The Dynamic Duo: Take 2

Well once again, about 5 paragraphs in, my foot strikes the powerbar with all the agility and killing intent of a cobra. This is not an isolated incidence, and although my usual response to the sudden void of darkness that hath engulfed my precious paragraphs is outright frustration, on this occasion I stared at the black screen for a few seconds and then laughed real hard for about a minute.

Life is silly.

Hah, my grandma figures if my lost work was a blog entry, this will be more of a blob entry. Wow, my grandma is neat!

So lets start with last weekend. I was really really out of it, like done. There were some plans up in the air and I told God I was going to leave my weekend in his hand to work out the details. How smart. I wish I was always that smart. I had the best weekend in recent history, and I've had good weekends. This was just incredible. I spent some time with Clint after camp doing as close to nothing as possible. At first I thought I was bored, and then I said "no, this is exactly what I want to do. Nothing. This is sweet." Clint agreed. I picked up Amber and a dog and some steaks and went out to the Badgers to enjoy a peaceful afternoon of sitting on the grass, succulent steaks(With the emphasis on the "t". SucculenTAH), some intense foosball antics, and a longer than excected animated film. Hangin with Amber, Kels and Bray is just like rest to me. Especially when I am treated to some of that Rhubarb slush. If you haven't had it don't worry, there will be plenty of it in heaven.

I tried to sleep in on saturday and I guess I really suck at that game. I gave up after 9:00 and lounged around the house a bit before going home. Caitlin Wilson came over to hang out with myself and Ori and Keisha. They didn't come home until around..8 or something, so the two of us hung out, which was neat cause we haven't done a lot of that. We sat on our deck with mom for at least an hour, not saying a whole lot. Mom sprayed me with water lots and thats about the most that was ever occurring. There was some quading, some silly card game I can NEVER win at, and some cows somewhere in there too. I have rarely felt so "at home" at home, it was unbelievable. Ori and Keisha came home and the 4 of us rushed out to catch a sunset from a place with a view. We made it there just in time, God might have held the sun for a few minutes for us, we got there and it sure seemed to go down fast. I have always wanted to do that and never really had the chance to. I could not have imagined a better weekend, and it was presicely what I needed. Man...

Well camp this last week was very very different. God brought only 12 girls down to camp this year, and it was so neat because that meant that Kelsey got to take a week off, which was probably what she needed, Lisa was able to do first aid instead of councilling, which was neat because she broke her foot skydiving and would not have been able to council anyway. It also freed up Caitlin to become a sort of assistant assistant director. ha. Randy (what a blessing it has been working with him these last two weeks!) kept calling us the Dynamic Duo. Which was strange and kinda funny. Having Caitlin around to help out took a TON of stress of Randy's load, and for me, it really eased up the pace of the week. I found this week to be almost entirely relaxing, thank God, that was so good for me. I had this voice in the back of my head that kept telling me I was not working hard enough, but Randy was totally pleased with what was going on, everything that had to be done was getting done and all the things I could come up with were getting done, so eventually I stopped listening to that voice and accepted this week as a gift of rest, peace, and fun, from the father. Jesus says his yoke is easy and his burden is light, don't make it harder or heavier for yourself. That is just stupid :)

Caitlin and I spent a lot of time together this week, which was quite different, because we really haven't done a whole lot of that. She was totally ready to not have a cabin after last week. She was glad to be away from them by last friday; by tuesday she was ready to start taking campers home :) It was really neat and a ton of fun, I laughed lots which is good, I don't do enough of that. Noone does. Everyone seemed to be having fun this week, there was a spirit of lightheartedness around camp and it was such a good ending to our resident camps, last week was a stretcher for sure and to be able to come away from this week in the frame of mind and spirit that I am in now leaves me without words of thanks. I am in quiet awe of the Master of the universe.

I just realized that I never mentioned the plague of frogs! One day someone went on a hike and came back with a few hundred frogs that were about the size of a penny each. One night Randy and I came back to our cabin to find they had been turned loose on us. Little froggies are so cute, and I don't even care what anyone says, cause I likem! Same with turtles. I really love animals, even the mice that run around in the buildings at night. I got a good look at a few of em and they are just neat. I had to stomp a fat mouse last week, and that wasn't to fun. they have tough skin and soft insides and...I don't wanna talk about it anymore.

4 days of day camp and some a few days of wrap up and that will be 4 summers of wapiti under the belt...strange.

see ya

Elementary my dear Watson

Elementary indeed!

