1401

When I went to post, blogger told me that there were 1400 posts on the blog, so I guess this is number 1401!  That's quite a lot of family news.

I've been going full speed since I got back from holidays.  The holidays themselves were great - between folk fest, the backyard, Kane, the chuckwagon races, and just being at home, things were pretty awesome.  I got back to Victoria on Saturday, preached and presided at church on Sunday, left Monday to go camping with the youth group.

We went to a group site run by the Girl Guides near Elk Lake, and this year we joined with the Cathedral.  It was a good thing we did, as they had about 12 kids, and we had 3.  The kids were mostly around the same age, or at least two or three the same age, so that was good.  We spent a lot of time teaching them how to cook on fires.  For most of them, the first thing to do was teach them how to light a fire.  For some of them, we also had to teach them how to cook in general.  We did one supper and one breakfast over the fire - the bacon and egg breakfast took about 4 hours from start to finish, so I joined up with the fastest working group.  It was a lot of fun though, and I think the kids all had fun as well.

Our new interim priest in charge has started at the church.  His name is Dennis, and he's nice.  He's only working two or three days a week (including Sundays), so I'll still have a lot to do.  No danger of getting bored!

Today was the parish fun day - sort of a carnival.  We had a inflatable obstacle course, which was a big draw, but we also had kite making, gold panning, a scavenger hunt in the church, a wood working table, various games and cemetery tours.  There were nearly 300 people that came through, so it was very successful.  The weather was perfect, which helps.

Camp!

Last week I got to enjoy one of the perks to being clergy on the Island - I got to be the camp chaplain for a week! The diocese owns a camp on Thetis Island (across from Chemainus) and runs various week long camps through the summer. Clergy from the diocese can volunteer to come and be a chaplain for one of the camps. I had not volunteered, as I thought it would be a bit much to start work, and then immediately ask for time away. However, the chaplain for teen camp had to have surgery, so they asked me.

It was a lot of fun - and very similar to the church camps that we used to go, except with the ocean instead of horseback riding. There were 40 campers between 14-16 staying in cabins. I was in a cabin too, but I was alone, and the cabin was the only one with plumbing. The camp directors are new this year, and are English. They were pretty funny, and easy to work with. I had to lead the daily devotion/worship time, and the program director had given a theme for the week and for each day, so I was able to work within that.

Being the chaplain was cool - outside of the devotion times, I didn't have anything set to do (except get ready for the next day), so I was able to be with the campers most of the time. I didn't go swimming though, much as I wanted to. I decided that it would be good to have a time when I could tell the campers that I was free if they wanted or needed to talk about anything, so I sat on the beach and watched them swim and tube. I also helped out with some of the chores. Usually through the summer they have a crew of 14-15 year olds to help with dishes and the various things, but they were all campers this week, and there was only the crew leader to do it all. I helped him dig a trench for a wire to the pumphouse.

The food was good, and the staff were nice. I re-connected with an old friend from Victoria that I had not seen in years, and met several others from Victoria. The camp cook was from Yellowknife, but had only lived there for a few years, and didn't know any Bromleys. I had so much fun with the staff that I stayed for one extra night after the campers had left.