Medeba: Canoe Trip

Ok, so here's an account of how a few Canadians dealt with the elements...

Second week at Medeba - yes Pamela used her persuasion skills to get me back there! - I was asked to assist in a 3 day canoe trip! How can you pass something like that up? I came back on Monday night after trying to get a few things sorted out at home. What fun! 6 campers were coming on the trip - 2 of them being girls (thus why I was needed). Nathan Dunning was our fearless leader who prepped the kids before I arrived.

Tuesday we left after lunch with pretty fair weather! Using a nicely laminated 1968 map we realized that the portage routes might be a bit hard to find! Especially after Nathan gave navigation duty to one of the campers and we were unable to find the entry point! No problem! We just went in on what looked like a trail...it ended up being a rather rough portage for the first time, being longer than envisioned, and some of the kids a bit weak. But Nathan just took up the slack and did the portage a few extra times - what devotion! A couple of the kids were pretty tough as well! Ben and Katy could both carry canoes solo which was a great help! A couple of hulks!

After that, our trek to the campsite went pretty well! We arrived at a lovely peninsula and set up camp before the sun went down! Even had a fire and some good conversation! Everything was looking rather promising...

Wednesday was a bit gloomy but no rain, we had a good first half of the day, the only major story being that the kids got surrounded by 'angry' loons out in the water! But the kids only thought the loons were giving them a great show...riiight. They also found a dinghy. I mean, what do you say to that? Honestly, that would have been the highlight of the trip...but then the weather started to turn!

Nathan told us it was going to rain, and it did...we sent the kids to their tents and we were discussing what we were going to do when Harrison comes up and says "the others went for a hike". It totally blew my mind! They hadn't told us they were going - bad idea! So Nathan went after them while I put up a tarp with Harrison and Aaron. Nathan found the other four in a hunting lodge playing cards!!!! So he pulled the serious 'card' and made them come back to our soaking campsite. Where we proceeded to start the camp ovens we brought and tried to boil water - which took forever!! By the time we were eating our cup-of-soup the wind had picked up and the rain was getting fierce. That's when we saw a wall of water coming across the lake towards us!! We all huddled in the back corner of the tarp while counting down until the water would hit us! It was insane!! We had to keep pushing the rain out of the tarp while holding it down since the wind was picking up the canoes it was tied to!! Once the weather had settled down a bit Nathan and I went to scout out the hunting lodge just in case our campsite had been too damaged to use, but we both had a bad feeling about it, so came back to check the tents - which had water puddles in them but weren't too bad. And how was the attitude of the campers?! AMAZING!!! Everybody took the rain very well and we had a lot of good laughs!

That night we packed up everything we could and tried to get settled for a wet night! The girls and I had a good time in our tent while the boys all huddled in their tent (which was worse than ours). In the morning the rain finally stopped, we got up to find that our whole tent was wet...Ben, one of the boys, had prunish hands because his sleeping bag had soaked up the water...poor guy. We got out of camp in record time and started back to the pick-up place. Nathan wanted to get back rather quickly so we pushed the kids - by having our canoe be in front! This time the kids had to portage their own gear - which they did amazingly! We ended up getting back in 2 hours!!

When we arrived at the end of our trek we stayed at the lake for a little bit - just because we could...and that is when the whole group decided to throw me in...Nathan's idea...but that's ok because he ended up getting soaked too - having to chase a canoe that got loose in the scuffle. Waiting for the van to arrive was great for conversation - and that's when I was able to have a serious spiritual conversation with a couple of the kids, something I was looking for an opportunity for!

When we got back to Medeba the kids showed their true character in all of the clean-up work! They were great! Never stopping and having great attitudes!

I finally was dry when an alarm went off...it was an emergency drill. All of the counselors had to run through the lake at the waterfront to make sure there weren't any kids drowning. After the drill Joel decided it was necessary for me to get wet...right...because I hadn't been wet for the past couple of days!! Ah well, what can you do! ;) It was a great experience and one that I would do again gladly -- whoops! Don't read that Pamela!

