As we near the end of Week 2 our Teams are still spread out across the country and are experiencing everything from a small Camp with small Campers in a small space and an urban environment to a big Camp with over 50 Campers in a remote area of Northern Saskatchewan. From an Armed Forces Base North of Toronto to a glorious space on the Atlantic coast. We sure get around at Crosstalk Ministries!!
It is fortunate that, in the middle of July, many of my meals are of the salad variety, since it seems as soon as I put a fork or spoon into my food a new text of call comes in!! But, oh, I do want the Teams to know I’m there to listen and pray with them through major and minor crises!! And we have had all kinds over the past few days.
The Alberta Team has had a variety of such crises. The past week they have been living in very “rustic” accommodations, dealing with a huge number of Campers, and travelling very long distances. In Day Camps we have “the 4 C,’s”- Community, Content, Creativity/Craziness & Challenge and Team 4 has been really stretched in all of these areas. One brilliant solution to the problem of most Campers arriving after lunch each day was to hold a sort of “backwards” day, starting with games and crafts and, ending with the Main Presentation! Some days they actually had 2 Main Presentations, one each at the beginning and end of the Day.
Meanwhile throughout the week here at “Day Camps Central” there has been a ton of correspondence as Evaluations and photos begin to arrive from the Week 1 Churches and Invoices must be prepared and sent out. There has also been some support work in sending out letters to Senior Youth Camp Campers, choreographing a new song to teach at SYC plus putting together Menus for the SYC Staff Pre-Camp as I am anxious to begin baking for that during the coming days.
Wednesday was a cool and sunny morning so I decided to bike down and visit the Emmaus Day Camp taking place at St. Stephen’s House. I was able to observe the whole Main Presentation and was pleased the way the Travelling Team and the small group of local Helpers were dealing with the Campers, most of whom were at the youngest end of the age scale.
Unfortunately no one has yet sent in any Week 2 photos but we hope to put up our 2014 Slideshow, which will be assembled for the Prayer and Praise Service (Thursday, August 7th).
There has not been a lot of time for other activities at home this week. I did manage to complete a patchwork Tea Cosy, which is to be a wedding present, did a bit of general garden maintenance and window cleaning, touched up some paintwork and made plans to begin my annual “Chicken Awards”. These are presented to the Team Leaders at their debrief meeting and so must be completed over the next 2 weeks. I do have a plan in place, watch for some sample photosin the near future!
Oh yes! I also made the scrapbook of Thank You notes, presented to me at the end of the Retreat, but I shall leave it to Mrs Philmore to include a photo of that when she writes her Guest Blogger post this coming Wednesday!
Right now I’m multi-tasking as one of the Teams is suffering through a “bed bug scare” so there are many texts and emails flying back and forth. Somehow this has put me off a desire to discuss my weekly recipe (can’t imagine why Googling videos of bedbugs would do that???) so I shall take a break and import some pretty garden photos instead…
Ah! That’s better, now for the Recipe-
Chorizo & Quinoa Salad, a good choice for a dinner, which will, without a doubt, suffer from several interruptions!!!
Chorizo & Quinoa Salad
- 2-3 links Chorizo sausage (or similar dry, hot sausage)
- 1 cup quinoa
2cups tomato juice - 1Red Onion, sliced into rings
- 1½cups cooked kidney beans
- 1 green pepper, diced
- 3 Tbsps. olive oil
- 2 Tbsps. limejuice
- 2 Tbsps. red-wine vinegar
- 1 clove garlic, crushed
- ½ tsp. ground cumin
- pepper & salt to taste
Place the quinoa and tomato juice in medium saucepan; bring to the boil and simmer, covered, for 10 minutes. Turn off heat and allow to stand, covered for 5 more minutes. Remove from heat, uncover and fluff with a fork, leave to cool. On a serving platter, arrange the green pepper, onion, kidney beans and cooled quinoa. In a small bowl, combine the olive oil, vinegar, lime juice, cumin, garlic and pepper and salt. Whisk well and pour over ingredients on the platter. Cover and chill for 1 hour. Just before serving, heat a dry drying pan over medium heat and fry the sausage until browned and crisp, arrange over the platter and serve immediately. Serves 3-4