Epiphany 4 &The Team Gathering – Crosstalk Ministries Day Camps

Finally we are actually going to hold the Epiphany Team Gathering (TG) this evening. This event is usually held early in January but the committee had decided to schedule it a bit later in the month and then there was a blizzard on the original date so here we are holding it at the beginning of February. 😊

I’m going to hold off publishing this post until tomorrow in order to include photos from the TG along with a couple of pics from the Team Retreat planning meeting, which happens this afternoon, just before the TG.

It has been a very full week around here. I am surprised and (mostly) encouraged by the amount of activity around Day Camps 2020. We have heard from more potential host communities and from one community that has decided not to have a Team back this summer 😒 so I have been contacting more of last summer’s host communities to check on their status for 2020 and am beginning to build our ‘big picture” schedule.

Manual content continues to come in and be sent on to Arnee for proof reading. There are still about 4 outstanding sections but it is good to have about three quarters of the content already submitted so this aspect of planning is almost on track.

I’m hoping for an opportunity this evening to encourage prospective Team Members to start filling out applications. Last year we instituted a submission deadline of March 15^th and the number of forms we received on time was most encouraging. We are hoping for similar results this year! Next week I would really like to get the Liturgical Dance choreographed and begin some serious work on the supply lists, which are promised, during February, to the host communities.

With the Retreat meeting scheduled to begin in a couple of hours I guess I’ll close off now with recipe then tomorrow I’ll add a few words about the rest of today.

With Chinese New Year happening this week I celebrated with Sesame Fried Rice, a simple weeknight supper 😊

3 Tbsps. Sesame oil
2 cups cold cooked Jasmine rice
4 slices thick-cut bacon, chopped
1 bunch scallions, diced
1 yellow pepper, julienned
1 cup green peas
4 eggs
3 Tbsps. Tamari
2 Tbsps. sesame seeds

In a large skillet, fry the bacon until crisp and set aside. Drain all but 1 Tbsp. of fat from the pan, add 1 Tbsp. sesame oil and sauté the scallions, pepper strips and peas for 5 minutes. Stir in the cold rice, breaking up any clumps and cook until the rice is heated through. Break the eggs into a small bowl and whisk together then pour over the rice mixture along with the rest of the sesame oil, cooked bacon and Tamari. Fold the mixture together with a wide spatula until the egg is just cooked. Transfer to individual bowls and sprinkle with sesame seeds. Serve immediately. Serves 2

The Team Gathering-
As you can see from the photos we had a really great evening. 17 people attended, Randy did a super job as Speaker, Miriam organised the Worship Team and there was yummy food and good fellowship😊