Messages given at various Camps Farthest Out by Bert Kerley
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Speaking to campers at the 1990 Southern California CFO, Bert Kerley continues the recovery testimony he began in the previous session. Books such as “God Calling” kept turning up just when he needed them, he says; one appeared on a shelf while he waited out a friend’s phone call. He credits Norman Vincent Peale with teaching him to relax, think positively, and say no kindly.
Bert Kerley describes his practice of becoming still before making decisions. He recalls how the name “Peter” surfaced during a quiet hour, and how that name led him to the buyer who purchased his old house. The talk comes from the Southern California CFO in 1990.
Bert Kerley tells campers of a woodcutter who climbs a distant mountain seeking God, only to find his own troubled home waiting at the summit. He also retells how the imprisoned Star Daily broke free of hatred by asking, “What if I had loved instead of hating.” He ties both stories to his counseling lesson that happiness rests on attitude, not circumstance, in a talk to the 1990 Southern California CFO.
Bert Kerley describes the nervous breakdown that followed his infant son’s death and years of hidden strain. Speaking at the 1990 Southern California CFO, he then describes a shoulder tap from an old friend. It led him to a retreat bookshop, where he found the book that began his healing.
Bert Kerley asks whether “God is love” can still be true in the face of tragedy. He recalls a Welsh mining disaster that killed sixty schoolchildren, and a young pianist who said she thought of everyone who loved her as she played. He gave this talk on trusting that love has the final word to the Northern California CFO in 1982.
Bert Kerley recounts a lunch appointment canceled during the Northern California CFO in 1982. It led him, through what he calls “no such things as chance,” to a chance meeting with Hope Peale, a relative of Norman Vincent Peale. He then turns to teach that Christ dwells within every believer.
At the 1983 New Hampshire Winni CFO, Bert Kerley describes learning to sit still with God. He recounts praying for a boy who had never had a holiday because of his hemophilia. He then sat quietly in his church until the thought “St. Julian’s Farm” came to him, the very place that gave the family a free stay.
Bert Kerley opens with a fable of a woodcutter who climbs a mountain seeking God, only to find his own home waiting at the summit. Speaking to campers at the New Hampshire Winni CFO in 1983, he then turns to George Washington Carver, a boy born into slavery who talked quietly with God and became one of the country’s great scientists.
Bert Kerley describes what he calls the perfect timing that carried him into Camps Farthest Out: a canceled lunch date, a walk past the Quaker Friends House, and a book waiting on a shelf. He closes with the memory of flying blind through a cloud into open blue sky. He gave the talk at the 1983 New Hampshire Winni CFO.
Bert Kerley teaches campers to let go of guilt by picturing a bubble that floats away. At the Arizona CFO, he uses fifteen minutes of nightly guitar practice to show how thinking well becomes a habit like any other skill.