Hm... long time

What We've Been Up To

Jungle Camp Practicum
We are one of 2 couples who lead/run the 6 week Jungle Camp Practicum that begins as soon as the semester ends leaving a window of 4 weeks of break in the 18 month course.

Our responsibilities are not confined to the week leading up to the 6 weeks nor the week following, but throughout the year with intermittent responsibilities like: a few chapel times to discuss Jungle Camp (JC), receiving house plans to look over and give feedback, yearly manual revisions, bios and communications with the communications department, and more.

During the 2 weeks of building we aim to get up each day to be there for questions that pertain to anything from hole digging, bracing, stove frame & claying, and bench building.  The manual helps them along as well as having at least one home from the previous year as a visual for them as they build.  It is a demanding 2 weeks, builds teamwork, and just gives your heart a good workout when choosing to honour and glorify God through your attitude.

We all move up to live together for 4 weeks.  Each 'house' is responsible for their food prep and everything that is needed for their time that month.  What gets forgotten is lived without or is borrowed from classmates who have extra.

There are a number of classes during the 4 weeks as well as just living.  Chicken processing, hair cutting, a week of independent studies to simulate the demands of culture/language learning each day, the ladies go on their 2 day hike, and we have a few Open Houses.

It is a very good time but also a very stretching time.  Each year is different for us as staff and we all said we enjoyed them very much! :)

Rikapuna
This is our second year we have helped out with this missions exposure weekend.

It means we drive 2 long days to arrive at a remote children's summer camp for the weekend and drive 2 long days home.

Our role has been to help out where needed to see that the weekend runs smoothly and to 'do' the tribal exposure time.  We get visited by groups of attendees into the village and we limitedly converse with them during a short period of time.  They have been given some phrases which aids them in their time with us.

We walked away from our time this year, blessed by this time.  God provided for us in so many ways.  Though we didn't feel like we could afford to take that extra time (humanly speaking) we often have to take a step back from what we'd like to be doing with our small bit of summer to realize that our life is about doing what God has in mind.  We love being a part of what HE is doing and sometimes that means struggling with our selfish desires.  SO glad we were involved this year!