Good Night

So instead of Slushies Crub took me to Cafe Demetrie for the prize of the Crib Crub Tourney.

I had a GRANDular Crepe with apples and cinnamon and ice cream.

Then on the way home Em and I danced out the window with our hands, pretended to be canoeing, put our hair out the window.

Now we are home watching a movie.

Good Night.

Rain

I made up a song this week at camp when it was raining.

Flipflops

Raindrops

I'm Dancing in the rain

Thats all I have so Far.

Just thought I'd Share that.

Thats because it rained today

The rain tends to make me smile

Another Week

Another week has flown by. This week was the first week of adventure camp and munchkins reloaded. The week had 104 campers plus staff and volunteers, so everyday I felt we were feeding a mini army! hehe. Meal times were loud and boisterous. There was never a moment of silence as cabins were constantly singing Fun Songs (or if those were used up..QUITE likely) they would sing:

There ain't no _______ on us

There ain't no _______ on us

There might be blank on you _______

But there ain't no _______ on us

I have to say I heard "There ain't no cheaters on us...There might be cheaters on you Uncle Peter..." at least 3 times.... Pandas on Aunt Amanda 2 or more times.

We had four kitchen volunteers this week. One of them called me Bridget all week. nbd. But then on Friday I found out that one of the volunteers name was Jane and I'm pretty sure that the whole week I thought it was Joan and I would have called her that. hehe

The volunteers were not good listeners so that could be frustrating, but with the amount of work and prep we had as well as cleanup and dishes, the volunteers were an EXTREME blessing

Highlight of the week was definitely cleaning the bathrooms with the lifeguards yesterday. They were behind schedule and my best friend looked a little stressed so I decided to help them out. I had no clue what I was doing at first but I started to catch on. Then we started belting out songs like Swing Low and This Train is Bound for Glory. We laughed really loud, and were just being plain dumb. It was pretty hard work, but with the friends that were there we just laughed our way through it. I laughed harder than the whole week combined in the 1 hour time frame of cleaning the bathrooms. We took the Shop-Vac and put it up to our faces. It distorted our cheeks and stuff and the power of the suction, sucked the spit right out of our mouth. We really looked like fools, but whatevs. We even took a video of it. Hahaha. GOOD TIMES!

Another Highlight was bonding with other support staff.

"This is how real women fight!" (playing Punch for Punch)

"When I say Maintentence you say Food Service. Maitenence. Foodservice. Maitenence. FoodService"

Talking out in the gazebo until midnight with a friend. No I was not wearing Bug-spray. Yes I wish I was.

I had a few chances to bond with campers too. It is always so great to still be part of their week at camp.

A couple of girls from cabin 2 were sick and homesick. I sat with one in the Nurses station. The other one I made laugh because I dropped my cookie on the ground stepped on it, then picked it up and ate it.

I taught a few of the girls from cabin 2 how to make friendship bracelets and I helped with sewing with the Day campers

So many stories to tell. One of the oddest/ most odd things that happened to me was on Wednesday/BBQ day, I was BBQing and this tree frog just lands on the BBQ. At first I didn't see it because it kind of camouflaged by the burgers. I didnt know what to do, so I just yelled to Kaitlyn to come help, Kaitlyn had no idea why I was calling her, she came over, screamed and the Tree Frog proceeded into jumping into the bottom of the BBQ. The intense heat then caused the Frog to die belly up. Through the grill, all you could see was a dead frog belly up.

There are so many stories to tell. But I don't always remember them all. All together as a whole the week pulled together for an awesome, full week.

The JOY of the LORD is my strength

Crib Crub Tourney

So me and Crub have this Cribbage Tournament going on. Best out of three games wins a point. First one to 10 points wins the Tourney.

The Crib Crub Tourney ended today when I got the 10th point.

Loser buys Slushies.

Woot Woot

Creations on Paint

1) I love going onto the computer

2) Finding the folder 'Accessories'

3) opening the program 'Paint'.

4) Making a creation on the screen....JUSSST for Fun

This Life is a Beautiful One

This Life is a Beautiful one

This Life

Take all of me, Lord

I Surrender

All to You

I want to live for You

This Life

This Life is a Beautiful one

Coach

I once again blog about a guy named Coach. This time it is not a Survivor rant, but instead memories of camp. Coach.

I first met Coach on the court, the basketball court that is. I was shooting some hoops with my friend, and there he was to tell me what I was doing wrong in my shots. This was where the guest with special needs got his nickname "Coach" from.

