The Latest and Greatest

Last week I had the good fortune of taking out a 3 day trip with a group of 12 year olds to Algonquin Park. We had a good time even though the weather tried to put a damper on things every chance it got.
The rain stopped of course as soon as I got the tarp set up. From left to right this is: Jordan, Mike, Jackson, Bennett "Cypher" (an LIT who was in my small group), James, Ned, Alex, Simon and Jeremy "Omni".

After 4 portages of various lengths that all seem to take too long we got to our destination. While scoping out a campsite Simon and I ran into a cow Moose and a calf. The calf was on the other side of a small bay and began to swim towards us and the mom but promptly turned away when the mom told it to. Unfortunately at the last portage my camera got put in another canoe.... crap. A beautiful sunset followed the evening rain.


I noticed as soon as we entered the lake that something was up. The water was way too high, like almost 3 feet too high and it was beginning to kill a bunch of trees around the perimeter of the lake.

Here we are paddling through "the forest" because the water was so high.

I took a glance at the map the next day and we went to find the problem... This is the before picture.

This is about a half hour later.

Team demolition walking on water.

LIT - wrap up

A week ago, LIT wrapped up in a formal sense as half the kids went off to one of the three sites around the lake and the other half went home to return for their practicum in a couple weeks. Overall the entire LIT experience was amazing. It was truly great to involved with something at Pioneer that wasn't the same old boys' camp experience. As I was a small group leader I got to know the 7 LIT's in my group really well and was privileged to help them grow both in leadership and their walk with the Lord.

This is my small/large group of LIT's that I got to mentor. This was the day that we led program. The theme was Super Mario.

This is the group that were on my trip. However this picture was taken a couple weeks post trip, hence the cleaned up looks everyone is sporting.

Wow, being involved in this program which meant so much to me when I was 16 was truly an honour that I'll never forget. Maybe one day I'll be back to do it again.

LIT to me

Over a week ago I started working at the LIT program at Pioneer. After a few really fun days of precamp and getting to know all the other staff the kids arrived on Thursday. I have 3 guys and 4 girls in my "small group" going into grade 11 or 12. The object of this program is to help transform these people from campers to staff by building their leadership skills and faith over the next 2 weeks This is then followed by a 2 week practicum at one of the 3 main sites around the lake. To get everyone working together right off the bat they are thrown on a canoe trip a day and a half after arriving. On this trip they are challenged through bible studies, personal devotions and opportunities to lead the group in navigation, camp building, etc., thus building a tight community.

So, on Saturday morning we headed up north to Temagami on our adventure. We put in on the northern part of the lake and then headed over to Diamond Lake, up to Lady Evelyn Smoothwater Lake and out at Mowat Landing (about 150km north of Huntsville). The trip was awesome and some highlights were: really awesome campsites, sailing in big wind, people having to jump in to save stuff floating away in the big wind, our pirate flag, sandy beaches, improv night, evening program, playing 20 questions.

Fishing with Maple Mountain in the background.

Sunset over Maple Mountain.

Matt and Jess on the first day.

Emma stirring some pasta sauce in the wind shelter of a pine tree.