I totally forgot how different elementary camp is compared to jr. high camp. Its like week one all over again in terms of adjusting yourself to the camp setting. This last week the setting included about 50 campers grades 4-6. It also included Randy Burtis, the director. This was officially week one of his directing duties at camp wapiti.

Right from the start of camp there was a spirit of disrespect and opposition to authority in the campers. As directors, Randy and I did not do the best job of setting clear boundaries regarding bed time behavior, and it was a problem right from the start. (Its always going to be to some extent with this age group) Anyway, tuesday was our parent night where they come down to camp and play sing and eat with their kids. Every time we have done it, there has been general mayhem and mad rush antics to keep everything rolling. This week was crazy, I was running around everywhere. We were way behind schedule because of a miscommunication with the cooks, and so programwise things were quite out of whack. I burnt my arm, broke a guitar string and every little annoyance possible seemed to find its way to us. Once the parents left, we had a myriad of behavior issues, both big and small.

I remember wondering why I was not more stressed out about everything. Part of it might have been some adrenaline that came with the high pace of the evening. But I had a wierd peace about everything. Most of the stress I felt was being produced in my head from habit. "There is so much going on that I should be really stressed right now." But the reality was I really wasn't. I remember looking back on the night after it was all done (with a cold rootbeer in hand mind you) and saying "...You know...nothing that happened tonight was really that big of a deal." It was quite wonderful. Satan mounted his attack that night when our scheduling was unstable and when we were all quite tired, yet God shielded us and came through for us. It was so incredible. One day at camp our prayer list we had made one morning had been met with specific and direct answers to each prayer item. Amazing. God is always at work for his people whether we are aware of it or not, and that is so good to know!

Randy did an amazing job! On wednesday I stopped and thought about how 3 days ago he had never directed a day of camp here in his life. That just didn't make much sense to me because he seemed to be fitting in so well. I really had doubts about this week when I showed up but MAN do I need to trust God. It is so obvious that he is in control, his plans are good to the minutest detail. What a good reminder of that.

Darren is gone next week, and with him goes the frame of reference I have of how to handle situations at camp. I am looking forward to grow here though, and figure out what Kaleb would do in these situations instead of what Darren would do. Darren has challenged me much, and I am very grateful for his investment in my life (no small one by any terms) and it has been a gift from God to be sure.

I am still tired and I have some stuff to do, but this has been a very restful weekend so far. I need that to continue till the end!

Oh, and I had a lot of fun with the banquet this week. My outfit was a bit much for some people apparently :) Not sure why but whatever.

Week one of wapiti. Woo!

I just flew in from camp and boy are my arms tired...

So week one is done. Feels good to have a week of program director experience under the belt. The week was a positive one in terms of feeling and thinking for me. Darren was under some stress, our registration was a mess for this week, it looks like it will be a mess again for next week, and there were several other issues that we chatted through. He does a pretty good job of sheilding me from the stress, he seems to take a lot of stuff on and he is always doing stuff, which makes me feel a bit intimidated? I'm not sure if thats right... He gets a lot done compared to me, which is a challenge, because whenever I am doing stuff and start to feel good about what is being done, I see he has done and is doing way more, and it reminds me that I have a long way to go in the "doing" department and I stop feeling as good about myself.

So its good because I am being positively challenged by example, but its difficlut because...well its difficult! I am learning to distinguish what portion of my feeling good about myself is pride related and what part is due to the fact that I am actually doing things. Its great to feel good about doing things, but I don't want to be prideful at all about it, lol.

Devin and Alyson Reichelt came to help do meal prep (setting tables, putting out cutlery...taste testing too I bet, ha) and they were only coming for a few days. One evening, Darren, Devin and myself had a marvelous chat about a bunch of stuff, and Devin said the next day he had to go to work for a morning, but really wanted to come back. That was awesome and very encouraging, we REALLY needed that kitchen help, plus it was good for him too. We both went to the upper campfire during the 40 minute torrential downpour we had thursday night and hung out for a while. I think God was teaching moses all about bowling that night. It sounded like he was rolling the moon around somewhere in BC. It was pretty crazy!

