DayStar Update!

Sorry we missed yesterday’s update. We were hosted by the Simmons family from Spring Garden for an incredible meal at their cottage – two very different worlds in one day!
On Sunday night, we headed to Moose Deer to hand out flyers (yes, you hand out flyers for a weeklong camp the night before it starts). We were able to meet many children and their parents and were all excited, yet quite nervous for the next day.

Monday was an incredibly intense day – having no idea what to expect and no experience at running a camp! We have about 25-30 children aged 4 to 15 – they are all amazing in their own ways and are already teaching us so much. Yes, there may be behavioural problems at times, but more clear are the multitude of things we can learn from our time with them. Our day starts with “boarding” our plane and starting the weeklong journey. The puppet shows have been a hit, telling the Bible stories and “Big Bible Bill” delivers a rip-roaring message in about 3.5 minutes. The rest of the time is filled with snacks (very important), sports, crafts and ‘bible time’ (which varies depending on age from playing in the park to a chillin’ conversation). Day one was chaos!! By about 1 pm, we were exhausted and I think most of us were feeling that the day was less than successful. However, Shirley from DayStar reassured us that it had been a good day and God was already clearly at work. The evening was a great time of refreshment at the Simmons home – thank you thank you thank you!

Tuesday was amazing! We did some revamping in terms of organizing groups and leaders and it went swell. I personally (Scott) had the pleasure of hanging out with “da boys” which was encouraging and we had some great discussion. Greg and Michelle W lead the ‘middle’ group who enjoy nothing more than climbing all over them. The young ‘uns are with Barb, Lindzie and Milan. Jen-Mai led the elder girls today and said they were fantastic. Michelle D tends the special needs kids with great compassion and care. The rest of the team leads the various activities with vigour (Becki, Mel, Bill). A highlight was swimming in the afternoon with all the kids. The reserve is split along two forks and so the group split into two to swim with the kids from each “split”. It was a great time, and a great time of connecting.

We were greatly encouraged after today and incredibly grateful for God’s providence in so many ways. To see the ‘difficult’ kids be less difficult today was a miracle – to know valuing, caring and loving these kids makes a tangible difference is a simple yet profound expression of the power of God’s love.

Well, tonight we might actually get to bed on time for a good sleep. Prayer: another day like today ☺, continued energy and compassion for the leaders, for the reserve itself especially – for the spiritual warfare that is evident here, for the hurting kids and families…