It was a scorcher out there today, folks. I think this is the warmest it’s been yet. I will not complain, because I know that the majority of you are in Southern Ontario and you must be just baking, but it is definitely warm. I went in the lake this afternoon, and was disappointed to find that the refreshing water is about 5 feet under the surface. My feet had a good refreshing swim. I will say though, you know it’s warm when you’re not even just not disappointed when you run out of hot water in the shower… you’re actually OK with it. That happened to me today. Don’t worry though, we are keeping your kids well hydrated, and we’re aware that we may need to alter some activities if it gets too hot.
Moving on.
I want my focus, and the first thing I really talk about today, to be Underground. I made it to both sessions today, and I have to say that the combination of Linda and Jeff teaching in mornings and evenings is always so stellar. Your kids are getting some solid Biblical truths this week, folks. Solid.
Linda started this morning talking about sacrifice and atonement. Now I know, those are really big words for young kids, but she made it pretty easy to understand. She talked a lot about blood. She talked about what you do when you’ve done something wrong, and then, because this week we’re the Kahquah Time Travellers, she went through some history of sacrifice in the early early church. Many of you will know this, but in the Old Testament, people had to sacrifice animals in very specific ways in order to take care of their sins and the wrong things they had done.
Linda is a very visual teacher. She has lots of props and volunteers. It’s great. This first picture shows her volunteer priest sacrificing her volunteer lamb (I’m not sure who played the part of the lamb, but she’s quite the little actress). Linda described how the Priest would have to gather up all of the blood because the blood is the life of the animal.
Next, she explained (and showed a model that she built of it…) the Temple, its purpose, and how the Priest was the only one able to go in most parts.
She got into talking about Passover, and how God told Moses that He was going to take the first-born son from every family. Linda asked Uncle Matt, Aunt Erin, and a few camper volunteers to come up and be a family. She asked Matt, “if this were your family, would you protect them?” Of course Matt said yes. Then she asked, “if I were to tell you that your first born son was going to die, what would you do?” Matt said, I imagine knowing exactly where Linda was going “I would see if there was something I could do to take his place.” Well, luckily for the Isrealites stuck in Egypt, God had provided a way, and so those families did what Moses told them. They sacrificed a lamb like they were told, and wiped the blood on their doors so that their firstborn sons would live.
Unfortunately, this is about the part where my batteries died…. but Linda proceeded with her history lesson right up to the lesson of Jesus Christ, who was the ultimate sacrifice for OUR sins, all throughout time, through His death on the cross. He could only be that sacrifice by being perfect, and it’s because of that sacrifice that our sins are covered and forgiven when we believe in Him, and we can now have a real relationship with Him. She had kids write a sin or issue that they felt was separating them from God and lay it at the Cross set up in Underground. They had plastic laid down all around it, and they covered the papers laid by the kids in red paint, symbolizing the blood of Jesus.
Pretty powerful stuff.
Tonight, Jeff talked about family, and having worth and value. He has his two daughters at Camp with him, and he talked about how he’d want to protect, love, and value them. He talked about how we each have worth and value that was enough to make Him willing to go to the Cross and endure a painful death for EACH one of us. For each kid in that room. So that we can be in relationship with Him. If Jeff’s loves for his kids is that strong, he urged the kids to imagine what God’s love for them was like. God would protect them, take care of them, and love them, make sure they had what they needed.
Jeff talked about how because God loves us so powerfully, and because if we believe in God and Jesus, we serve a King that loves us deeply and powerfully…. and this means that we are to love others because God loved us. That means loving those who are hard to love and loving our enemies. Jeff was also pretty clear that we can’t do this on our own strength, we need God’s strength to help us do this, and that a pretty big part of this is that when someone does something wrong, we need to forgive and reconcile with them in love.
We then had a communion service where kids were invited to come participate, while Liz and Sathiya played “How He Loves Us” in the background.
This was a long explanation, but all of this is to say that the message of the love of Jesus Christ, and how deeply valued in His eyes each one of your kids is, was preached boldly and powerfully today.
Throughout the rest of the day, the Medieval Times theme prevailed. I did make it to Campfire tonight, and the pictures are great… but I’ll save them for Thursday when I have nothing, because I have TONS tonight.
Here, we see Chris and his son Isaac as a knight and a beautiful princess… well, half of a princess’s face, anyway. Isaac wasn’t too sure about the whole head in the cutout deal.
There was some pontoon fishing…. (I was on the beach, so this is like 26x zoom… I have no idea who’s on the boat…)
In the Canoe Major, canoers learned to tip their canoes safely, and what to do once they were tipped.
The Paddle Boarders got out for a spin on the nice, calm, very warm lake. I assure you that although the e-boat is not in these pictures, the kids were being closely watched and guarded by our waterfront staff.
TK and Simon were focusing on still life and up close shots in the photography major. Here, though, they’ve captured a rare blogger…..
Crafts reminded me very much of when I used to do crafts as a camper. Gimp bracelets and friendship bracelets made with embroidery floss tend to sort of cross generations. It was fun to watch Aunt Shelley with these kids.
Aunt Natalie dressed up in Medieval Princess costume (or 80s Bridesmaid costume, I’m not quite sure).
Beechwood asked for a love song from one boys’ cabin, and before too long every single boys’ cabin got roped in through a series of “Help em out ___________, help em out!” songs. It was pretty funny.
Evidently I shouldn’t just leave my camera on the desk in the office while I’m in Tuck anymore…. Hi Aunt Liz!!
At Water Sports, we saw some skiing and kneeboarding.
The following shot was taken AFTER rescuing the sunglasses we found floating in the lake…
At Junior Lifeguarding, Lifeguard Dave teaches some pretty important skills.
Even from the ski boat, I could hear the kids yelling things like “I’m a lifeguard, I’m here to help you!” and “Can you move? Can you talk to me? Are you hurt?” as they swam to rescue their “victims” while Dave watched closely from the dock
Kayakers ventured out into the lake.
At the beach, kids were making sand castles.
It was at the beach where I learned the proper way to eat a grasshopper from Jacob. Obviously, he’s been hanging out with Jared in Wilderness.
I also learned that not just parents read this blog, kids do too! The young lady in the pink on the left saw me come onto the beach with my camera and exclaimed “you write the blog! Take my picture and put it in!!”
And as one last update, if you have kids on the Ahmic Adventure trip, I heard from Cait that when she drove up the lake to deliver stuff to them, they were all safely arrived and were setting up camp at their first destination. It was a hard paddle, but she said they did well.
Well, I think that’s all for tonight, folks! It’s waaaay past curfew here at Kahquah, so I’ll need to hit publish and get some sleep!
This is our tag in and out board. This is where, when you’re at the beach, you have to place your tag on the side that says you’re there. This way, if you forget to tag out, the lifeguards know they need to look for you. It’s best to remember to tag out though, so that there’s never the fear that you’re lost in the water somewhere.
