Meandering Moose

Reminiscing

I drove by my old house in Mississauga recently. And my old grade and middle schools in the same trip. It got me reminiscing about people and events and brought all kinds of emotions and memories to my mind. The house is similar, but with new paint and different trees. The old apple trees are gone and so was the TV antenna. My first thought was don’t they know that the kids will need it to climb down off the roof when they sneak out a window after bedtime and over the roof? It worked on several occasions and was always Tom’s idea.

I pictured each house around our old one and who lived there in my memory. There was even an older man working the in garage where I remember Mr. Sevren working. Across the road was where Max and Susie lived. Down the road was Christies where my younger brother was dared into eating dog food. Greg and I were born on the same day, same year and used to have birthday parties together. Around the corner was where Bobby Maxwell and I smoked a pack of his dad’s Colt cigars in his tree house and made ourselves sick. Begg’s lived on the other side of us from Sevren’s and she did a lot of knitting if my memory serves me well.

Molters were between Lakes and Christies and I remember spending hours listening to music in the basement. Todd was a year older and we played a lot of baseball in the school field behind our houses. The older boys taught me to catch a baseball by throwing the ball at my head. The Nicholls were on the corner and on the way to Bobby’s house. They recently moved in to the senior’s complex where Elaine runs the salon. Fortunately for me she recalls that I was pretty much an angel. Guess she didn’t know about the cigars.

I sat in the truck in front of the old house so long that I expected Mrs. Lake to come out and run me off. Mrs. Lake was that lady in the neighbourhood who scared all the kids, and maybe a few of the adults. Eventually it was time to head for my next meeting. There were so many more memories that came to me then and as I finished my drive to Hamilton. Until the next visit…

Cooking with Moose: Bend for Your Elves

I’m not sure this happens at your house, but it sure does at ours. That is sometimes you just don’t want to cook supper and it is preferred to tell your family to fend for themselves. We had this one day, but in a noisy house it was done as charades so that “fend for yourselves” came out as “bend for your elves”. Now it has become a “house classic” and even made it in to our family cookbook. Enjoy this many optioned meal from the kitchen of the Greenfields.

Ingredients

Use whatever you can find in the fridge, freezer, cupboards, pantry, on the counter, or other places food is stored in your house.

Directions

Combine several ingredients together to make a new dish or an old favourite.
Use as many ingredients as possible
You can choose to eat it cold or hot
Cooking options include microwaving, baking, frying, BBQing, steaming, toasting, searing, boiling, sautéing, etc.
Condiments are always popular so try a new one or just hot sauce

Notes:

Each portion is an individual serving
Some favourites include 12 kinds of cereal in one bowl
Grilled cheese with various additional ingredients
Nachos loaded with lots of cheese (this is especially excellent on Sunday nights and is one of my favourites)

An HR Review of Jesus’ Disciples

TO:
Jesus, Son of Joseph
Woodcrafters Carpenter Shop
Nazareth 25922

FROM:
Jordan Management Consultants
Jerusalem 26544

Dear Sir:

Thank you for submitting the resumes of the twelve men you have picked for management positions in your new organization. All of them have now taken our battery of tests; and we have not only run the results through our computer, but also arranged personal interviews for each of them with our psychologist and vocational aptitude consultant.

The profiles of all tests are included, and you will want to study each of them.

As part of our service and for your guidance, we make some general comment, much as an auditor will include some general statements. This is given as a result of staff consultation and comes without any additional fee.

It is the staff opinion that most of your nominees are lacking in background, education and vocational aptitude for the type of enterprise you are undertaking. They do not have the team concept. We would recommend that you continue your search for persons of experience in managerial ability and proven capability.
– Simon Peter is emotionally unstable and given to fits of temper.
– Andrew has absolutely no qualities of leadership.
– The two brothers, James and John, the sons of Zebedee, place personal interest above company loyalty.
– Thomas demonstrates a questioning attitude that would tend to undermine morale.
– We feel that it is our duty to tell you that Matthew has been blacklisted by the Greater Jerusalem Better Business Bureau.
– James, son of Alphaeus, and Thaddeus definitely have radical leanings and they both registered a high score on the manic-depressive scale.

One of the candidates, however, shows great potential. He is a man of great ability and resourcefulness, interacts with people well, has a keen business mind and has contacts in high places. He is highly motivated, ambitious and responsible. We recommend Judas Iscariot as your controller and right-hand man. All of the other profiles are self-explanatory.

