Chapel times at Widjiitiwin are a long standing tradition. As a Christian summer camp, we feel it is important to teach campers about God and to have them experience a worship service. We have contemporary music and the songs vary depending on the age group at camp. 

You can expect each chapel time to have prayer, Bible reading, singing and biblical teaching by our weekly camp pastor. You might also see a drama or video intro/clip. We have even done video singing for TNT.

At the end of chapel someone will close in prayer and we may do a final song. There may be time set aside as a response or reflection time or the camp pastor may be available to ask questions.

All our chapel times are lead by our passionate and dedicated summer staff. Their talents, gifts and abilities are given for the glory of God. Staff play guitar, drums, bass, keyboard and sometimes we have a banjo, violin or cello. Words are projected onto a large video screen. 

Following chapel we have our evening program or cabin time.

Rock Facts! Bueller & Madre introduced these to us as a method of staff intros this past summer. Rock facts are meant to be indisputable facts that staff know. Some of them are just fun and meaningless. Here are a few for you to enjoy. 

1. Geology is the study of rocks
2. Light falls off at the square of the distance (Moose)
3. Bologna is deli meat for people with eyes (Gaston) 
4. The average woman uses her height in lipstick every 5 years
5. Gaston & Bueller are twins
6. A lion’s roar can be heard from 5 miles away!
7. The Titanic was the first ship to use the SOS signal.
8. The Twitter bird actually has a name – Larry
9. The CN Tower has 1776 steps
10. Bubble wrap was originally intended to be used as wallpaper.
11. Movie trailers were originally shown after the movie, which is why they were called “trailers”
12. The expiration date on water bottles is for the bottle, not the water.
13. The average person spends 6 months of their lifetime waiting on a red light to turn green.
14. Hippopotamus milk is pink.
15. If you started with $0.01 and doubled your money every day, it would take 27 days to become a millionaire.
16. Human eyes can distinguish about 10 million different colors.
17. Outer space is only an hours’ drive away – if your car could drive straight up
18. Flamingos turn pink from eating shrimp
19. Lemon and Oma are sisters
20. Leonardo Da Vinci was the first to explain why the sky is blue.
21. A handshake transfers more germs than a kiss.
22. Lemons ripen after you pick them, but oranges do not.

What is your favourite rock fact of your own or someone else’s?

If you could live at any time in history, when would it be? There are two time periods I am interested in.

First is the wild west. I’m thinking late 1800’s. I love the stage coaches, horses, steam trains, trail rides and cattle drives. I’ve had a love of western stories especially Louis L’Amour since early in high school. Naturally, I have the boots, hat, spurs and even a six gun. When we do a western theme at camp, I think it’s mostly for me. I like that in the old movies, it’s easy to tell the good guys from the bad guys by their hats. My hat is black. Not sure what that says about me. I have to admit though, I wouldn’t be too excited about the lack of indoor plumbing. 😉

My second choice would be medieval times. I have been a fan of King Arthur for many years and love the idea of kings, knights, princesses, armour and of course, swords. I have three swords of my own and nay camp theme is a good reason to get another one. I also like the leadership lessons we can learn from the Round Table like collaboration, working beside each other, having synergy and a Code of Chivalry. 

When in history would you want to live?

Bill Engvall has made a very funny comedy show about handing out signs to stupid people. Essentially stating the obvious things they missed. You can look that up for yourself. 

What I have in mind is a different. My daughter and son-in-law have some signs in their house. One of my favourite signs they have says, “All Because Two People Fell In Love“. It’s from a Brad Paisley country song where the chorus says,

There ain’t nothin’ not affected
When two hearts get connected
All that is, will be, or ever was
Every single choice we make
Every breath we get to take
Is all because two people fell in love. 

Elaine and I recently were at the St. Jacob’s Farmers’ Market and at one booth, Dublin Mercantile, we saw a lot of signs. Here are a few of my favourites:

• Sorry for what I said when I was hungry
• Worry ends where faith begins
• My tools, my rules
• You will forever be my always
• Love like there’s no tomorrow
• Families are forever
• Grandkids spoiled here

But of all the signs we saw, my most favourite was, “Your first breath, took ours away“. This was true for the births of each of our three girls and of course our granddaughter Olivia! We are eagerly awaiting the same reaction when our next grandchild is born this May. 

What would or does your favourite sign say?

Why does Adam throw Eve under the bus in the garden of Eden? Okay, so there wasn’t an actual bus, but picture this!

God creates the world, then He creates man, then He creates woman out of man, by taking a rib. So Adam has a lot of knowledge about the garden of Eden, which he teaches Eve. All about the animals, fish, birds and of course the trees in the garden. Then when they are tempted by the snake, he watches as Eve eats first and waits to see if she might die. Then he east some and the rest is history, we have the fall and sin enters into the world. 

Throughout much of history, Eve has been blamed for eating the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, and causing Adam & Eve to be kicked out of the garden. This has been used to justify a lot of things against women. Certainly Eve bears responsibility for eating the fruit. She knew just as well as Adam that God had forbidden it. But who’s fault was the “fall” really?

Look closer at Genesis 3: 6-12. Adam was standing right next to Eve. At any point he could have stepped in and said, “you know Serpent, that’s not really what God said.” He could have even said, “Eve, I have a bad feeling about this. Let’s ask God next time we see him.”

Almost anything Adam would have done would have been better than what he did. Which was nothing.
Adam stood by and watched. He gave up all the authority God had given him and simply sat by.

Adam knew all along what was at stake. But it was easier for him to sit by. Oh, and for the record, at Adam’s first chance to tell the truth to God, he threw Eve under the bus. How differently things would have turned out if Adam had said, “God, this is my fault, I didn’t do anything. I knew better. I’m sorry. Forgive me.”