Malagash Bible Camp Entry 7

3-5 week, probably my hardest week to go through this summer. It was both mentally and physically draining.

I was counselling with Arthur Jeffersen this week, a fine lad whom I found really it easy to work with. The kids I had were named Brendan, Zach, Noah, Micah, Dylan, Jacob and Matt. They were great kids. Directing this week was Jordan and later accompanied by his sister Bethany. Speaking was Peter Mathieson from Alberta and accompanying him was Jan Soltek, both guys were awesome and really helped make the week go by well.

This week was the hottest of any week of the summer, hands down. This week Jordan brought Medieval Ages to life which really helped in getting the kids in the mood for the chapel skit, which was set in Medieval times. Our cabin was called Galderland. In the words of Micah "Galderland shall wule them all!". Michah definitly provided a lot of laughs for the cabin and camp this week with his infamous statement "Awthur youw supposse'd to be gawding the piwon!". Really funny kid.

Cabin devos were a challenge this week. At such a young age I find it hard to really open up to the kids in a way that'll get through to them. They listened well as I told them stories from the Bible and I don't know if any one of them was changed this week but I do feel that God's presence was shown this week. Peter spoke about Samuel and Joshua and taught the kids they can do great things despite their age.

A few memories I have of this week were watching Noah Bush's face after the slip and slide. Just priceless. Dancing to Rammstein in the cabin with the guys at night. Watching Noah's expression on his face after seeing the money that Tooth Fairy Christianne put under his pillow the day after his tooth fell out. Micah's random outbursts of Medieval chants. Brendan attacking my fan at night thinking it was a giant moth.

One of my not so fond memories was my unfortunate first night in Tatamagouche. Coming out of chapel thursday night, I felt really dizzy. I noticed walking towards the bridge, I was walking diagonally. Getting closer to the lodge I told Josh I felt really weird. I kindof collapsed there and Anna came running over. I was helped over to the nurses station where I layed down and started shaking a little bit. I was freaked out. Julia came in like an angel and prayed over me, giving me comforting words. I'll never forget the kindness she showed me. They decided I should go to the hospital immediately so Chris and Anna sped me over there. When I got there the Dr. Glasgow told me I was simply under heat exhaustion and that I had to stay the night. Let me tell you, the night wasnt the best. I had an old man in the bed next to me who was grumpy and wouldnt take his pants off to put on his Johnny shirt, the nurses were snarky as they wouldnt let Anna take in Julias note for me and the food was horrible.

All in all I got back safe and sound and it was a great week.

Cheers

"Gawderland shall wule them all" -Micah

Ry

Strawberry Fields Forever

Malagash Bible Camp Entry 6

So last night I did the whole name thing because I didnt feel like typing too much. Anyways on with the reflections.

So I last left off at the end of Junior Teens 1. The end of this week went awry because I didn't say goodbye to any of my campers. They pretty much vanished into thin air before I could give them a high five or a heartfelt hug. This was when I made a bet with Jenni that I could say goodbye to more campers then her in the weeks to come. Nevertheless the week ended. The next day nothing huge was planned. A few of us weren't coming back so the next day those of us who were around decided to head into Tatamagouche to pick strawberries. Getting there we all figured to buy maybe 1 or 2 boxes but we ended up buying 2 flats full. We're crazy. Theres pics on facebook and one on Jennis blog of just how many berries there were. I think me and Chris ate more then we picked that day but one can only pick so many. In the words of John Lennon, "Strawberry fields forever" Amen to that. Before heading back to Malagash we decided to head into the grocery store for some Angel Food Cake to make a scrumptious dessert.

I was really craving some sushi at this point so being the townie I am, I asked the manager if there was any around. He gave me a perplexed look and shrugged "No". I was fairly disappointed but I trudged on. Before we got back to Malagash we decided to head into the Menonite bakery where we got some Ginger Beer, Cookies, Lime Soda, Cherry Soda, etc. The women were even kind enough to give us free rolls of bread. I liked those people, very kind. Upon the way to Malagash I decided to finally take a trip to the Salt Museum to indulge my mind a little bit with some good ol History. Unfortunately the Museum closes at 5 and it was 6 at the time so I felt sad and started walking home.

To my surprise a little kitten decided to follow me back. I tried shooing him away but it was persistent. I tried running but it ran too. I finally decided I'd like the company and walked back with it as my new friend. I think it got tired after a while so I carried him for a while. Getting back to the camp I noticed that this little feller was sick as nails with big goop in his eyes. Sick! Plus because it was in this condition I wasn't allowed to cut strawberries. Fed up with being unable to do stuff, me and Luke took the kitten back to the Museum. When I say this I meant we drove back to the museum, chucked the kitty out the window and sped away.