We wish you every success in your new venture.

Sincerely yours,
Jordan Management Consultants

Cooking with Moose: Seafood Chowder

This isn’t my usual blog post, but I just finished making a pot of this seafood chowder and decided to share. I have been looking for a seafood chowder recipe for a while and couldn’t find one I liked. SO, I set out to put together a list of ingredients that I liked and it turned out quite well. Sometimes food experiments can turn out as a terrible disaster, but my family tells me this one is good. I’m sure if you are on the east cost of just about anywhere this won’t compare to the fare you are used to, but we enjoy it. On a cold snowy afternoon in Muskoka, its just the thing to have with some pull-apart buns or toast.
Enjoy…

Ingredients

1/3 cup butter

2 tsp minced garlic,

1 stalk celery, minced (I skip this one)

1 onions, minced

½ teaspoon cayenne pepper

¼ teaspoon dried thyme

¼ teaspoon dried marjoram

½ teaspoon dried parsley

½ teaspoon ground black pepper

3 tablespoons flour

3 ½ cups milk

1 can condensed cream of mushroom soup

1 cup whole kernel corn

1 ½ cups chopped potatoes

½ pound shrimp

½ pound small scallops

½ pound crab meat

1 small can chopped clams

Directions

Melt butter in 3-quart saucepan over low heat
Sauté onion until tender
Add cayenne pepper, thyme, marjoram, pepper, parsley and flour and stir until smooth
Add milk and condensed soup and stir until piping hot
When soup is piping hot, add seafood, corn and potatoes and stir on medium heat until seafood is cooked through

Widji Fall 2012 Update

Camp is very quiet this week as we head into the fall season. The campers and staff all left on the Labour Day weekend, a small group helped clean camp, prepare for and run a youth retreat for 77 youth we hosted and now it’s just me on property closing up after a great season of ministry and God’s faithfulness. We had a GREAT summer of ministry including seeing 33 campers who became new Christians. We had the best staff this summer and all were dedicated to being ambassadors for Christ to the campers and each other. It was certainly a summer of personal and spiritual growth. My health made the long days difficult, but I knew I had a leadership team who were capable, dependable and reliable. There was a great spirit amongst the staff this year.

We finished the waterslide and it was a big hit with campers and staff alike. We build a large 20’ by 24’ gate and painted it to be part of the various theme weeks. Other big props included a 10.5’ Widjisaurus, turning the tower into the eye of Sauron and the Longhouse castle.

Our four year partnership with Toronto Police to bring at-risk-youth to Camp Widjiitiwin from Malvern and other communities within 42 Division in Toronto was a great success. In 2011 we had 67 campers in this program and this year we had 85. On the Monday prior to the group arriving on property we had raised just 25% of the funds needed for the week and no money in sight from our major funding partner. The officer called me and was considering cancelling the week. After careful consideration we decided to go ahead with our mandate to reach kids for Christ and trust God to deliver the much needed funding. Within the week we went up by $22,000 and completed our total funding goals two weeks before the end of the summer. Nine campers gave their lives to Christ that week. Two of the previous campers from this program were on summer staff this summer, one as a cabin leader. Next summer the target is 100 campers, making it our largest week of the summer. We are hearing about change happening back in the community from the kids experiences at camp. Very exciting!

Escape, our new partnership week with Hughson Street Church in Hamilton, also went very well. We had 33 campers with us for the first week. So many of them had never been out of Hamilton before. They had so many firsts, like swimming, archery, seeing stars, and hearing God’s Word. These campers came from families that are in the working poor category who just could never think about sending their kids to camp. We had three campers give their lives to Christ this week. Next year we’re planning for 60 campers to Escape to Camp Widjiitiwin.

From just 35 sponsored campers in 2009 we’re targeting 200 sponsored campers in 2013. More details to come in the new year, BIG things are coming.

I’m Passionate about Leadership

I’m passionate about leadership. I like being a leader, I like teaching the next generation of leaders and helping them discover their potential. I like working alongside people to create a greater good. I love the opportunity each summer to teach our SALT (Skills And Leadership Training) campers about leadership and teamwork. To be able to give them opportunities to try out their leadership abilities and even the chance to “fail with dignity” is a great privilege. I want them to become leaders not just at camp, but in their youth groups, sports clubs, schools, homes, communities and more.

