Summer Wrap-Up: Skills Camp!

Kodiak here! Welcome to the first of our weekly summer wrap-up - a chance for you to find out a few fun details about each week of camp as we "pull back the curtain" on what's going on at Beacon. Our first week of camp is Skills Camp, where Beacon staff (and staff from other Christian camps as well) train for their NLS, First Aid and Canoe Instructor certifications. As camp director, I'm usually on the outside of these things, but this was the year that I finally went for my NLS waterfront certification (which also means that I have a definite appreciation for how hard it is to pass the time swim at that level). In any case - here are a few highlights from this week! 

Favourite Memory: It's is always a privilege getting to meet other fellow workers who are training to serve God wherever their at. This year, we had staff from Child Evangelism Fellowship (CEF), Teen Ranch, Camp Crossroads and Galilean Bible Camp. I love hearing about how they do ministry and getting to share ideas/stories about camp life at various camps across Ontario. We spent time singing and worshiping together on Thursday night, and it is an incredibly uplifting moment for me.

Silliest Moment: During the final days of the NLS candidates' training, we often do "situations", where the future lifeguards get to practice their lifeguarding skills. During the course, we learned that so much of lifeguarding is preventative - stopping a dangerous action before it happens. I truly enjoyed taking this to heart, and thought I had managed to prevent a fair number of incidents because of my attention to detail. The "victims" always managed to find a way to accomplish their tasks, and my overzealousness definitely led to more difficult situations for me - a lesson learned in humility! 

The Weather Report: If you've ever been to Skills Camp, you'll know that it is tradition that God gives us a whole lot of rain during the week. You can imagine my joy (especially as an NLS candidate) to find the week mostly full of beautiful sunshine. There was one day of wet rain this week (Wednesday), but it made us feel like we really earned our time. The next few weeks are looking quite dry, so we're glad for the rain that we got! And of course, dry weather means no bugs, so that's just peachy by me.

Our Skills Camp candidates for First Aid and NLS are in the photo at the top of this post, and there's almost too many to list! 

Our intrepid Camp Canoe Instructors this year, from left to right: Marty (the ORCKA instructor), Chris from Beacon, Julia from Beacon, Alex from Camp Crossroads, Matt from Beacon and Ben!