We got back to Malagash, hung out a bit and had our supper of strawberries and chicken shishkabobs. The girls dressed up nice and the guys did too. After this we all just crashed for a while before having an epic reading of Horse and his Boy before nodding off to sleep.

It was a great day before the week that lay ahead and my impending trip to Tadie Hospital on the horizon.

Cheers

Ryguy

Greek Staff Names

Jonathan Briggins: Hairus Curlius Aloicious

Chris Bryant: Pianus No Shirtus

Jordan Draper: Cornelius I Peeus Anywhersus

Luke Bruce: Tuckus Ecuadorious

Josh MacIsaac: Maximus Creativityus

James Howitt: Fixus Buildus Mini Jimsus

Julia Churchill: Singus a Songus Julius

Ashley Bryden: Colorful Shirtus et Maximo Laughus

Nikki Church: Sweetus Laughus a Everythingus

Jenni Richard: Pinchus ma Bumus et Big Grandes Smilus

Jill Pole: Likus C.S Lewis et Narnius Alotus

Anna Howitt: Bigus Scarius Facus Ius Ever Seenus mais Bigus Heartus

Brian Hill: Sarcastimus No Hairus on the Legsus

Elaine Hill: Sweetus Heartus


Cheerus

Ry

Malagash Bible Camp Entry 5

Junior Teens 1, the first full week of the summer and my very first cabin as a Senior Counsellor with a Junior Counselor under me (I was with Jordan at Beginners). This week I had the pleasure of being with Caleb Howitt, a fine lad whom I've grown to be good friends with over the past couple of months. In my cabin I had a great group of young men named Alex, Corey, Matt, Kevin, Cameron and Parker. Half of them go to my youth group at Grace Chapel so it wasn't hard getting to know them at all. Directing this week was Laura Boyce and speaking was Matt Walsh. They did an outstanding job, everything went by smoothly and it was just an awesome week.

I don't really remember there being a lot of memorable moments this week, some of the things I remember happening was me being able to create Luke an epic cartoon strip in his facebook, Kevin Power requesting to the Worship Team to ask me to sing with them because he overheard my voice at the campfire singalong and thought I was terrific. I remember taking on my boys in a 6 on 1 pillowfight in my cabin, where I destroyed the snot out of them and almost gave Alex a concussion, i was just in the zone and couldnt be stopped. I also remember me and my boys taking on cabin 5 in an elimination type game involving socks being pulled off our feet in order to be eliminated. Heading into it cabin 5 felt confident that they would defeat us but our guys bonded together by brotherhoodness, stuck it to the man and took the larger boys down. We felt like Spartan warriors all day long.

My favorite memory has to be the Mission Impossible game we played thursday night. Caleb went out to be a flashlighter and I was with the cabin. We decided to take a route through the woods next to the baseball fence but we got kindof lost in the dark. We then stumbled upon an underground tunnel. Not knowing where it would take us we decided to plunge into it. I say plunge because it had rained earlier that night and the water was up to our shins. It took us 15 mins to go through because we had very little light and no sign of our quarry. We made it through eventually but were quickly caught by passerbyers. Heading back to the lodge we realized steam was coming off our bodies! It was awesome! We totally lost the game but my guys were estatic we went through such an endeavor as the tunnel. A memory that'll last with me for a while.

Junior Teens 1 was a really great spiritual week too. All my guys opened up and shared some really great things from their hearts. It was my first week leading devotions and I really felt that God was working through me, giving me the wisdom and intelligence to say the right words and open up about my walk in life. There were some days I went into the cabin not really sure what to talk about but God was with me in those moments and he provided for me. I felt really blessed this week not only to have such a great cabin but to have felt Gods hand upon me in my first week as a Senior Counsellor in such a leaderly role.

Next post is about the week that followed, the strawberry picking weekend fiesta and the visit to the Menonite Bakery.

Cheers

Ryguy

Malagash Bible Camp Entry 4

Beginners Week went well, camp was finally in the full swing of things and to celebrate this joyous occasion, the staff traveled to PEI for the day. We were headed to a friends of Josh's to do some horsebackriding at his farm. On the way up, we stopped at the little village off the bridge to meet up with Dave. It was fun going through the various tourist traps, museums, etc. One funny memory I have is me and Luke getting a picture with a plastic cow, Karens cowboy hat that I wore and buying 2Litres of chocolate milk and drinking the whole thing. I said at the time "NEVER AGAIN" but right about now I could go for one. One big mistake i made on this day was that I was wearing kleets, no sandals for an entire day. i still don't know what i was thinking

Anyways, so off we went to the farm. When we arrived we met Mitch and he showed us around. Introduced us to his horses Prince and i forget the other ones name. Also there were cats everywhere you looked which made Jill really happy. I think out of everyone there I was the most eager to ride the big horses. it was fun trotting around the back pasture. to pass the time we threw work gloves all balled up as footballs to eachother and tried to whip the person closest to us. after this we decided to go swimming down at the coast. not all of us went and few of us had bathing suits...actually it was just me who didnt have one so i had to wear my pants in. ah well. me and Josh made an interesting discovery, that if you run circles around the water you can make a whirpool, thus making the water a little warmer. when we got out we headed to someones house that from the inside looked like the front deck of a ship. it was sweet. embarassing story happened here, me and Josh were changing upstairs, there were no rooms up there just stairs leading to a flat floor. we decided to change regardless and before we did we told Jenni to not let anyone up. Apparently she didnt do her job well and Anna came up the stairs, and let me just say i'm glad shes a nurse, so it wasnt that awkward.

