The First Week is Over

The first week of camp is over and it went by in a blur of activity. It was great to see this facility being used for its principal purpose – reaching out to people with the good news about Jesus! Throughout the music, the workshops, the devotional times, and the teaching with Vicente Guerrero the message was always the same – Jesus changes lives –and many young people – experienced that this week.

Daniel Lucas and Janna Fox led the week with grace, tact, energy and a palpable sense of love for the youth. The camp counselors led their cabins with enthusiasm and the appropriate balance of gentleness and firmness where required, while the musicians did a fine job of leading everyone in worship.

The Canadian contribution was great to see with an obvious love for the kids being displayed and an eagerness to embrace all things Ecuadorian – food, language and cultural differences. Rain, mud, scorching heat, humidity, mosquitoes and fleas were accepted as part of the experience and the team efforts were greatly appreciated.

The cooks did an excellent job cooking for almost 200 people – the largest group yet at camp! We enjoyed fish, chicken, beef, and shrimp in various combinations along with the ever present rice. They thoroughly enjoyed their new screen doors and service hatches which, along with the newly installed ventilation fans, lowered the temperature in the kitchen while keeping the flies out. Now if we could do the same for the dining hall….! The maintenance crew of four worked tirelessly at keeping the facility clean and relatively garbage free and even cleaned out my car after a particularly smelly trip to the market for 50 pounds of shrimp!

We are thankful for the safety that we had on the beach and we are able to enjoy the ocean which is particularly dangerous on this stretch. Heather Moore as always did a great job as camp nurse while helping out in the kitchen in her spare time. She dispensed a number of Advil for the usual variety of aches and pains and the only real problem we had was with one counselor who spent the week suffering from a persistent fever until the problem was resolved with a trip into the town clinic.

We spent most of the time working in the background, taking regular trips into town with or on behalf of the cooks, handling the bookkeeping responsibilities and running the tuck shop. Other than a couple of minor logistical hiccups everything ran smoothly behind the scenes allowing the kids to simply enjoy their camp experience.

Our six local kids had a great time although some of them were obviously overwhelmed for the first day or two. Walter and Alex had a great time imitating a couple of Teletubbies on skit night and we are looking forward to going back into the community to hopefully rustle up around 20 children for the upcoming kids’ camp.

We now get a couple of days to catch our breath before it starts all over again next Wednesday when the Alborada and Sauces kids come for a minicamp that runs until Saturday. This will be the first time that they have run the camp on their own and they are managing to cover the bulk of their costs themselves with the help of some sponsors in New Zealand. This will be a smaller camp of around 50 kids and 25 adults.

Holly thoroughly enjoyed spending reading week with us and left us early Saturday morning, arriving safely in Toronto on Saturday afternoon. It was great to see her again and her ability to speak Spanish was an asset as she wandered around camp helping with translating and worked alongside us in the tuckshop. She made it safely back to Belleville in time to celebrate Jessica’s 20th birthday at East Side Mario’s along with her grandparents and other family members.

On a final note, on behalf of the camp committee Kelly and I want to thank all those who prayed over this week of camp and provided generously to both the camp and our personal support in order to make it all happen for these kids. The Lord will surely bless your involvement!

Verse for the Day:

“The Lord has dealt with me according to my righteousness; according to the cleanness of my hands he has rewarded me.” Psalm 18:20

What is righteousness? In its simplest sense it is a perfectness that only God truly possesses. However, as followers of Jesus surely we hunger to walk with Him and live a life that is like His. But it is only when we yield ourselves to the active working of His Holy Spirit in our hearts that any righteousness becomes apparent in our lives at all. However, too many times we stifle the Holy Spirit and smother Him as he provokes us to act positively in the lives of others.
That said, I have no doubt that many will be rewarded for the righteous acts that they have committed by their participation in this camp ministry. Now, can we carry that desire to commit righteous acts over into other areas of our lives? Or was it just a onetime act committed in an attempt to salve our guilty consciences from unrighteous acts previously committed? A reward of one form or other awaits us.

Campers lining up by cabins


Five of our local kids!

Just hangin' around!

Trying to get everyone organized for a group shot!

The judges for the skits

Chapel time

Teams get real excited about their performances!

camp begins

I am delighted to tell you that camp is off to a great start despite the rain, mosquitoes, mud, fleas, and more rain! There are 148 campers in this group plus a small army of counselors, leaders, Canadians, cooks, maintenance guys, and other assorted camp followers.

It was an early start for me as the bread guy showed up in the rain with 350 buns at 8:00am. There was some confusion about this as the order should have been placed for Tuesday morning but somehow wound up being delivered today. It was therefore suggested that the entire Canadian contingent (around 20 strong) should eat around 15 buns each for breakfast. Some of the guys gave it their best shot but were always going to fail!

