Bethany Beach

June 14, 2007


The weather had been cloudy, but turned decidedly cold as I arrived at Bethany Beach, DE in the afternoon…
[I take pen in hand – well, uh, keyboard in hand to recount my travels up to now which happens to find me in Washington, DC, our nation’s capital on the 4th of July! But I digress. Meanwhile back in mid-June…]

The Bethany Beach Conference Center is owned and managed by the Disciples of Christ (no, not The Disciples of Christ, but a sibling denomination to the United Church of Christ). I had originally contacted the regional office to do my program there, but I could tell they really didn’t want to commit to hosting an unknown performer. I had decided I was going to Bethany Beach anyway, so I called the town manager to get permission to do Biblical storytelling on the boardwalk. They offered me their Bandshell, instead! Though I was encouraged to get a news release to the local papers (which I submitted), there had been no promotion of my presentation.

After checking in with the town clerk (“Be happy, be authorized”), I went out to the boardwalk to pass out what info I had and invite folks to hear me that afternoon. It didn’t rain, but threatened to and I was very concerned about getting my djembe drum wet (which would tear the drum head). When I did my stories, the wind and the ocean were competing with me for people’s attention. Even so, I had a modest audience – there was a woman with two pre-teens and two smaller children, six teenage girls who stayed for a couple stories and went, and a woman who arrived later. Both the women stayed to talk and let me know they appreciated my presentation. Like it says in the Bible, ’where two or three are gathered…’, it’s enough, because that’s who God sent to be there that day.

It has been a personal tradition to see the sun come up at Bethany Beach whenever I visit. They don’t let anyone on the beach before 6:00 am (and back that up with police patrols during tourist season). I was out there on time, but all I saw was a glimmering hint of red where the horizon met cloud cover and sea. I still did a little dance on the beach (actually a slow carioca that anyone watching would hardly think of as “dancing”). Then I was off to explore the town. There is no coffee in town before 8:00 am, so I got my exercise walking to a gas station just outside of town.

Later that morning, I visited the DOC Conference Center and was invited to stay for lunch. A lovely couple, Sue & Wayne Fuller, were the interim managers and along with the camp cook, Claudia McClenny, they gave me an update about this wonderful place so important to me in my youth (and even now). The Rev Arlene Franks would soon be taking over as the new director and when they mentioned the name of the outgoing director as Walter Scott, I said, “Sir Walter Scott?” describing him as an African-American chaplain in the US Army. The very same person! And they gave him a call to come over for lunch, too. I met Sir Walter at the UCC General Synod held in Kansas City, MO when he was still in the service. We have a mutual friend, Elvernice “Sonny” Davis who had been the senior chaplain for Ft Monmouth’s post chapel (and he is the model for my ‘John the Baptist’ voice).

After catching up about the conference center, Sir Walter walked with me to my car to see me off. I had gotten a $10 ticket for not putting something in the meter. Like a true knight-errant, he picked up the tab and I gave him two copies of my DVD. We bid our fond adieus and off I went for Wilmington…