Summer camp is one of the very few industries where we entrust our operations to 19 to 20-something leaders and 15-17 year old staff. BUT, what a great time to be learning and practicing their leadership skills and abilities. It’s a great responsibility to lead a group of 8 campers through activities, games, meals, camp life and cabin devotions. Our staff rise through the ranks of summer staff from kitchen or service to be cabin leaders, SALT leaders and then to leadership staff. Summer leadership staff learns to lead the younger staff and their peers by being responsible for program or waterfront or foodservice or staff community. I would be greatly pleased if the next Camp Widjiitiwin director was one of these staff on leadership now.

My favourite quote about potential has long been, “You can always cut open the apple and find out how many seeds are inside, but there’s no way you can cut the seed and find out how many apples are in it.” I’m excited to find out how my investment in youth and young adults and their investment in others will create a chain reaction of leadership and change in our camping community, our communities at large and our nation. I can only imagine where these new leaders will go.

Camp Widjiitiwin – the way camp was meant to be… relational, central, natural, reaching out, a loving community focused on Christ. It’s like coming home. It’s my camp!

What Makes Camp Widjiitiwin Unique?

Camp Widjiitiwin – the way camp was meant to be… relational, central, natural, reaching out, a loving community focused on Christ. It’s like coming home. It’s my camp!

When camp is over at the end of the summer and the campers and staff all go home it isn’t so much the waterslide, ropes course, games or archery that campers will remember the most. It’s the people, the cabin leaders and staff that the campers will look up to as heroes and an example of what it means to be a Christ follower. Our goal is to find and bring to camp the best Christian young people to lead and work at Widji.

Widjiitiwin is:

· Relational – it’s all about relationships. The ones between camper and cabin leaders and other staff, between campers and between staff. We focus on building a solid relationship with each camper, knowing their names, learning about who they, becoming friends and discovering how we can help them develop as people. One thing missing for many kids and youth is someone who will listen. We’re there for them.

· Central – We practice centralized camping where we are together as a community many times during the day. We’re together at all meals, two all camp games every day, chapels and evening games or program. We do camp together!

· Natural – Widji is in a natural environment of Muskoka, Ontario along a river that shows us the Creator in the wonder of His creation. From the deer family that visits us morning and evening, to the skunks, raccoons and the occasional bear wandering through camp to being able to see an amazing expanse of stars you can see God.

· Reaching out – going out beyond our circle of influence to teach others about the good news of Jesus and that He came to die for us to be reconciled back to God. We’re not pushy about our message, but seek to show how Jesus makes a difference in our lives as we live them out with the campers for a week or more.

· A loving community – we love kids and youth, we want the best for them and believe that through camp we can create life-changing experiences.

· Focused on Christ – we exist to be ambassadors for Christ to children and youth. It’s our job to demonstrate the gospel message through all the activities, programs and people at Camp Widjiitiwin.

Themes aren’t unique to Widji, but they are becoming bigger and bigger here. Themes have become an integral part of camp. We’re building bigger props and incorporating theme into all aspects of camp including our Friday theme days.

We do a lot of more traditional camp activities and we’re together as a whole camp a lot. We have at least two all camp games every day, we’re together for camp chapels, we have a weekly camp pastor to speak at chapel and who is available to campers and staff. Camp pastors also are a somewhat unique feature at Widji. He does a morning thought at breakfast to set our day in the right direction. We have our own unique game called Widjiitiwin Basketball that is a combination of football, basketball, soccer and rugby.

It’s like coming home. It’s my camp!

Double Vision & Humility

For over six months I have worked through and lived with having double vision. It’s not very much fun. The doctors have no idea why I’m seeing double. Mostly it is relegated to my right peripheral vision, but there are bad days when I see double throughout my field of vision. I don’t drive on those days. Some days I can feel my right eye, which is the one not tracking properly. It’s a very odd feeling.

I have learned so much about my eyes and the brain. The doctor tells me that the double vision is likely throughout my whole vision all the time, but the brain compensates and pushes it as far to the right as possible. That’s amazing! God has certainly designed us well.

