Camp Week – Crosstalk Ministries Day Camps

As this post is being composed CTM’s Junior and Senior Youth Camps are wrapping up in the Eastern Townships, about 2 hours from Montreal.

It has been another manic week!!! A large amount of time (much more than I was really able to spare) having been given to the arrival of the new fridge and stove, the good news being that THEY FIT!!!!!!

However, the main focus of the week was preparing about a gazillion things to take with me on my day trip to the Camps, which happened on Thursday.

As usual I had planned elaborate gifts for my Godsons and their parents, agreed to write 13 prayer letters (!), needed to finalise the 17 Team Evaluations, assemble materials and samples for one workshop and memorise the choreography for the other…you get the idea.

In a moment of mental aberration I had also blithely agreed to help with the banquet costumes for my Godsons, the theme this year being “A Night at the Oscars” Victoria had thought this would be fairly simply and the two older boys could wear their good dress suits but they had taken a dim view of this idea since they always get to wear proper costumes for the Camp Banquet. Sigh! So I suggested funky bowties and cummerbunds. I found a super good tutorial for making little boy bowties here, but despite trawling through Google for far too long, could not find a child’s cummerbund and thus had to invent those from photographs. Needless to say all of this combined with finalising details for tomorrow’s All Ages Gathering has made for quite the week.

However by Wednesday evening a towering pile of bags and baskets was waiting in the front hall and Wil was mega-excited as he saw his special “travel bag” among the objects and knew that an excursion was about to happen. Nick had even delivered a heavy metal box, a “smoke machine” needed at JYC for their talent show!!

Thursday morning dawned hot and sunny and I was ready and waiting for our ride. Unfortunately the person driving us had a very short window of time to get us there and so we left the city late and arrived about one minute before the workshops were due to begin. Happily a number of SYC Staff and Campers rushed to my aid and helped carry my equipment down to the craft hut where I was to lead a workshop for 10 campers on how to make “coded bead jewellery”.

They were such a great group! Interested and focused, with no troublemakers (whew!) Wil settled on a towel on the floor with his travel bowl of water and a carrot and we spent a happy hour crafting.

As soon as the bell rang I had to pack up and rush to the Rec Hall to lead a second workshop on Liturgical Dance. Again the Campers came to my aid, helping pack up the beading supplies and transport all the paraphernalia across the Camp to the Hall. The dance (to be presented during their Closing Worship Service) is U-2’s Yahweh I chose it because it seemed to embody some of the essence of the Camp Theme “Keeping it Real”. The hope is to present it again at the September Crossroads Service, a time of reunion for all the Campers. The new Crossroads Director, Jillian, has big plans for the coming year and I have agreed to help with Liturgical Dance so we’re thinking that at least some of the group I worked with at Camp will form the core of a Crossroads “Dance Troupe”. After the second workshop the Campers had another hour of free time before dinner so I was able to gather all those on site who had been on the 2016 Day Camp Teams and present each of them with their Evaluation Package. This is always a special moment at Camp and the last time for the season when Iam surrounded by the Team Members.Next Wil and I walked up to the staff lounge where I met Victoria and was able to give her the boys’ “costumes” and also my gift basket. She and I then went for a walk around the Camp while James (one of the CITs, who is CRAZY about Wil) happily took him for a walk in the woods! Timothy had been assigned the task of driving me back to Montreal, starting with a side trip to JYC to drop off the smoke machine and some other items, so soon we settled 2 of the little boys in the van, packed up my bags and baskets (a lightened load for the return trip!), and popped Wil in the back. Baby Andrew was highly entertained on the first leg of the journey, chortling with glee and calling out “woof woof” every time Wil sat up in the back!

At JYC I hurried down to the main lodge as Timothy and co. waited in the van both boys having fallen asleep by this time. So I just had a quick moment to greet a number of Campers and Staff and then jumped back in the van for the long trip home.

All day while driving I had put the time to good use by working on the hand sewing of William’s Birthday Crown. William turns 7 this coming Tuesday so the Huyers will take his gift home with them tomorrow as they will all be sleeping here tonight, along with Gillian (one of the Day Camp Team Leaders) who has been a counsellor at SYC and is taking the train home to Ontario on Monday morning.

Unfortunately I was unable to take any photos at Camp since I was not sure if we had parental permission but do have a look at the SYC Site, here is the Camp Livingstone link. And here is the link for Cedar Lodge, where we hold JYC. Since this seems to have turned into a VERY long post and since I am about to dash off to the Service of Dedication at the new building of First Filipino Baptist Church, I had better close off with a recipe.

Last evening some dear friends joined me for dinner, this is an annual tradition during Camp Week as their daughter is a Camper at SYC. The main course was these totally yummy Fajita Bowls and for dessert I made my favourite…

Banana Lime Soup

3 bananas, sliced
3 cups plain yoghurt
4 Tbsps. lime juice
½ tsp. ground cinnamon

Place all the ingredients on a large bowl and mix together. Puree in batches in a food processor. Chill well before serving. Serves 4-6