12/08/17 – Crosstalk Ministries Day Camps

It has been a pretty zooy week around here, culminating, last evening, in the dinner for JYC and SYC Staff before they all left to drive down to Cedar Lodge for the Pre Camp happening today. After the Commissioning Service this afternoon the SYC Staff will move over to Camp Livingstone and both Staffs will gear up for the arrival of the Campers, tomorrow.

But let’s recap the week-

Last Sunday approx. 25 SYC Staff (and 3 small Staff children) descended on the house for a full day of training. I was the official cook and served breakfast, lunch, and an afternoon snack to the hungry crowd in between their times of worship and workshops; meanwhile attempting to avoid various important Lego structures, small wooden cars, stuffed animals etc.! Over lunchtime Jessica nobly joined me for a couple of hours, which was a huge help, especially with all the washing up.
Monday my attention turned to preparing for the Team Leaders Evaluation Meeting (TLEM). This annual event took place Tuesday afternoon starting at 3pm, with dinner @ 6 followed by a DC Committee meeting that ended around 8.

There were 14 of us for dinner that night and we said good-bye to Sarah, who is stepping down from the committee, and welcomed returning members- Christopher and Janice. Unfortunately Mikaela, who is also stepping down, was unable to join us as she was working that evening.

Wednesday I finished up a ton of outstanding office work, made a big batch of dog food and got through a bunch of other chores before welcoming Amudha, who came in the late afternoon to avail herself of some of my artist’s supplies needed for a SYC Game she had been tasked with creating. Amudha is a former Team Member and now on staff at SYC, about to start university! We enjoyed a Chinese meal of Ma Po Tofu followed by my new fave- ORGANIC, homemade BUBBLE TEA!!!! (I use coconut milk, mango orange jelly “bubbles”, extra mango juice, Jasmine Tea and whipped cream, YUM 😊

Thursday preparations began in earnest for last night’s giant dinner (there were over 30 people including 7 small children, EEK!!!). After first getting the lawns mowed, I began thawing the huge containers of Vegetable Curry, which Jessica and I had cooked and frozen last week, made a vat of fruited iced Darjeeling Tea and also thawed the Naan Bread. In the evening I set up the whole dining room for this mega-meal.

Of course yesterday was manic, right from the get-go. In the morning I squeezed in office work and helped the JYC Directors by printing and collating some of their Cabin Devotions and by noon Mark (Co-Director of SYC) had arrived and starting unloading SYC supplies into the garage. Alana (JYC Co-Director) dropped by in the early afternoon with a last minute staff member who needed to fill out a police records check and once that was done Wil and I squeezed in his walk before Janice and Matthew arrived for a quick (Bubble Tea 😊) visit! Right after Camp Janice is moving to Toronto to serve at York University as an IVCF Staff Worker , so this was the only chance to have a little visit with her and her boyfriend as they will be leaving by train on the Tuesday after Camp. Of course as we were attempting to visit other staff members started to arrive, laden with their gear and by 545pm Mark declared that we should begin serving dinner. Thankfully the predicted thunderstorm held off so almost everyone chose to eat outside on the main deck. They all seemed to enjoy the curry, Naan, iced tea and dessert of homemade orange/lime ice cream!

Of course there were mountains of dishes but Joanne (the SYC Pre-camp Worship Leader) immediately jumped in and started helping me, as did several others, while the rest of the staff packed cars and vans with luggage and supplies. In the house other willing helpers put away the clean dishes, put furniture back in place, and made sure that all small people visited the “facilities” before the long drive ahead! By 730pm as I was sweeping the deck and bringing cushions inside before the impending storm, they had formed a big circle at the foot of the driveway for final notices and prayers for a safe journey. Soon they were waving goodbye and shouting their thanks to me as the got into the vehicles, suddenly all was quiet again 😊.

I’m sure the neighbours were mystified by the whole event, but then they can rarely figure out what goes on around here anyway 😊. And so today I’m laundering all the dinner napkins and preparing to write 14 prayer letters, which will be part of the very large pile of items I shall be taking when I visit both Camps next Thursday.

I had thought the next few days with everyone away would be fairly quiet. HA!! All sorts of things are going to be happening, but that story can wait for the next post!

Well before I head off to make 14 notecards, everyone has asked for last night’s veggie curry recipe. It is an old one out of my Mum’s handwritten cookbook. I like to serve it with Naan rather than rice.

Indonesian Vegetable Curry

½ cup canola oil
1 garlic clove, crushed
2 cans pineapple chunks, or one small fresh pineapple, cubed
1 can plum tomatoes, diced
2 medium onions, sliced
4 small zucchini, in ¼” slices
1 large red pepper, diced
1½ lbs. sweet potatoes, in 1” cubes
1tsp.each chilli powder & ground coriander
½ tsp. each ground cardamom, fenugreek, and turmeric
3 Tbsps. water
1¼ cups vegetable stock
2 medium bananas, sliced
½ cup coconut milk

Sauté the onions, garlic, zucchini, sweet potato and red pepper in the oil for 10 minutes. Add the tomatoes and pineapple and cook, stirring for 3 minutes. In a small bowl, combine the aromatics with the water to make a smooth paste then stir into the pot. Add the veg. stock, bring to a boil then reduce the heat and simmer for 15 minutes or until the sweet potatoes are just cooked. Stir in the sliced bananas and coconut milk and warm through. Serves 6