pointed to the Dedication. It reads: Dedicated to Cammie Van Rooy “You never rebelled. You never wanted to. You never needed to.” And the last chapter is about her.
Can’t quote that chapter here, but it is moving. I guess you will have to read the book (you can order it through Amazon).
It took us by surprise, and no one more so than Cammie. She was humbled. But it was clear that she had, once again, “brightened the corner where she was.” And it touched the life of Tim out there in Phoenix.
And then, the same week, I got a call from my friend Bob Adams. Bob is the curator of CQOD (Christian Quote of the Day). This is a service/ministry that goes out to more than 13,000 people every day (yes, free, you can subscribe by logging on and asking for it at http://www.cqod.com/cqodlist.htm). It is excellent. Well chosen quotes that edify and inspire. I think I was the second or third person on that list after his mom and Ellen, his wife.
Bob was asked to put together a book for publication to be called something like “The Best of CQOD”. In any case, Bob called to let me know that Cammie was going to have a quote in there too! You may recall her essay called “Beauty from Ashes”. The quote will be from that essay (the essay is re-printed at the end of this section on Cammie, and titled “Beauty from Ashes”).
Quoted and dedicated to and written about because she happens to simply brighten the corner where she is. Let me tell you something. It ain’t easy even if you are not ill. Ask me.
(Now if I can only get that tune out of my head I will be able to go to sleep tonight).