I then got a phone call from the cooks who had headed into town at 6am to buy the supplies for today. So I drove into the market to pick them up where, after some searching around, I found them enjoying a juice as they did not expect me to arrive so quickly! I told them that I now drive like an Ecuadorian and it doesn’t take long for me to make it into town. We loaded 3 sacks of vegetables into the back of my car along with two large bags of fish (my car will need an air-freshener now) and various other purchases. On the drive home they informed me that I am an excellent taxi driver and promised to give me a little extra come lunchtime! One of the perks of being camp administrator!

I arrived back at the camp and delivered the advance party of cooks with their purchases, then turned around and drove Scott Martin into town to buy some bits and pieces so that he could repair a couple of sinks, install the new screen doors and windows and While I was gone 30 large 20 litre jugs of drinking water arrived. So now we were all set for the invasion.

The first bus arrived at 10:30 followed by the second around 11, followed by a group of 5 local kids from El Arenal, followed by most of the leaders at around 11:30. Organized chaos was the result as kids, suitcases, knapsacks, musical instruments, technical equipment, meat, chickens, cooks, and leaders poured into the dining hall to await their instructions from the program directors. Daniel Lucas assigned everyone to their cabins along with their counselors while a few whose names had been missed for various reasons waited patiently until they were also given directions. By this time it was almost lunchtime so everyone milled around getting to know each other until the meal was served. The cooks had done an excellent job preparing fish, rice and a salad along with a tasty soup.

The afternoon was spent organizing the campers into teams and spending some time on the beach. Kelly, Holly and I ran back into town to buy snacks, drinks and candies for the tuck shop. We got back just in time to get organized and open the tuck shop which we are running through one of the windows in our house to keep the confusion away from the kitchen where it was run last year. They bought almost everything that we had purchased so we will be heading back into town to buy more tomorrow.

Supper was also excellent and shortly after that we had chapel time with Vicente who did a great job at keeping the kids attention. There were a number of hands that went up when he challenged the kids to make decisions for Christ.

I can’t forget the rain. After lunch the rain, which had stopped around 11 started up again just to add to the mud that seems to have enveloped the entire camp. It has rained every night for about a week and it is now 10pm and is still raining and the mud is turning into something like you would see in a movie about the First World War! However as I write, everyone is having fun presenting their team cheers. Kuma is throwing in his two cents worth with his funny bark that anyone who has been here knows so well. So who really cares about mud, fleas, mosquitoes and rain when you are having so much fun at camp!

Reinforcements Arrive!

Blow the trumpets! Sound the bells! Put out the flags! Sing “O Canada!” The reinforcements are beginning to arrive! It was fantastic to see an eager, enthusiastic 6 pack of young Canadians arrive at the camp on Saturday afternoon! Jeff, Curtis, Bez, Kem, James, and Beck come strolling through the camp doors no worse for their unanticipated two day journey. We had expected them to arrive earlier but a number of flights have been delayed over the past few days due to blizzards in Canada and ash-spewing volcanoes in Ecuador- theirs included! Yes! Tungurahua is active again and throwing so much ash in the air that planes cannot risk flying over the area at night! Our gang were held up in Houston overnight – but we think that enjoyed the adventure and the chance to experience a Houston hotel courtesy of the airline.

We have put them to work on a number of tasks including cleaning all the cabins; installing curtain rods; fumigating for fleas (yes, we have had a flea infestation at the camp reminiscent of the 10 plagues– please pray about this!); unclogging clogged drains, cleaning washrooms; weed removal; and a variety of other fun-filled tasks. It would be very difficult for us to get camp ready for the big kid invasion next week if it wasn’t for their huge contribution. Further reinforcements will arrive on the weekend and they will be splitting their time between working at camp, working in Bastion Popular and a trip to the jungle. The contribution of all these Canadians is greatly appreciated and it would be hard to picture how the work down here would have developed without their efforts for the Lord.

In addition to these teams we also saw Heather Moore arrive in Guayaquil from Ontario at the end of last week. Heather has been visiting Ecuador for a number of years and is renowned for her work as the camp nurse. She has decided to take a different approach this time and has committed to Ecuador for a year. Heather will be working quite closely with the school in Bastion Popular as well as her usual contribution to the camp ministry. Pray for Heather that she will be able to adapt to living in “El Caracol” the little subdivision across from the school.

Holly is coming too! She has a week off from university next week due to reading week and has decided to come and help out any way she can. Yay Holly! So we are up for a very busy few weeks and I am not sure how often I am going to be able to post but we will do our best to keep you up to date. It should be easier to post than it has been as we have just managed to get internet access at the camp using cell phone signal. It is a little slower than we are used to and a little more expensive than we would like but it does mean that we have 24 hour internet access at El Faro.

Verse for the Day:
“Set your mind on the things that are above and not on the things that are on earth.”

Colossians 3:2

With the team here for the week we are studying what it means to have a Christ like mind. According to T.W. Hunt and Claude King there are 6 characteristics of a Christlike mind. The Christlike mind is Alive (Romans 8:6); Single Minded (II Cor 11:3); Lowly (Phil 2;3); Pure (Titus 1;5); Responsive (Luke 24:45); and Peaceful ( Romans 8:6) I hope that you are blessed by checking out the references!