This week coach began to call me "His Player". He wanted to play basketball every day in the extreme heat.

Every day I would receive several reminders of our game that afternoon.

"Hey Brittany. You're going down"

"Whatever Coach"

"Is that a threat, Rebekah?"

(O ya I forgot to tell you for some reason, he thought my name was Rebekah??)

"You're going down like a horse"

"You're going down like an elevator, Coach"

"Is that a threat?"

And not only would I get reminders from him, but he told everybody in the camp that we were going to play a game that afternoon, and would tell several staff to come to the kitchen to remind me.

Coach also had another nickname. D-man (Dance man). Coach loved dancing and being the centre of attention. In fact by the middle of the week, he would dance right in front of the kitchen window during power and praise so that I would watch him.

By the end of the week, "Hey Brittany" slash" Hey Rebekah" turned into "Hey Baby".

"My names not Baby, its Brittany"

It was an awesome week. It was really great to see that Coach came out to camp and loved it. It was his first time to camp and I'm sure its not his last.

Coach made me smile this week. If you are familiar with working with Special Needs, you can get several marriage, love proposals during the week. Coach asked another staff member to get my phone number and my house address:

"Her parents don't let her give out her phone number"

"I need her number. Shes my player. How am I going to talk to her?"

Uh. Ya. Then he cried. I felt bad. He cried again. I stood there. Uh. What do I say to a special needs guy crying beside me and saying:

"But I love you. I'm so scared"

Ya. Thats all I have to say about that. As well as how I cried laughing describing this 40 year old man to my sister.

This is this weeks video. I'm not in it, but all the guests that made my day every day are in it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tqqGmCQz2rs&feature=player_embedded

Camp Shalom Week Uno

Week one was awesome. Words cannot describe how amazing the experience is working with special needs is. I love spending every spare moment that I have with the special needs guests.

Going up to one of the guests who will force a laugh every time you tickle her under her chin. She sings her heart out but does not say words.

Or the guest who says:

"BRITTANY.BRITTANY. BRITTANY"

"YES"

"HI"

The guest who takes the Kazoo seriously as an instrument and has a binder full of music for his Kazoo. Love it.

The guest who says "Boo" and blows kisses at you. She kisses your hand and gives you hugs.

A guest who wanders, but will come and give you a hug

One of the guests I was sitting down with was nursing my burn.

"You should be a nurse. What do you want to be when you are older?"

"I want to be a dancer"

"Do you dance?"

"I don't dance now, but one day I will be dancing in heaven with Jesus"

I'm so proud of all the staff who were true champions through the week. With God's help, we made it through the good funny moments, but also through tough trying moments. This week I feel we really got the chance to love the guests like Jesus.

Verses to ponder:

And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. 1 Peter 5:10

The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ. For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. 1 Corinthians 12:12-13

AWESOME awesome week. I really can hardly describe it.

Praise God

Highlights

Highlights:

Swimming at this pond/lake. Extremely Beautiful

GOD MOMENTS.

Swimming with plastic turtle.

Female Staff on Pool Deck: "Save a Horse Ride a Cowboy...duna dun dun..."

Driving To Giant Tiger in the Trunk of a Station Wagon. Waving to people behind us. Playing I SPY:

"I spy a 'P' in a circle"

"That could be NCA..like Pee in a circle"

"Well I guess it is the letter because I am not seeing anyone peeing in a circle"

Carrying the cross

Watching Nacho Libre. Grandular.

Pranking the boys. Singing creepy song in the field. Dressing up one in Dress and candle ("Camp Ghost"...ooooooo...). We failed as they could not hear or see.

Staff Show Practice. Skits. Smile.

Sparklers on Canada Day.

Do Your Mosh Pit Steph, Do Your Mosh Pit.. Fun Songs.

Staff Video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5dcOU2fhADY)

I was going to say Highlights and Lowlights, but I don't really have any lowlights. It has been a really great 2 weeks of staff training. These are just a few of the things that brightend the week up even more :)

Today Adrian ended the week with a verse:

If anyone speaks, he should do it as one speaking the very words of God. If anyone serves, he should do it with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen.

1 Peter 4:11

As we head into our first week of actual camp on Sunday, it is important that we keep our eyes on Christ. We pray that this summer we will work for the Glory of God. We are the role models to the hundreds of kids that come through camp's gates this summer and through the power of God, we will show them who Christ is through us.