In Him,

-Amy-

Canoe Group Picture

Photo of the day: Our Canoe Group:

Marlena, Katy, Ben, Nathan, myself, Michael, Harrison and Aaron

Medeba: Pictures of Discovery

Here are a few pictures of my time at Medeba (spoken of in the next post). The camp has different activities which the kids sign up for day by day.







Some of the activities are normal (for summer camps), such as riflery and archery - Dan is showing Liam the proper way to hold a bow.










Other activities are more adventure oriented. Like High ropes (shown in the background), Jennifer is being raised on the giant swing (she must let herself loose to swing back)





Nate introduced me to Camp Medeba, it was good to see him again - after our Teacher's College days!









I met some great characters like Alanna and Mel, who were awesome to hang out with!





Joel was another great character that knew how to give his all...here he's saying sorry for having his whole team attack me with flour snowballs ;)






Whitney was another great character who did a lot of the grunt work behind the scenes - excellent stamina!







We had a newscast at lunch time that gave out the announcements - here Andrew, Val and Marc are dancing to the entry music






I also got to enjoy getting into acting - usually with Nathan and Andrew, who had excellent Russian Accents! I would put up more but can't seem to get any more uploaded! Ah well!

Medeba: Discovery II

Just to warn you right away...this computer isn't letting me upload any pictures...so I'll have to put them up later...

The past couple of weeks I've been putting my time into Medeba: a Christian adventure learning camp that trains kids on outdoor skills like rock climbing, rappelling, high and low ropes, etc. It's a beautiful area and I had a lot of fun while researching a Leadership course that they offer (for future reference). But I'd have to say that the best part of my time was the people that I met...stay in contact with me if you msn - supergoat07@hotmail.com
(Mel I forgot to give you that information but would love it if you'd pass it on)

Nate: The guy who could sell you anything ;) - was able to persuade me to come in the first place, has a great golf swing (even if it lands in the bushes half the time) and is made to be a mover: which means I have yet to see you unable to do anything you set your mind to - you'll have to let me know what you're up to a year from now :D

Mel: The most organized girl I've ever met, is able to lead anything with ease and juggle 30 things at once, yet can play a mean game of basketball in the dark! We need more people like you! :)

Alanna & Jason: Two of the most gifted people I've ever met, easy-going and welcoming, and definitely full of good conversation - it would be a pleasure to meet you two again!

Andrew, Nathan, Marc & Dan: The craziest program staff I've ever met, but great with improv and strange accents. Thanks Andrew for your help with the low ropes research, it was excellent, you've got great musical ability! Nathan...you're hilarious and a very impressive outdoorsman - it was a great trip (more of that later), Marc - I still don't know how you could be so confused all the time, but it made me laugh! I'm sorry I missed the zipline into the campfire! Dan, your experiences are amazing - the Prince Harry story will be in my memory for a long time! I hope you enjoy your time in Canada...even if you have the freakiest 'evil' laugh I've ever heard!

Rachel & Val: You're beautiful! You're both able to take things in stride and relax. I enjoyed the crazy night in the rain - I still need to get those pictures!!, the night frisbee, and the night training of 'buck buck' (everything happens at night!)

Kelly: The most giving girl I've met in a while, you give your all and it's a pleasure to see! Thanks for the sleeping bag and so sorry it came back to you sopping wet...

Joel: HA! You just make my day! I like how you enjoy life! And getting your whole cabin to take me down with flour snowballs was classic! Let me know how you're doing with LDP!

Sebastian: You've got the best laugh in the world, never lose it! It was fun hanging out in the program room with the activity board groupies!

Whitney: You're a hard worker with a great attitude and solid spirit, I enjoyed meeting you!

Tim: You've got a great heart, I appreciate that and will be praying for you!

Pamela: the most persistent person on staff! I love that you got me to come back for the canoe trip, it was a fantastic experience!

Stu & Jackie: Two of the most welcoming people I've ever met, thank you!

