It's My Birthday!!!

Alas, my birthday has come and gone once again. However this year was, I must say, a special one. Since coming to Qwanoes, I have done my best to keep my birthday a secret as we have this tradition here where on your birthday you get "Thrown". This means that about 10 people pick you up and throw you up into the air about 10 feet high and then catch you repeatedly until the song is finished. I am terrified of being thrown. This year however my birthday did not stay a secret (I still didn't get thrown, to my delight) I woke up to streamers and balloons all over my house. One balloon was a clue to a bit of a scavenger hunt. To make a long story short, by the end of my scavenger hunt I was wearing about 5 balloons, attached to my person in some way, with a plastic basin taped to my head like a hat, fully embarrassed while I sang happy birthday to myself spinning like a ballerina, with "dentures" in my mouth that make me look like I haven't brushed my teeth in 10 years (I'll post that picture later) and dancing to my rendition of a spice girls song. That was just the morning. I managed to get the afternoon off and so John took me to Victoria where we rented scooters (so much fun) I have a story to tell about that... then I got my first pedicure which was wonderful (I officially have the cleanest feet of all the staff at Qwanoes) and then we went out to dinner. What a great day!

Now my story about the scooter. Let's just say that I've never driven a motor bike or anything with a hand throttle (other than our quad or skidoo, but they are different) So the guy that rents them needs you to prove to him that you are competent and know how to drive them before he'll let you leave. So he stands about 5 feet in front of me on this little scooter and says "pull slowly towards me and then stop" I guess to prove that I can start and stop. Well...I ran him over. He never told me that I only had to turn the handle a little. I cranked it. Needless to say, he made me try that a few more times, and after a while I did get the hang of it. I was so sure that I was going to get in an accident on my birthday because I was concentrating so hard on this scooter thing that I would forget how to drive and obey traffic laws etc. Well over all it was so much fun, I would highly recommend it, but...Start out slow!

-Andrea

Freight Train...

That's how summer comes and goes... like a freight train. It happens so fast. I can't believe that tomorrow the second week of summer is over. Wow! So far things have been going well for the most part. The last couple days have been hard for a couple of reasons. #1 I have been sick, fluish/coldish not nice-ness I missed one day and crawled back in bed at 10am thinking I would wake up in time for lunch and the next time I moved or heard anything I looked at the clock and it was 2 pm. Yikes. I must have been pretty tired. #2 The camp has been a little under-staffed so far this year. We could really just use a couple more people who would be excited about serving in a support role like kitchen or janitorial. This means that people who are supposed to be counseling are doing dishes instead and people who are supposed to be doing the mountain bike program are cleaning bathrooms instead and it's really just taking a toll on the staff. Overall it just means that there is an underlying stress at the camp.

Again, I must say that over all it's been really really good! However please continue to be in prayer for us here!

Prayer Requests

1. Please pray that God would send more people who are willing to come and volunteer in support roles week by week.

2. Pray for the morale of the staff team. Ask God to bind Satan as he tries to attack our passion and replace it with discouragement.

3. Pray that God would continue to change lives here. Pray specifically for the counselors that are on the front lines, pouring their lives into these kids. Pray that the campers would have open hearts and open ears and that they would really understand what is being said.

4. Also, I know that I am getting better but pray for physical health for myself and for the many other staff who are also sick (things go around so quickly here).

- Andrea

IT'S HERE!!!!!!!!

Summer that is...

360 or so campers arrived at Qwanoes yesterday! It was fun and exciting just like every first day of the summers are! I loved it! I am now however, exhausted and It's only the end of the 2nd day! God has answered many of the requests I've already given. This years staff team is great! It's been awesome to be a part of such a neat team. INTEGRITY is my word for the summer. This is my prayer for all those who are here! We bonded together really well and staff training was great! Marv Penner was the speaker and he once again, challenged us all in so many ways. This week the speaker is Storm Moore for those of you who know who he is. I laughed so hard tonight during Q-town (chaple) as he told a very funny story about his youth group and a game of sardines. Picture this, Storm is black. Sardines is played in the dark. Black people blend into the darkness but he was wearing a white shirt. So he took it off. Anyways to make the story short, by the end of the night he had one petrified student who "felt" Storm before he "saw" Storm and one parent phoning his house asking why he was naked in the church during youth group (naked being derived from the fact that he took his shirt off during the game). Anyways, I laughed hard. All the kids around me thought I was crazy but oh well.

I'm helping in tuck today and boy was I glad that I wasn't the tuck store manager today. Almost everything that could go wrong, did go wrong today. Mel the girl that is doing it, smiled and said, "I thought I'd get all the problems out of the way in one day, now I'm set for the rest of the summer!" I'm glad that she took it well, I would have been crying at that point. Let's not talk about that.

Well, please keep praying for us here! Again if any of you would like to be an official part of our prayer team, just send me an email as I'd love to add you to the list! I'm going to go to bed now and try to reclaim all the sleep that I need already!

-Andrea