What is CBLI?

I have mentioned CBLI several times on my blog. I am referring to a camp The Salvation Army runs annually at the end of July. It is officially called Central Bible and Leadership Institute, but when I first began attending, back as a teenager, it was called TBLI - Territorial Bible and Leadership Institute. The best way to explain it is to merely say that my boys and I are being FED!

When I married my husband, he was not a Salvationist and we attended a Baptist church. However, he does have Salvationist connections. His brother, Rob, was once an officer and still attends the Army. His mother attends the Corps in Champaign, Illinois. For the first few years of marriage, we continued to attend Baptist churches. However, we eventually began attending an excellent Evangelical Free Church in DeKalb, Illinois. So, for many years, I have not been attending an Army corps regularly.

However, my family is deeply entrenched in the Army. My parents were officers. My eldest brother and his wife are officers at a vibrant corps in the Chicago suburban area. My younger sister and her husband are Divisional Youth Secretaries for the AL-LA-MS division. I have missed the Army in many ways, but mostly have missed the music and the feeling of wide-spread family you enjoy when you belong to The Salvation Army.

When my oldest son was 3, my husband and I separated for a year and a half. It was a difficult time for all of us and my sister-in-law suggested I might benefit from being fed at CBLI. It was one of the best suggestions I have ever taken in my life. Bryce quickly came to love CBLI and has begged to go every year since.

My sons enjoy going because the youth programming is excellent. They have loads of fun, make wonderful friendships, and learn more about what it means to be a Christian. Apart from a brief stint in Bible Study Fellowship, I have never found a program to engage my sons so thoroughly. When Bryce was in second grade, his teacher asked the students to write about a special place in their journals. Bryce wrote about going to CBLI. We have lots of happy memories of times spent together at this camp.

I love CBLI because I get a break from my mothering role while still being able to enjoy lots of family time together with my boys in a tradition that we have all come to anticipate eagerly. We have a small room with a private bath. The boys share the bunk bed, my youngest will be in a pack-n-play and I get a comfortable queen-sized bed (one of these days, my husband will manage to secure the time off from work and join us - probably when the boys are no longer so small, when they basically run off and have fun on their own - HA - said with equal parts humor and sarcasm). This year, my husband will be able to join us for the final weekend. The boys always look forward to his arrival.

Every morning we enjoy breakfast in the dining hall and then I drop the boys off at their respective classes for the morning. I then head to a morning Bible study (usually taught by the special guest), snack and then a morning class. I have had some awesome classes in the past. One class studied the Old Testament temple and was very informative and interesting. Another, about praying for our children, followed a Stormie O'Martian book. One class taught from Philip Yancey's book on God's grace. The puppetry ministry class was fun and informative (I purchased a large stuffed reindeer, with the hopes of following class instruction and turning it into a puppet. I still have it, but have never managed to create a puppet from it. It has merely decorated our house at Christmas, but I cling to the hope that one day ...). I have always enjoyed the studies and the fellowship, not to mention the time away from my kids (hee-hee!).

After classes, I pick up the boys and head for lunch in the dining hall. Bryce eats with his friends but does sometimes join us (and I will probably insist on his help some time, since I have to secure trays for myself and the little boys). The dining hall has greatly improved since we first began attending ten years ago. Television screens inform you what the next meal will be, so I can plan ahead if the fare will be something my boys don't care for. Plus, they offer a salad bar, so I can always manage to get raw carrots and some kind of fruit for them.

The entire afternoon is available for free-time activities. Bryce enjoys fishing at the lakefront. We have also used the paddleboats, canoes and kayaks. There is an in-ground pool (as a teen, we only had the lakefront and the water was always murky); however, that should be challenging this year, since their rules require a parent to be within an arm's length of every small child. It would be a miracle if I could keep both of those little boys within an arm's length at any time, let alone in a pool. Still, I know they will be clamoring to go. Trevor wants to go fishing this year. I'm bringing the double stroller, because I just don't trust those two little boys at the edge of a pier. One year, Bryce won the fishing competition and caught the largest fish for that encampment. It was 18 inches long, but I was in the cabin napping with Trevor, so I didn't even get to see it before he released it back into the water (after taking it to the office to confirm the length).

After dinner, the kids return to their individual classes and I attend a large evening meeting. I am very excited about this year's camp because I have heard that Randy Bonifield will be there (at least for one night). I have such fond memories of our first years attending CBLI, because Randy led the worship team and I have never experienced a more rousing worship. I remember he would lead the teens in a song about stomping the devil and it felt like the very rafters of the building were quaking. The enthusiasm was infectious. I would sit near the back, with several others who used to attend TBLI with me as a teen, and we would marvel at how old we all are now!

Sometimes after the evening meeting, we head over to the Dairy Queen in a nearby town. Sometimes, we just go to the snack bar for a candy bar or ice cream sandwich. When it was just Bryce and me, we would sometimes visit with a friend in their camper. Last year, I missed an awesome fireworks display over the lake, because I felt the little boys really needed to get to bed. This year, if they have something like that, I will let them stay up and then sleep in the next morning.

This is just an overview. I will come home with many tales, I'm sure. Every year we have such fun and count ourselves deeply blessed to have been allowed to attend (especially during those years when we weren't even attending a Salvation Army corps, yet the SA allowed us to benefit from the emotional, physical, and spiritual nourishment of this fantastic camp). I can't say enough good things about CBLI. It is definitely one of "my favorite things."