Steve & Michael: It's good to have perfectionists around camp, and what was that other word you used Steve? ;) Michael, thanks for letting me pick your brain about LDP it was very edifying.

To the rest of the councellors and staff: Shane, Chris, Rachel, Meghan, Christina, Hubert, Jeff, Mark, Courtney (great helper), Mary & Glenda, Rick, Jenita, Jalissa - I think you're all great and have amazing abilities, I hope you all have an amazing year!

It was great to meet all of you!

Storm!

This past week I went to Camp Medeba to research their Leadership program and basically help them out on program. While I was there a large storm destroyed North Bay and the surrounding area. My parent's place was untouched (though a tree fell a few feet from their back porch)...thousands of trees were snapped from high velocity winds - crushing cars, uprooting powerline poles and causing enough damage to have people scrambling for half a week to get rid of the debris!

So the whole community came together to help each other. Lornie - our next door neighbour had quite a few trees fall in his yard, the photo of the day should show the destruction he faced. Amazingly, many conversations about God came from this encounter with the elements!


Photo of the Day: It took an insane amount of time for this to upload, so I'll only put on one! This is Lornie's backyard, right beside our house.

Happenings

I think that the best part of my stay at home has been getting to see my family! My niece and nephew are always a riot and ready to go. I went to Mark's place for a BarBQ last week and to admire his new sunroom! It was coming along nicely, such talent in our family! Lisa did an amazing job as well!


Here are a couple shots of Mark playing with his son.

Logan looks pretty high in this one, though he's safe and sound with Mark ready to catch him!

Logan lifts himself up on Mark's hands for a balancing act that will last as long as Logan is strong enough to keep himself up!














I've gotten to see quite a few friends while I'm in Canada as well. Dave & Kristy have opened their home so much I feel like I'm back at Frost St! (Those good old days when life was all about the laughs! - with the added touch of Huey playing DDR - who'd of guessed!) ;)


Right now I'm in Port Colborne visiting Rach, it's good to see her again and check out her life down here with the folks in Port! Who are a great crew, I'm enjoying meeting everyone (new and old)! Yesterday we went out for Chinese food with a couple other newbies to the Port gang that Rach hangs out with and then a few of us went to a drive-in movie...I don't think I've ever been to a drive-in before, it was fun! We got the full effect by watching out the back of the vehicle - which means there are no windows to fog up, but more bugs in your throat! :S Yah, it wasn't pretty! The picture on the left is of Rach and I protecting ourselves from the kamakazi bugs that divebomb your mouth! The picture on the right is of Pam Hicks (who I haven't seen in years!), myself and Moira (a good phone converser). Also, while in Port I've checked out Gospel Folio Press, the Christian Bookstore that Rach works for. It's got quite a variety, so I picked up some books that I've been looking for, including a couple by Jonathan Edwards - John Marriott would be proud!

Photo of the Day: Logan showing off his driving skills!















In Him,
-Amy-

Thought of the Day

"The pursuit of God will embrace the labour of bringing our total personality into conformity to His...I speak of a voluntary exalting of God to His proper station over us and a willing surrender of our whole being to the place of worshipful submission which the Creator-creature circumstance makes proper.

The moment we make up our minds that we are going on with this determination to exalt God over all we step out of the world's parade.
...we shall acquire a new viewpoint...

Our break with the world will be the direct outcome of our changed relation to God. For the world of fallen men does not honour God. Millions call themselves by His Name, it is true, and pay some token respect to Him, but a simple test will show how little He is really honoured among them. Let the average man be put to the proof on the question of who is above, and his true position will be exposed. Let him be forced int making a choice between God and money, between God and men, between God and personal ambition, God and self, God and human love, and God will take second place every time. Those other things will be exalted above. However the man may protest, the proof is in the choices he makes day after day throughout his life."

A.W. Tozer

Happy Canada Day!

Here's an ecard I received from my principal, I think it truly shows the Canadian spirit eh? ;)

~GO CANADA~