This summer, one of our incredible summer staff is taking over the Beacon Blog! Emma “Brio” Deinum will be bringing you highlights of our summer 2020 program, Beacon Unlimited. Here’s a recap about Week 3: Survivor.

What a week! Maker Space week was so much fun and there’s lots to say from electives and cabin times. Before we get into the fun details of Week 4, I’ve got to point out that the summer is half over! It’s crazy how time flies when we’re all having fun. I can’t wait to see what the next month brings!

So many great electives to choose from this week. To start off, campers in the Jam Session had a great time. The leader, Matthew, had a set of a few songs that he would play and campers would jam along with him. The favourite seemed to be “Down in my heart” with all the campers shouting “Where!”. Campers learned a song in Zulu, which is an African language in which the song translated to “We are marching in the light of God”. Matthew also took time after the jam session to do a lesson about all the amazing music and animals that are from other continents. 

Crazy Creative Craft Creations kept busy while making crayon stained glass art, bath bombs, crayon hairdryer art, slime, and origami. It was a blast! Leaders said that it was so incredible to see how all the pieces of art were unique and beautiful. In Drawing Corner, campers started each day with a fun drawing challenge that involved them making everything from creative pizzas to trees that grow whatever they wanted. When the campers were not making amazing drawings while listening to Italian Pizzeria and Disney music, they also had fun playing Mafia and the Party Game.

In Space for the Maker, campers made gratitude walls, took a look at nature and what it showed us about the God who made it, wrote out meaningful memory verses in frames, learned how to do quick "breath prayers'' to God, and learned the value of a quiet "focus minute". The motto was "Seek and you will find", which is a promise from God that if we make space for Him, we WILL find Him! The theme song was called "Ask Seek Knock" by Steve Green and campers (and leaders!) bopped along to it every day. 

Kodiak's Flying Circus was a fun one. Campers learned to juggle on Monday and Tuesday, it was pretty hard and only a couple of campers got it. I wish I could juggle. Camper’s met Tickles the Clown and also learned how to make balloon animals like dogs and giraffes! 

They even had a special interview with Kodiak's friend Adam who is an aerialist. And finally, this week during Baking Adventures, which I was in, we made everything from peanut butter cups and chocolate brownies to cakes. We decorated the cakes at the end of the week and there were so many cool designs! This is what Logic had to say about Baking Adventures: “One of the best parts of doing an elective involving food is the enjoyable responsibility that the food must be eaten afterwards. My favorite day was when we made coconut Macaroons. It was so easy to do with everyone but still oh so yummy afterwards.”

Cabin times were very fun this week as well. My Sr. Girls cabin loved making up actions to help us memorize this weeks verse. Here’s some thoughts from Dash and her cabin time: “Mini Girls cabin time was great. Our favourite activity to do together this week was "Hide and Seek" - everyone had to hide in a way that was still visible from their screen so that the person who was "it" had a chance of guessing. It was our favourite! We also had an amazing moment where a mysterious masked person showed up on Theme Thursday with the screen name "Guess Who?" and it took the girls a while to realize who it was! Good job, Naomi Williams!”

So with that, we have reached the end of Week 4. It really is crazy how fast the first month of Beacon Unlimited has gone by. It has been so much fun and us summer staff along with volunteers can’t wait for what’s to come. Coming up is the Amazing Heroes theme next week with some great electives planned.

Until next time,

Brio :)