James and Jeff clean the woman´s washrooms!

Kuma takes it easy - he was very disappointed that he didn´t make it on the last blogpost with all the other pets!

Curtis and Beck installing curtain rods

The closest I could get to a smile from them as they were too focused on the task at hand

Kem and Bez cleaning bunks!

Kelly and Janet with one of their spectacular lunch creations

Various Goings On

We had another successful camp committee meeting last Sunday. After some time discussing what basic camp organizational model might work best for us, we began to assign responsibilities. Kelly and I are obviously responsible for most of the administrative responsibilities but it was important to decide what responsibilities belong in the hands of the camp directors and their programming committee. Daniel Lucas, Janna Fox and David Edgecombe carry the bulk of that responsibility along with Maria-Eugenia Castaneda and a few others. The decision was made to have a third key area of responsibility, that being Camp Maintenance and Construction projects. Due to his considerable experience with the construction of the camp, Dale Horst will continue to head up this important area. It looks like we are slowly developing into a group that understands more clearly who is responsible for what. We have one more general planning meeting before camp hits to ensure that everything is on track while the sub-committees will handle the various details.

On Wednesday we had a midweek meeting with Janna to get a greater understanding of costs and programming details. Janna has been involved in the camp ministry for a number of years, even before El Faro was built and has a real interest in seeing this ministry being successful. One benefit of adding a second week of children’s camp this year is that we can invite more kids in the 9-11 age range, funds permitting. Kelly and I are going to begin to approach some local families in El Arenal to see if there might be around 20 children in this age range that we can invite to El Faro for a week of camp. Although a few individuals have been invited before, this will be the first time that a concerted effort will have been made to bring in a number of local kids. Please pray that there will be a good response. It costs approx $50 per child, per week so if you would like to help defray those costs you can do so by sending funds directly to the MSC address on the right hand side of this blog and specify that it is for El Faro campers and not for our personal support.

There are a number of practical details that need to be taken care of before camp begins and we are working through those little by little. We are in the process of finishing and equipping the interior of the last cabin which currently is without toilets, showers, sinks, mattresses, curtain rods etc., although bathroom doors are being added as I write. This cabin, which can accommodate 48 in 4 bedrooms of 12, was left unfinished last year due to lack of time and funds, but we are planning, God willing, to have it ready for this year’s groups.

We went through the kitchen and took an inventory of all appliances, cutlery etc. this week and found that we are short some items mostly smaller ones like spoons, bowls, large plates, oven mitts, and dishtowels. There are also some tables and chairs that have been damaged and will need to be repaired or replaced. This is partly due to general wear and tear and attrition and also because we need to add to the inventory due to the addition of the fourth cabin which will allow us to sleep a maximum of 192 campers and staff this year.

We have begun meeting regularly with a young man named Carlos for a time of Bible study and are also helping him with his English. Carlos became a Christian last summer and is showing a lot of interest in learning more about God. He will be meeting again with us this Sunday to continue our studies in “Firm Foundations”, a study guide that leads us through some of the important fundamentals in the life of a Christian. Carlos is hoping to go to university in Guayaquil in April so we want to meet with him as often as possible before then. He already knows a number of the youth in the city from spending time with them at various camp gatherings.

One final note, this is a big weekend in Ecuador! Carnival is here at last and although it takes an entirely different turn from the world famous exploits of the Brazilians, it is nevertheless, a time of fun and laughter for some and a time of frustration on others because in Ecuador Carnival is a time to get soaked! It is difficult to go out for the next few days without getting wet as people spray hoses, throw buckets of water; fire water pistols throw water balloons and generally try to drench passers-by! You have to take it as the good natured fun that it is intended to be, nevertheless it can be frustrating for those who are all dressed up for work!

Verse for the day:

Psalm 14:2, 3
“The Lord looks down from heaven on the sons of men to see if there are any who understand, any who seek God. All have turned aside, they have together become corrupt; there is no one who does good, not even one.”

We read part of Romans chapter 3 with Carlos the other day and noticed that the apostle Paul quoted a couple of times from this passage. It struck me again as being very forceful and clear and also very relevant to our society today. It also struck me as being very personal because it describes me in my natural state. I have been as guilty as the next man in not seeking God - and many times I have clearly chosen to do what is wrong rather than what is good. Thank God for His grace and mercy! However, we must not wallow in our sin and allow it to become an excuse for not serving God. Charles Spurgeon is reported to have prayed “God be merciful to me a sinner” as he stepped into the pulpit and our sinfulness should not prevent us from appropriating His grace and serving Him either.

We thought that you might like some fotos of the various animals that are working for their living around this place.....although we forgot Kuma, the big German Shepherd. I thought that I had a picture of him on my memory stick but apparently not.

Picasso taking a nap in a laundry bucket!

Beethoven (Baby) is getting bigger every day!

Ginger waits all day, every day for her owners to

come back and rescue her from this zoo!

Beethoven and Leonardo are dreaming up a musical, artistic masterpiece.