Hello Blog Friends!
This week I can FINALLY report a bit to you about an actual real in-person Day Camp that has been taking place at church in Edmonton. WOOT!!!WOOT!!!.🎉
As regular readers know, only 3 CTM Day Camps are scheduled to happen this summer and the one in Edmonton is the first. Had we still been sending out Travelling Teams this past week would have been the Team Training Retreat and so a Day Camp would not have been possible, but communities hosting their Camps using our program are now free to hold them at any time and so I can bring you a “Postcard from Week 1” just as we were able to do in pre-pandemic times! The Day Camp in Windsor will be happening next week but the one in Montreal is not until August so that is still a few weeks away, however, at least I hope to share a few glimpses from all three venues.
Here is a short report from Edmonton, enjoy the photos, the last one is sweet thank you note to the Coordinator from and 8 year old Camper 😊
-The Day Camp welcomed upwards of 20 Campers, including several children with differing abilities. Unfortunately the week started with cold, wet weather but did perk up enough for them to enjoy a Water Day. Although the local Team was young, they all pitched in and did a great job. The Camp included a 7 year old Ukrainian refugee, who spoke no English but who happily joined in many of the activities with enthusiasm. What a privilege to be able to bring some joy into the life of that child after so much recent trauma and for his parents to be able to trust the leaders at the Day Camp in providing a safe haven of normalcy for their child.
In other Day Camps news, we were supposed to have a committee meeting last Tuesday evening but with 4 members unable to attend we postponed it a week and will be meeting this coming Tuesday instead. And then last evening we held our summer virtual Team Gathering. I was pleased that 9 people joined in from 3 provinces of Canada. Janice did a super job as Speaker, sharing about her ministry in BC with IVCF, and our musicians led us beautifully in a bunch of lovely Taizé songs. I confess it was necessary to turn off my own video as I was crying, missing so much the worship evenings at the annual Team Training Retreats. Until 2020 I had been a part, since the summer of 1982, of what was originally known as “Residential Training”. First as a kitchen minion, helping my Mum feed the “troops”, and then, latterly, as chief cook myself, juggling the hats of both director and chef 😊.
Since I’m still wading through the more than 800 blog posts (currently editing May 2016!), I have been reading about the preparations for that summer’s Retreat at Isaiah 40. I’m glad I do have the blog record spanning the past 11 years. It is likely not of much interest to many people but it does provide a vignette into the last decade of the ministry.
Outside of CTM work I have done quite a lot of gardening. Now that there are no more maple keys to deal with it is really a joy to even do weeding or mow the lawns and we have had a fair amount of rain so that the garden is not yet suffering from the heat.
There hasn’t been a ton of time for craftwork but I have been sewing a special baby gift as some friends are just about to welcome their first child into the world and I want to be ready to send along a special little outfit for the baby.
Tuesday I also enjoyed a lovely lunchtime visit with Mae Anne who is working a part time summer job at our neighbourhood YMCA. We enjoyed bowls of Tuna Panzanella followed by spears of fresh pineapple and a maple pound cake.
This cake is very tasty and most appropriate, since we just celebrated Canada Day on July 1st! Do give it a try 😊.
Maple Pound Cake
- ½ cup Maple Syrup (preferably dark)
- ¾ cup full fat plain yoghurt
- 3 eggs
- ½ tsp. lemon zest
- 1½ cups unbleached flour
- 2 tsps. baking powder
- ¼ tsp. sea salt
- ½ cup sunflower oil
Line a ceramic loaf pan with parchment paper and set aside. Whisk together the maple syrup, yoghurt, eggs and lemon zest. Combine the flour, baking powder and salt and whisk into the wet ingredients. Slowly pour in the oil and fold it in with a rubber spatula. Pour the batter into the loaf pan and place it on a baking tray. Bake for 50 minutes in a preheated 350ºF oven. Cool in the pan for 10 minutes, transfer to a rack to finish cooling. Freezes well.