ALOHA!
July 31, 2016 40 Years Since Big Thompson Canyon Flood of 1976
Upon completion of summer camp, I jumped on a plane and flew back to Colorado in time to join my family at a 40th year memorial service for the victims and survivors of the Big Thompson Canyon Flood of 1976. For those that don't know this, my grandparents and older sister Rochelle (2 1/2) were taken to be with Jesus in this flood. My sister Lindsay and I lit the candle in memory of Rochelle. The five candles represented those that were never found. Thank ful to be with my family during this time.
Two days later, my parents treated our entire family to a trip in Maui for a week. This was the first time all of us traveled together since my sisters and me were teenagers.
Though I live on an island, vacationing in Maui was wonderful as it had such diverse landscape to meet the varying interests of its visitors. Being adventurous and a lover of nature I enjoyed being able to:
play at the beach,
snorkel in the ocean,
drive from sea level to stand on top of a 10,000 ft volcano,
find waterfalls, hang out with my niece,
and take in breathtaking views as we drove the famous "Road to Hana" (a road that is 30 some miles long but takes all day to drive due to the narrow tight curvy and heavily traveled road). The unique experience for me was
to reach the black sands beach where you can go cave exploring.
Lamentations 3:22-23
The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.
We saw the most beautiful rainbow in Maui that I've seen in a long time! If you look carefully, you can see very faintly a double rainbow there. Rainbows as we know are reminders from God of his promise never to flood the entire world as he did during the days of Noah. With the timing of this trip being immediately after a very busy and intense time of ministry, I wasn't able to disconnect quick enough to be reflective of reminders such as this. However, a month later, I am able to see that God has been giving me little reminders of his steadfast love and faithfulness in the ways that he has directed my life. His word is filled with promises. Promises that he has fulfilled and promises that he WILL fulfill. He has not promised me everything that I want or think I need but he promises that his steadfast love endures forever.
Adventure Learning Centre and Camp staff have persevered through some changes this past year. We continue to be a ministry led by the board of directors. Tim Seeley (Camp Director -3rd from left) Myself (Program Director), and Mark Wallace-(Planetarium and Outreach Director) are currently working as a team to lead the daily operations of the ministry. Please continue to pray for the right person to join the team as executive director.
The board of directors led the staff for the first day of training with a retreat day. We were blessed to be able to meet in a very nice hotel venue which was a blessing as it allowed us to get off of the Centre and Camp grounds.
We had a devotion to start out the day followed by some vision and mission discussion; after that we heard a presentation on servant leadership, followed by a personality analysis. While they were all VERY practical, I enjoyed this one as it was interactive and allowed for staff, new and old, to understand how God has created us with different personalities that bring both strengths and weaknesses to the table. As we serve together in ministry, it is the goal that all four personality types be intentional about working toward compromise as we seek to serve others and one another with a Christ like attitude.
After a nice lunch we were given a guided tour through the Atlantis aquariums. The awesome thing is that these two men to the right and to the left of Tim had NEVER been to the Atlantis before. They are our grounds keepers and work hard in the hot humid weather. So thank ful that they had this opportunity!
After the tour, we had a time of acknowledgements. Lee Burtelson (Board President) is giving Ms. Ada (Adventure Learning Centre Cook) her gift. This woman also works very hard in the HOT kitchen to feed the children and staff that come each day.
Our full day ended with a full stomach as we were treated to a very nice buffet.
The rest of the week we started out with team building games. The picture on your left is called "helium stick" The goal of the activity is to as a group, lower the tent pole to the ground. Harder than you might think when you have that many people trying to get one thing accomplished. The picture on the right shows us debriefing the activity to draw application points for how we would operate as a team in a real life "ministry" situation.
We also spent a day at the camp grounds for some policies and procedures. With the camp ministry growing exponentially each year, comes the need for organization and guidelines.
We then enjoyed hamburgers on the grill and learned what missions teams do when they come to serve on the island. They also serve one another by doing their own dishes. One can appreciate the hard work that goes beyond coming to serve in the hot climate. The serving doesn't stop once they enter the dining room. After meals, they serve the camp by cleaning the dining hall and washing dishes.
The week ended with our very first group for the school year. It was a special event put on by a local company, "Family Guardian",who sponsored 50 children and their teachers from the Down Syndrome Association.
After the event a few of our staff were teaching one of the adult participants some choreography to a dance. Enjoyed this group! They had some really funny things to say! Brought joy to my soul to work with them.
Speaking of staff, welcome to our new staff for the coming school year. Meet Eva, Kenny, Jesse, and Elton. Eva is from Germany and has committed for the school year. Kenny is right here from Nassau and has volunteered with us in the past doing IT work. Both he and Eva as well as Elton (far right) will be facilitators working with teaching the outdoor programs. Jesse, (second from right) is from Wisconsin. He joined us in April and worked summer camp. The Lord has brought him back to work in Maintenance for the year.
Praise
- Thankful for an immediate provision concerning a staffing issue.
- Thankful that in spite of lacking motivation to come back to Nassau that the Lord has given me much grace and strength to do what I have been called to do for the time being
- Thankful for a refreshing and encouraging staff retreat day!
Prayer Requests
- Please pray for these young people as we dive right in to curriculum training this coming week. Pray for quick retention of information, for confidence to work with the kids and for a persevering attitude as we all adjust again to working in the heat. September here is quite hot. Cooler weather is a few months away!
- Pray for wisdom for Tim, Mark and Myself as we make decisions for the daily operations of the ministry.
- Pray for the board of directors and for the provision of an executive director
- Pray for me personally, for joy and servant leadership as I am pressed with the many responsibilities.
Thanks again for your interest in my life and the ministry here.
Together for Christ,
Jen
