Surf Camp!

I've had a pretty busy week!  Last Friday I was the master of ceremonies at an ordination - the MC at an ordination is the person who organizes all the people, makes sure they're in their proper order, and doing what they need to be doing, and know where to stand and so on.  Luckily it was on a Friday evening, and there was another ordination the next day upisland, so not too many clergy came, which made it easy to organize.  It was a great service - a friend of mine from VST, so I was glad to be there, and glad to have a role in the service.  He's from El Salvador, and I think he started at VST the same year I did, but part time, commuting each week from Victoria.  I'm sure he's glad to be done that!

On Saturday was my farewell party from St. Luke's.  It was really nice -the choir wrote and chanted a Psalm about me (with a great deal of help from our parish administrator!), Peter came back to sing a song about me, and one of the ladies in the congregation does a little comedy routine, based on, I think, an old SNL piece, so she did that (about me).  It was a great evening.  Since I'm from Alberta, the organizers decided that the evening should have a western theme.  Bonnie, our administrator, is also a champion baker, and made three beautiful cakes, two in horseshoe shapes.  The parish gave me a beautiful painting of the Rockies, done by an artist in the congregation.

This is it, though I don't know why it's rotated like that.  Anyway, the artist, Jim Webb, used to work for Parks Canada in Banff, and does paintings from his sketches from that time.  He refuses to sell them in Victoria, since he says that people here don't appreciate the Rockies like they should.  I think he sells them at a gallery in Camrose.  It's a great painting, and only makes me want to have another by him!  The evening was a lot of fun, if a little Will-centric.

Sunday was my last Sunday at St. Luke's.  It was a great morning - lots of people, and I preached and presided at both the 8 and 10 (I made them combine the 915 and 11 that day!).  I'm sorry to be done, but glad to be moving on, or perhaps glad that I'll get to try something new.  I'll miss the people here though!  Sunday afternoon, right after church, we left for surf camp.  There were seven kids signed up, as well a junior leader, three camp staff and me, the chaplain.  We couldn't all fit in a rental car, so the Diocese had to rent an extra car.  Since I was the only one over 25 on the trip, I drove the rental car the whole time.  I was a little disappointed at first to have to drive - I was looking forward to a nap - but in the end it worked out OK.  The drive to Tofino is tricky in places, but not too bad, and it certainly is beautiful.  We picked up campers in Lantzville and Parksville, and made it to camp by about 7.

The camp went really well.  The kids were all between 13 and 16, which seems to be the worst age for paying attention or having common sense.  The youngest was actually 11, but her brother was there.  We had two days of surfing, and it was wonderful.  Surfing seems to be one of those sports that it's easy to pick up the basics, but hard to be good at.  I wasn't able to stand on my board, but did get up on my knees several times.  We had lessons from a place in Tofino, and the instructors were really good - would help us catch waves, give us tips on techniques and that sort of thing. Most of the lesson was just letting us get in the water and try it out, which was great.  Even when I fell off (a lot) or couldn't catch a wave, it was nice to be in the water.  The weather was hot and sunny the whole time, so the ocean was just right if you were in a wetsuit.

Alex, one of the camp leaders, and our lifeguard got a picture of me on a board, but I haven't got a copy yet.    Most of the kids liked surfing - there were two that didn't want to go the second day, and just stayed on the beach, and the junior leader flatly refused to even try it.  On the last day, instead of surfing, we hiked to an old wrecked plane near Tofino.  It's a crash from 1945, a plane that had taken off from Tofino airport to patrol for enemy submarines.  There is no trail to the plane, just a rope through the forest that you have to follow as best you can.  The really tricky part is that there is a huge bog that you have to go through, which is muddy even in July!  We all got pretty muddy, but the kids loved the hike.

We got home last night (Friday) in the late afternoon.  It was a great camp, but I was sure glad to be home.  Now I'm in Victoria for a week or so, then through Kelowna and home to Rocky for a real holiday!