Hello Blog Friends!
I won’t deny that this started off as a somewhat discouraging week.
Monday I heard of a long time Day Camps church that will not be hosting a camp this summer and then on Wednesday a former Team Leader who now lives in Australia and had been trying to organise a Day Camp there wrote to say she cannot manage it this year. Sigh.
Tuesday evening was our May Day Camp Committee meeting and being able to connect with a group each of whom is deeply invested in this ministry is usually a happy time but this month I had to break the bad news about the 2 lost opportunities and then share something even harder.
If you have been reading this blog since before the pandemic you will know that an important part of our ministry has been serving on First Nations in Saskatchewan. Last week news reports surfaced about more unmarked graves having been discovered on two Reserves – Gordon’s First Nation and James Smith Reserve. For more than 10 years our Teams led camps at Gordon’s and several times at James Smith. The priest at Gordon’s, Rev. Vicki, was one of the kindest people I have had the privilege of knowing. She is now retired but throughout the years when our Teams served in the three communities she pastored she was a powerhouse! She organised the camps, billeted the teams, drove countless miles ferrying people to the camps, arbitrated when campers misbehaved, took the Teams to Pow Wows and on other excursions when they had a day off, she was amazing. An Indigenous person herself, I suspect she is also a Residential School survivor. Last week the Archbishop of Canterbury travelled to James Smith Reserve to offer his personal apology on behalf of the Anglican Church. I listened to part of his speech and he said he couldn’t believe the grace of the Cree Nation in actually saying that what happened to the children in these schools was “not the fault of the Church”. If for no other reason than wilfully ignoring what took place in the schools, the church is culpable and we all bear the weight of that. For all of this to happen on the Reserves that are known so well to our Team Members has been incredibly sad. When I shared the news with the committee, one member was visibly moved, having spent 2 summers at Gordon’s, Day Star & Kawacatoose, the three points in Rev. Vicki’s Parish.
I have written to Rev. Vicki who has already replied, thanking me and saying that she still prays daily for each of the Team Members (by NAME!!) who ministered in her parish. My committee member offered to contact the Team Members who served in Saskatchewan and they will collaborate on also writing to Rev. Vicki. By the end the meeting I was toast and was moved when another member asked if he could pray for me, which was a real gift.
So after such a sombre start, Wednesday morning I picked myself up, dusted myself off and set about contacting more acquaintances and total strangers, hoping to find at least a few more communities interested in hosting a Day Camp week this summer. At our meeting we also discussed early plans for our virtual summer Team Gathering and a suggestion was made of inviting Brett Cane (the “inventor” of CTM Day Camps) to be our speaker that evening, so on Wednesday I fired off an email to him too. He responded later the same day saying he would have loved to take part but will actually be on vacation in Germany on that date, so I guess it is back to the drawing board in terms of finding a Speaker!
Thursday, having gleaned a couple of addresses from Brett and another friend, I sent more emails out into cyberspace with a prayer that someone will be interested in hosting a Day Camp this summer. Then yesterday, among other bits and pieces of office work, I made a start on this post as today is rather full.
This morning, after walking Thomason I began an early bake since Sue had requested a GF sourdough loaf and timing has to be strictly adhered to when dealing with sourdough! Once the bread was in the oven I did a quick whiffle around the garden. I had planned to stain the front stairs too, but we still have a frost warning in effect so that task has been pushed forward to Monday so instead I did some sewing on a gift for a friend whose birthday is later this month. I wanted to make her some pretty hairbands, as they are quite popular at the moment. One of the three I chose required some embroidery, which I really enjoyed working on several afternoons this week. In between stitching pieces together on the sewing machine I kept nipping back into the kitchen to take the GF loaf out of the oven, place 3 baguettes for myself in the oven and then repeat the process later, replacing the baguettes with some cookies and digestive biscuits 😊.
This afternoon after the second walk with Thomason I kept on with the hairbands and got them finished (woot woot!!) although I still want to make a pretty fabric “bucket” in which to present them and now it is already getting close to dinnertime so I had better wrap this up with our recipe.
Last week I was gifted with a dozen delicious duck eggs, so for the second post in row, here is a quick egg-base dish from Korea:-
Gyeran Bap
- 1 ½ Tbsps. unsalted butter
- 2 large eggs (preferably DUCK eggs 😊)
- 1 Tbsp. Tamari
- 1 tsp. toasted sesame oil
- 1 cup steamed white rice, preferably short- or medium-grain
- 1 sheet Nori seweed, cut into thin strips
In a small skillet, melt the butter and stir until it just begins to brown, about 1 ½ minutes. Crack the eggs into the pan and drizzle the Tamari and sesame oil over the top. Cook until the whites are set but the yolk is still runny. Scoop the cooked rice into a bowl and gently lay the eggs over it pour on the buttery Tamari sauce. Sprinkle with the Nori and serve immediately. This dish is easily multiplied for 2 or 4 people, just use a larger skillet to cook the eggs 😊.