Here we are at the end of Day Camps Week 1. This actually means that our Team Members are already half way through their six-week short-term mission, since; prior to this week they were undergoing 2 weeks of training.
There are not quite so many photos to share this week, although nearly all the Teams have been good about sending them in.
Team 1 (Mark & Mariejoy) spent the week in a suburban church just south of Montreal. They had a good week, with approximately 30 VERY active Campers and lots of support from the Coordinator cum Parish Priest, who is a former Team Leader himself and would probably still be on the Travelling Teams if he wasn’t happily married with 2 children, who are Campers themselves now!
The Day Camp had a Friday Closing and BBQ yesterday and as I write the Team is on a gruelling 16-hour marathon bus journey to the Gaspé coast of Quebec, where they will lead their next 2 Camps.
Team 2 (Lauren & Rachelle) is in downtown Toronto with a similarly sized Day Camp and good group of local helpers. They will hold a Sunday Closing tomorrow before travelling to Orillia, where they will be joined by Team 3, to form a double Team for their next 2 Camps. They sent in the great pics above!
Team 3 (Alexandra and Nathan) held their first Day Camp at JOY Christian Centre, in an urban district of Montreal. Although the Church itself is located in a commercial building on a very busy street there is a lovely park nearby where I’m sure they spent quite a lot of time. This Team also held a Friday Closing because they will be catching an early bus tomorrow morning to Toronto, where they will be meeting up with Team 2, and continuing on together to Orillia.
Team 4 (Patrisha & Maynard) are in Regina Saskatchewan. The week has been a bit of a challenge but the most recent text from Patrisha was to tell me they had had a “Wonderful Day JJ” so needless to say I was pretty happy to hear that!! This Team also had a closing yesterday and today is travelling to Gordon’s First Nation where they will combine with Team 5 to lead a Day Camp that often sees attendance of upwards of 100 children!!! A 4 person Team will be a real blessing when wrangling that many happy Campers!!
Team 5(Emmanuel & Kathleen) spent their first week in Estevan Saskatchewan. This is a new location for CTM and the community chose to run the Camp daily from 1230-430 pm. Adapting the program to a different schedule has been a challenge but all in all they feel the Camp has been successful and the Campers .at least, have been begging them to “come back next year”, always a good sign!! J
Team 6 (Kelvin & KC) held their Camp in Airdrie, near Calgary Alberta. They sound perky and enthusiastic about the week, which included the opportunity for Kelvin to be reunited with his 2016 Team Leader, Gillian, who is now married and living in Calgary. They are spending today with Gillian at the Calgary Stampede!!!
Tomorrow the Team will be moving on to Christ the King Church Edmonton. Kelvin was on a Team that did a Camp there in 2016 so he is excited to have a reunion with that community.
So that is a “wrap” for Week 1. On the home front there have been a number of Day Camp related visits, including Brenda staying overnight Thursday to break the long drive from Halifax to Toronto. I will get one more short visit with her when she makes her final move to Halifax at the end of July.
Last evening we had a “Miyazki Night”. We squeezed this one in in order to have Janice able to participate. She only has a couple more weeks in Montreal before moving to Vancouver, where she will be married on the first Saturday in August and will be taking up her new job with IVCF at Simon Fraser University.
Several summers ago it was Janice and Jessica who insisted on educating me in all things Miyazaki but shortly afterwards Janice moved to Regina so although Jessica and Jillian took up the challenge, Janice herself has never been present for one of our movie nights. I am super glad we managed to fit one in before she leaves.
The weather has continued hot and dry but we are finally due for a bit of rain today. My garden is looking crispy rather than lush so the rain cannot come soon enough as far as I’m concerned. There are also a bunch of sewing projects to tackle, but when the sun is shining I hate to work indoors so a couple of wet days will suit me just fine.
I did a bit of online research for a suitable Japanese summer dish to accompany Miyazaki night and found Itadakimasu, a cold noodle, meat and vegetable salad. Everyone enjoyed it so I promised to include my version here.
Itadakimasu
- 1 boneless chicken breast, steamed
- 4oz. sliced ham
- 2 large tomatoes
- several Japanese radishes
- 1 large cucumber
- 2 carrots
- 1 red pepper
- 4 oz. sprouts
- 4 hardboiled eggs, peeled and marinated overnight in 1cup water combined with 3 Tbsps. each Tamari and rice vinegar
- 8oz. fine udon noodles, cooked, drained and chilled
Dressing:
¼ cup Tamari soy sauce
¼ cup rice vinegar
¼ cup lime juice
2 Tbsps. Asian fish sauce
2 Tbsps. toasted sesame seeds
2 tsps. sesame oil
2 tsps. sriracha
black pepper
fine shreds of nori
Cut all the meat and vegetables into small strips. Halve the eggs. Divide the cold noodles between 4 individual shallow bowls or plates. Surround the noodles with the ham, chicken and vegetable strips. Place a halved egg in the centre of the dish. Sprinkle with extra sesame seeds and nori.
In a small bowl, whisk together the dressing ingredients. Drizzle several spoonfuls of dressing over each plate and serve the extra on the side.
Serves 4