Three Weeks to Go! – Crosstalk Ministries Day Camps

Three weeks today, God willing, I shall be sitting in Lennox Hall at Isaiah 40 surrounded by Team Members, for Team Training Day, the real start of the Day Camps Summer.

Well at least that is what I should be doing but as I write today we still have only 7 Team Members when 17 would be more like what we need.It has been a fairly arduous week. I have continued to bake and cook “on faith” (or lunacy?) for the Retreat Week because the food must be prepared ahead of time, there is no time to cook later in the month.

The Lord has blessed us with 25 churches and communities, all eagerly awaiting Day Camps, I just cannot believe we are not meant to send Teams to them. As I pray and ask the Lord to show us the way forward I am haunted by images of children, lunch boxes in hand arriving happily at church doors only to find a sign reading “Day Camp Cancelled” those are scary images and I simply cannot believe they represent God’s Will for our Program.

One antidote is to sing a song, which was used a number of years ago as our Liturgical Dance, that, combined with vigorous sweeping of maple keys, sometimes helps! On to brighter thoughts.

Two days this week I was joined by committee helpers, Thursday Jessica met me at the supply room and we worked again on packing Team Supplies. Refilling the paint bottles was a messy task, but we got it completed. Yay! And then yesterday Jillian, just back from a few weeks with relatives in the US, came to help with music copying and other music related tasks. My spirits are lifted when we can get some important jobs done and talk about how to work out the current dilemmas.

It has rained quite a bit this week but in between I have filled 5 giant paper leaf bags with maple keys. Again on Thursday it took close to three hours just to mow the lawns as one had to keep stopping to sweep and rake! And as mentioned earlier I have cooked and baked! Great pots of curry, chilli and ratatouille, rolls, cakes and biscotti.

Oh yes and from last Saturday until late Tuesday there was no service on the house phone line. This was eventually rectified by a very kindly Bell technician who traced the problem to “water in a terminal” on a pole in the nearby lane. It took quite a while to clear the backlog of messages left while the phone was out of order!

Today I was up VERY early (5am) and left for the Electoral Synod, soon after 7. As Lay Secretary I had to be there for registration, starting at 730 and was SO grateful for a ride down to the Cathedral with a Clerical friend. So now we have a new Bishop Elect! Whose duties will commence in late August when our current Bishop retires and moves to Ontario. Her name is the Very Rev. Mary Irwin-Gibson, current Dean of the Cathedral in Kingston Ontario, and I am very pleased because she was the candidate I voted for!

This evening I am hunkered down quietly with 2 Godsons sleeping upstairs, one tiny Godson dozing next to me, Wil and Mandu also piled on the bed and the Huyers 2 dogs sleeping in kennels in the basement. Not exactly the recipe for quiet time, but I’m just praying no one knocks at the front door as I can imagine pandemonium will break out!

One recipe I made this week for the Retreat is my Mum’s “Curry Creole” a really delicious vegetarian curry, which will be served with homemade Naan Bread.

It makes a great summertime dinner.

Curry Creole

2 medium onions, diced
2 cloves garlic, crushed
½ cup butter
2 sweet potatoes, diced
2 red peppers cut in strips
1 fresh pineapple, cubed (or equivalent in frozen chunks)
2 bananas, sliced
1 28oz. can tomatoes
1 can coconut milk
½ tsp. each ground cardamom, turmeric and fenugreek
1 tsp. ground coriander
¼ tsp.chili powder
1 ¼ cups vegetable stock

Melt the butter in a large stovetop casserole and fry the onion and garlic, over medium heat, until softened. Add the sweet potatoes, zucchini and peppers and fry for 5 minutes. Mix the spices with 3 Tbsps. water to make a paste and stir this into the vegetables. Add the tomatoes, pineapple and bananas bring to a boil, reduce the heat to low and cook for approx. 15 minutes or until the sweet potatoes are just tender. Stir in the coconut milk and heat through. Serve over rice or with Naan. Serves 6.