I don’t do well at not being a strong person. I am usually fiercely independent and prefer not to rely on others for what I can for myself. Unfortunately, I discovered that I wasn’t able to do as much as I usually would or wanted to do. It has been an interesting journey. I still see double and I’m hoping to find some answers soon. Here are some of the lessons I have learned…

A sense of humility as I have had to depend on others to do some things that I can normally do myself.
Learning to let others do tasks that I would normally do. This past summer I had a great leadership team working for me at Camp Widjiitiwin that allowed me to take the down time that I needed.
I learned when to realize I was coming to the point of doing too much and when to relax. Sometimes this was evident by my having to have someone drive me home as I couldn’t see well enough to drive.
My inabilities allowed others to step up and discover that they were capable of more and we accomplished great things at camp things summer.
I have learned to wait somewhat patiently. Still working on that one, but that’s another blog.
I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Psalm 139:14

The Paradoxical Commandments

These came up at small group last night and I decided to share them. The website is at the bottom and they have a Facebook page of course.

The Paradoxical Commandments
by Dr. Kent M. Keith

People are illogical, unreasonable, and self-centered.
Love them anyway.

If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish ulterior motives.
Do good anyway.

If you are successful, you will win false friends and true enemies.
Succeed anyway.

The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow.
Do good anyway.

Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable.
Be honest and frank anyway.

The biggest men and women with the biggest ideas can be shot down by the smallest men and women with the smallest minds.
Think big anyway.

People favor underdogs but follow only top dogs.
Fight for a few underdogs anyway.

What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight.
Build anyway.

People really need help but may attack you if you do help them.
Help people anyway.

Give the world the best you have and you’ll get kicked in the teeth.
Give the world the best you have anyway.

Widji Traditions/Culture #4

Theme/Fun Meals

One utensil – using any old kitchen cooking utensil available. Campers draw out of a bus bin as they enter the Longhouse. You could end up with a spatula, beater, tongs or something stranger. A pasta meal is one of the funniest to watch for this one.
Twins – campers and staff try to look like each other by dressing and accessorizing the same.
Nerds – from pocket protectors and tape on your glasses coupled with a too tight button up shirt and pants pulled way up this one is a staff favourite.
Monk – this meal starts out quiet as everyone tries not to make any noise or say anything. It’s really a challenge to make it work. It’s amazing how loud the juice machine sounds when there is very little other sound in the Longhouse. The first one to talk does the dishes for the table.
Theme – a dress up meal specific to the weekly theme. Campers and staff put on all they have to become a character relating to the theme.
Backwards – you dress with your clothes on backwards, walk into the Longhouse backwards, eat dessert first then your main meal. You can also give thanks at the end of the meal and walk out backwards of course. Campers still have to clean their table at the end of the meal time.

Named Meals – Sub Sunday, Taco Tuesday, Waffle Wednesday and French Toast Fridays, I tried to change some of these my first summer to great resistance. I did manage to add diced chicken to the Taco Tuesday meal, but the rest are well intact.

Meal time freeze game – to determine who in the cabin has to wipe the table and clear the dishes, cabins play the freeze game. This usually happens after they have gotten into some difficult to hold pose and the cabin leaders yell “freeze”. Campers can then be maneuvered into even more uncomfortable positions by their cabin leaders, other staff and sometimes other campers. The object is to stay as still as possible and hope that someone else moves first. The first person to move cleans up. I’ve seen a group of campers go most of a meal time in the frozen position and keep going even when their food is getting cold. On Saturday morning, The last day of camp, the campers get to call freeze on their cabin leaders and turn the tables on them.

Mail Call – this fun activity starts out with a very loud and drawn out call that might look like this, Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee’ve goooooooooooooooooooooooooooot soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooome maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaail!! Names are called out, letters are tossed towards the tables and campers go up to get their mail. If someone gets a second letter all of camp yells out, “That’s Twooooooo”. If anyone gets a third letter it’s given to a runner who takes off and the camper or staff has to run to catch them. Once caught the letter is given up to the camper/staff. All those who receive parcels or even large envelopes get called to the front and they have to do something in order to get their package. Options have included crab walk around the Longhouse, spell Widjiitiwin in bum charades, sing a song, act out a crazy action like bacon frying in a pan, cooing for a staff up on a chair and more yet to be thought up.

Cheering – It seems like at camp we cheer for everything.We cheer for cabin clean-up and mail call and games and activities and “mandatory” free swim and people running laps and almost every announcement made and chapel and campfire and for winning ice cream on Friday night for the most team points/cabin clean-up award and not so much for bedtime. Staff meetings are sometimes hard to get through for all the cheering. Essentially, we cheer for everything