After this we left the ship house to head into town to find some icecream, we walked around the boardwalk, went into an exquisite chocolate shop, and finally found some icecream where Luke willingly offered to buy penniless me some icecream. after this we all decided to head out to an amusement park where we played mini golf. i was the unfortunate one who they decided to try and hit me with the ball in order to receive a dollar from Sarah. it was a fun round we played. before this me Jenni and Luke found a little playground with a spinny ride contraption that i got freaking sick on after a couple spins. spinny rides are my worst enemy yet i decided to jump anyways, still dont know why i did it. anyways, after golf Briggins and Dave and Joshs friends chose to go kart before we left. it was funny watching them go, the look of Mitch's face was priceless.

After this we all decided to have some food, Me, Jill, Luke and Nikki or was it Ashley, i forget went out to Subway, brought it back out to this amazing playground, at an elementary school. good subs they were. after this everyone came about and we played like little kids for a good hour. it would've been awesome to play grounders on that thing. after this we said our goodbyes and headed back home. the ride back consisted of making a top 10 list of fruits we love. it was a good ride back.

And thats the story of our trip to PEI. The week that followed was Junior Teens 1, my favorite camp week of the summer and I'll tell you all about it in the next post.

Cheers

Ry

A break from Malagash posts

I thought today I'd just write about a few funny things I've encountered or noticed or am willling to confess over the past 24 hours.

1. I am scared of audio tapes and the dark. The past couple of nights I've listened to Narnia in my bed. Because the dark plays tricks with my mind, I make sure I have 3 big blankets on, totally sealed off any visible part of the room and suffocate myself while doing so. This way I can't be touched by anything outside the zone of my bed. True story.

2. Sam Merrell is over this week and he just destroyed my bathroom. Nice guy though, we went for a walk yesterday and today he bought me a Dikembe Mutombo Mplondo Wakumba Jean Jaques Wamatumbo jersey. <-----his actual name, don't believe me, look it up on Wikipedia. I'll miss the young lad when he goes back to the island.

3. School starts in a little less than 2 weeks and I'm excited and anxious to get it going.

4. My Mom and me just played a game of War, 21 and Gin Rummy, excellent card games.

5. I just hit homerun number 54 with David Ortiz on my MLB 05 game.

6. I want to go biking today but its raining.

7. I miss Lukes handstands, Annas crazy monster face, seeing Chris's buttocks everyday, discussing Flint Churchill with Josh, laughing randomly with Ashley, sharing Fantasy Football insights with Jonathan, contemplating philosophy with Jordan, stall parties with James, getting pinched by the Jules, playing beach volleyball with Jill, laughing about who knows what with Nikki and enjoying the most social part of the day with Jenni.

8. Jim MacCallaughs famous "Don't think, just do" statement is in Narnia, spoken by Lucy in Prince Caspian.

9. I think I'm becoming a Radiohead fan.

10. I'm hanging with my Dad tonight, we're playing pool and watching the new movie,"War".

Cheers

Ry

Malagash Bible Camp Entry 3

"Jesus wouldnt hurt us with a hook so why would you Captain Hook?"

That quote has haunted me for the past couple of months. I'll explain how it happened a little later.

Anyways, Beginners week, the first week, well more like a half week began at the start of July. It was my first cabin ever as a Senior Counsellor so it was very cool. I had some really sweet kids, some rambunctious and rowdy but altogether good kids. Little Jacob, Isaac, Cute as can be Christian, James and how could i forget, Suliman. It was a good 3 days, the kids had a great time and it was fun getting things rolling. Anna was the speaker that week and she did really great, she was clear, organized and God really helped her connect her with the kids. Chris directed and did an excellent job.

I dont have too many memories from this week except for the epic game of Fairy Tale Creatures, the day that'll stick with me for a long time. Well the story goes, myself, Josh and Ashley were villains who were supposed to run around the camp trying to ensnare the little ones precious diamonds that they received from the good fairy tale creatures. I had the privledge of being Captain Hook, Josh was Sheer Kahn and Ashely was Cruella de Ville. Luke was Robin Hood and I can remember him giving little Christian his bow, making him the happiest camper I've seen ever. Briggins was Tarzan and I remember hearing about how Suliman freaked at the sight of a three quarter naked blond haired man in Cabin 6. Julia was the dashing Cinderella, Jill was Tinkerbell, and I think the other girls and Chris/Jordan were running with the campers.

