Still Breathing

Our teen camp went quite well. Maybe I should qualify that remark. The kids liked it. They got to do archery three times a day. They could eat,go on hikes, canoeing, eat, atlatl spear throwing, do beading crafts, sing around the camp fire, and did I mention the good food? Yep, they had a good time. There was the learning curve for them though. Like the time I saw a kid wearing shorts and a t-shirt almost clinging to the fire. I suggested that he go and put on some warmer clothing. He answered, "this is all I brought, I don't have any warmer clothes." One of the staff let him borrow a hooded sweatshirt. Then there were the nights.

At our home elevation of about 300 feet, the temperature gets down in the 60's at night. When we went up several thousand feet, to our camp, we discovered that the temperature drops into the upper 40's F. For kids bringing their ultra light summer weight sleeping bags, the first night was a wake up call. A wake up since they didn't sleep too much from all the shivering... "he he he" (in the voice of Major Paine).
So, they learned to dress up before they went to bed. Some put on two pairs of socks, sweat pants, and the all important stocking cap. Then, they slept better.

Funny how things said at the camp fire can be used by the Holy Spirit to bless others. We had just sung a song, "Are You Washed In the Blood" and a little guy accross the fire askes what that song was about. One of the counsellors gave a simple but clear explaination of the symbolism for the "Lamb" and "the blood." The eleven kids listened intently. After the counsellor finished, I chirped up and said, "and the blood of Jesus Christ is the most offensive thing to evil spirits. They hate it; so if you are washed in the blood of Jesus, you have power over the evil spirits, too." That was all, and then we went on to another song.
Later, that little boy came up to me and said, "When I was younger, I could see the shadow people (meaning spirits); but after I asked Jesus into my heart, I didn't see them any longer. When you explained that the blood of Jesus was offensive to the evil spirits, it all made sense! I wondered why I couldn't see the spirits anymore, and now I know."

If you were running the archery program, you might have a slightly less enthusiastic reflection about the camp. The kids loved it though. Some learned to do the old indian trick of shooting an arrow into the open hole of the neck of a gourd. Well, we didn't have a gourd, so we used the styrofoam cup, less the bottom. They loved it, but just under the thin layer of soil were many many rocks. Rocks and arrows don't mix well. Few rocks would complain, but I counted 18 broken arrows in two days of shooting. Rocks - 18, Arrows- 0.
The cardboard mountain sheep target was so shot up that it litterally fell apart. I did enjoy the archery. It was really fun to see kids having a really good time learning to shoot arrows.

Jannie and I were rather tired when it was all over. Oh, and some are probably going to ask, "Did it rain?" The answer, "we did bring tents, so of course it rained." But it also cleared up for the other two days. We got back home, and the power went out. No power, no water pressure, and no shower. We had to wait two hours for the power to come on and then we could clean up. After the shower, we went to the Wake of an Elder who died while we were on our camp out. The next morning, we were singing songs at the funeral service.
We were pretty tired by then. I think we had to check to see if we were still breathing. We were. God is good.