I had to drop off the video camera for Dalens cabin one night and as I came up their steps I overheard them having a discussion about faith and miracles and such. I quietly sat down just outside the window and listened for a few minutes. Eavesdropping on that conversation was probably the single most refreshing event that occurred all week. I don't have those cabin conversations anymore, and I realized how holy those moments are. Those are holy, holy, holy moments. Hearing these jr. highers questions was unreal. I'm not sure I can quite describe it, all I know is that I will definitely miss those, and I will be praying that our staff understand the weight of their influence and the blessing it is to be God's chosen instrument to listen to those kids. Its huge.

I got the sickest pie ever and another sickest pie ever (So thats 2 of the sickest pies ever in case you got lost there) In the face and hair and in my eyes and mouth and up my nose and a bit in my right ear yesterday. So. Gross. wow. I got to helicopter my hair afterwards, which was a lot of fun though it almost broke my neck: lots of sick pie plus lots of hair (sick hair depending on who you talk to) equals a lot of weight. Sick weight at that. Weaoow! Some people who had just watched me take this disgustingness totally freaked when they got even the smallest bit on them. It was kind of sad really. ha. I owe whoever left their pert plus in the shower about half a bottle :) It took a while to get clean again. I was reminded while cleaning how Jesus was really humiliated when he was murdered. It was terribly humiliating. I understood that better after the sick pie extravaganza, and coming to that understanding was worth every sick bit of it. Thats the joy in suffering and rejection Christains can have, because through that we understand our master Jesus better, and that is of eternal value.

I am glad for this 24 hour break, it will be good to go back for another week, this summer is gonna fly! I have a lot of stuff to do yet tonight. I am washing almost all the clothes I own, so that will make 3 loads of laundry if I throw in the sleeping bag :)

My passport came in REALLY fast even though I mailed it to Ontario. What a blessing, Hopefully I can get my Visa done before we leave too so I know for sure I will be in Muldova for 2 weeks instead of maybe only a few hours if they denied me entry at the border. That would be one of the shortest missions trips ever :)

Ori, I am gonna hug you when I see you. I don't even give a care if you hate it, you'll have to suck it up.

Peace has been said too much so....

War out.

Kaleb

Big Tough Guy!

Apparently I am a big tough guy, and apparently I need to deal with it.

Senior high camp was pretty neat this year, we had a smaller group and so there was less administrative coordinating stuff to do and I was able to be a bit more involved in what went on than I will be in the coming weeks. So it was like a warm up lap before the marathon. Or something.

Everyone there I knew, minus John, who was quiet but really came out at the end of camp, which was cool to see! It was pretty crazy to see how some of those guys have grown up...or haven't...heh Darren and I were really hoping it would be an intensely spiritual time for these students. We talked alot about depth and what it means to be deep and how deep we are. In a lot of ways I don't think, or it didn't seem that the kids were connecting or engaging in what we were talking about. I know I really was wondering how we were affecting them...there was not a lot of engagement, and there were a few times where we had good sharing, but sometimes nobody had anything to say...we ended the last night at the upper campfire, and we had a few good things said, but generally, everyone was silent. We ended with our last song and just stayed there in silence. Our discussions had seemed pretty shallow, our sharing had seemed pretty shallow, and it seemed like we weren't going to get any deeper, which was slightly discouraging.

But as we finished the last song, noone said anything, and everyone sat very still and quiet. There was silence, and it was a deep silence. Not a word was spoken up there. People slowly started down, but the silence remained. It was powerful.

So it looks like I really had God in a box on this one, I was looking for depth where I thought I'd find it, and it was refreshing to see how going deep with students is what God does, and we have no way of really measuring that. Who knows how lives were changed this weekend? God will do what he wants and we will see it if he lets us.

Our staff did a great job of conneting with the studnets and being with them. Chillin like the youngsters these days do. Jason really was lookin hot in a tight black vest, and Ami and Lisa showed up as sharply (and I do mean sharply) dressed men. Not the first time I have seen them in that get up, I think lisa wishes she could grow a mustache, she's always throwin on some sort of curly whiskers or sharpie goatee with them slick suits. Those two cleaned up better than I could in a suit. Depending on who you ask I suppose...

Ori comes back soon! I really want to talk with him. Plus, hes wierd, and I like that. I've lost my touch in his absence. I can't imagine what brand of wierdness he will possess now after returning from japan...

Are you beakin me? Deal with it! Lets get this straight......you.....are beakin me? Your mouth is movin but all I hear is "I'm a big tough guy!" "Big tough guy gonna beak me?" Hey Tough Guy! Do somethin about it!"
I think I have heard enough of this talk till next year. later champ.