Anyways the game went well, all were having fun, that is until I found Jenni's cabin, I chased them quite a lot during this game so Jenni concocted a most evil plan. She told the girls to give me a biblical guilt trip. So what happened was I came upon the girls and the tiniest girl in the group turned around and said in a petite voice "Captain Hook, do u know a guy named Jesus? He would never attack us with a sword so why would you?" This was followed up by crying.

I tell you know that never before has my heart shrunk so small. I froze, and slunked back to the anchor where i remained heartbroken the rest of the night. To my joy, I found the girls were not totally mortified and forgot about the trauma that had happened.

So that's my favorite story from Beginners week. I'll write about the weekend in PEI that followed and the sweet week of Junior Teens 1 that followed it up in my next post.

Cheers

Ry

Malagash Bible Camp Entry 2

Just to let you guys know, I'm not going to put pics up because you can access them so much easier on facebook. plus I dont have any pics of my own to put up because i only took mental pics all summer which i'll tell you about in the following entry series. :)

Anyways, training week was awesome, a few more fond memories came to my head over the past few nights, like the time me and Chris had a balance log fight in the woods, making epic poems, like "Whisper and Manipulate" on the kitchen fridge with Lukes magnet words. There was Son Castle Faire practice time where Stuart, Cornelius, Rosemary, Nadine and our Heralds (Jenni and Nikki) came to be. Then there was our fun filled work days where we'd do all kinds of stuff. Memories like me and Jenni being LATHARGIC (best word) by throwing rocks at a stick standing up in a rock pile, me splashing paint all over my clothes whilst painting the bball nets, the game me and Josh invented that Brian wasn't too fond of, Briggins being made into a girl....still haunts me to this day seeing those pics, Nikki projecting broccoli into the air at the dinner table, manly man Chris without his shirt on during work hours, pulling tree after tree outta the forest, the gophers me and Julia spotted and later shotgunned by James....the bear that stared me down the first day of camp behind the white picket fence, thankfully scared away by Jenni and her parents.

S'all I can remember for now, anyways the week after, Alice Housing Camp was cancelled to the dismay of the staff, so we had an extra couple of days until the Beginners Camp began. We spent them pretty much the same way we spent the week before, just having fun, studying Gods word, and getting prepped up for the weeks ahead. Josh told us during these days that we'd be going up to PEI for a day to do some horsebackriding and such. I don't know about everyone else but I was pumped to ride on a horse for the first time.

I'll begin the next post with the beginners week.

Cheers

Ry

Malagash Bible Camp, entry 1

I just returned from my summer at Malagash Bible Camp. Heading into it I didn't know what to expect, questions like "How will God use me?" and "Will I be able to do the things he's called me to do?" were floating around my head. Needless to say I doubted myself and bottled up my feelings of worry and distress. Throughout the summer, God definitly revealed himself to me. He taught me how to come to him for help, for comfort and rely on him for confidence and wisdom. He showed me how to focus, how to spend time on things that matter, to take advantage of the day and not wait for something bad to happen.

This summer I learned a lot about God, about people and about myself. I made new friendships, established relationships and had many opportunities to share my love of Christ with others. I saw God work his way into the hearts of kids and the staff at Malagash.

It was a summer of memories, laughs, and really awesome experiences. It would take too long to talk about everything that went on this summer so I'll just talk about a few things that happened.

Training Week

It seems like yesterday that the staff got together for the first time. I arrived the day before it all began with Julia and we had a grand time making supper, swimming and getting settled in. Jenni came a little later that evening and we had fun oggling through her highschool yearbook. The next day, the staff arrived one by one. Chris, Luke, Jonathan, James, Jordan, Josh, Anna, Karen (Jill), Nikki and Ashley. Training week went pretty smoothly. We'd all wake up, have breakfast, have a morning worship/study then have time to either practice drama, worship, etc. Then it was yard work with James or Jim MacCallaugh Junior. The days were filled with hauling logs, painting, setting up things, etc. At nights we would practice our full time skit which I'll get to a little later. After that we'd just hang out and enjoy one anothers company. One night I taught ballroom dancing to the staff and other nights we played Mario Kart/Party, some times we would read Narnia or just sit around and chat. All in all it was a really great week, just getting to know everyone a little better and meet new friends. One of my favorite memories of training week was when we all went down to Pugwash to watch a fireworks display, enjoy some music (Can't you see, can't you see, what that woman's been doin to me?) you FTS know what I mean. we also took pics next to a playground, i found a kitty and briggins almost got left behind.

I"ll talk more about this week and others in this Malagash series of posts.

Cheers

Ry