Flat Stanley is the story of a schoolboy who is crushed by a falling chalk board.  Besides the obvious drawbacks, the benefit is that Stanley can now travel the world with friends and fly home in an envelope for the cost of a postage stamp.

At the request of our first grade friend Lillie, Cay and I took Flat Stanley to New Mexico where I was speaking at a family camp for Grace Church of Albuquerque, at Bonita Park near Ruidoso.  After an exciting airplane ride from Tyler to Roswell via Dallas, we took Flat Stanley with us to several exciting stops including a visit to the Smokey Bear National Park near Capitan, NM.

As a cub, Smokey Bear was rescued from a fire near Capitan in 1950 and has been encouraging fire safety for over sixty years.  The original Smokey died on November 9, 1976 and is buried in the Smokey Bear National Park.  But his message lives on.  What American school child doesn’t know, “Only You Can Prevent Forest Fires”?

While Flat Stanley visited the Smokey Bear National Park I wondered if anything I might say or do would echo beyond my allotted span.  It is good to remember that God’s Word never returns void.  And it is good to remember that relationships connected in Christ will last forever. And it is really good to remember that camp is a place where God’s Word and relationships intersect to impact lives forever.