A Big Task for Fox!

Tomorrow (Tuesday) afternoon, a new week of camp at Rock Nest starts up. It is the second Junior Camp, so we will be hosting another bunch of 9-12 year old kids. We have a much smaller camp staff this coming week, so we are limited in the number of campers who can come. We anticipate that we will have somewhere right around 28 campers spread out over two boy cabins and two girl cabins. The reality of a small camp, though, is that it allows for closer connections with the campers. It is a lot easier to learn all the names and easier to make sure every camper is known and loved individually.

One thing that you may or may not be aware of is that Leanne’s name at camp is Fox. That is her maiden name, so it’s a name that fits her quite well. (In case you’re curious and don’t know, Ryan is Curly, Mabel is Terrier, Estella is Luna, and Rosie is Rockstar.) Because we are so short-staffed, Fox is taking on the role of Cabin Leader / Camp Counselor for this coming week. It is no small task! As someone described it last week, it’s a 23/7 job. Which is to say, there’s just a little over an hour of free time each day! Otherwise, cabin leaders are on the go, caring for campers, playing games, doing fun activities like the Giant Swing, Canoeing, or Archery, wrangling them in the chapel sessions, trying to get them all to go to sleep at a decent hour, and more!

Most important, though, the cabin leaders have the greatest opportunity to share the love of Jesus and the message of God’s redeeming love and forgiveness with the campers. What a high privilege! So while Leanne would acknowledge some trepidation in stepping into the role, she has a lot of excitement, as well, at the chance to be an ambassador for Christ in a very special way this week, as she invites the girls in her cabin to be reconciled to God through Jesus. And she won’t be alone. She will have a 19 year old young lady named Daniella serving with her as a Junior Counselor, so Leanne has both a teammate and a girl to mentor as they love these campers together.

Because of the demand of Leanne’s role this week, my role will also be different. I won’t be quite as hands-on as I would have expected, or at least I will have more limitations, because I won’t have Leanne to help me manage the girls. Rosie, in particular, still needs quite a bit of attention, so I imagine we will be joined at the hip all week (if I can keep up with her!). But one role that Rosie and I are going to be doing together is that we will be the camp photographers, responsible to get lots of pictures and to turn them into a slideshow for each morning of camp. Mabel and Estelle will likely serve some as Junior Work Crew, taking on some age-appropriate tasks to help the short-handed Work Crew get the many daily tasks accomplished that keep the camp clean and germ-free (or as close to it as possible!).

In other good news, we determined today that Rosie can officially be free from her chicken pox captivity! All last week, in an effort to avoid an outbreak at camp, we kept her home at the house where we are living, and Leanne and I took turns being with her. That meant that both Leanne and I were able to engage in camp about half as much as we wanted. So we all welcome the newfound freedom! We are grateful, too, that it was a really mild case, so she was hardly inconvenienced. She got ice cream, she watched a quite a few movies, and she got lots of 1 on 1 time with Mom or Dad, so my assumption is that she will look back on her experience of the chicken pox with fondness! But we are quite happy that she can be free and can enjoy all the fun of camp life this coming week.

One ongoing challenge, which has been especially tough for Mabel and Estelle, has been the ubiquity of mosquitos. It’s no exaggeration to say we all have enough bites to be able to count them by the dozen. I have certainly killed at least 6 of them while I sit here at the kitchen table writing this letter.

Besides the mosquito battle wounds, we are all going into the coming week feeling pretty rested. We have been thankful to have a few days of downtime to recharge the batteries and to spend some good time together as a family. Tomorrow afternoon we are back at it, and this camp goes until the morning of July 27. We look forward to sharing with you all about God’s work this week!

Immigration Status: Same Ol’ Thing

Once again, we haven’t heard anything. And no news is good news! The current hope is that no news (or good news) lasts at least until July 28. Yes, we do plan to stay longer, and there are some other camps we hope to help with. But if I was suddenly told I had to leave in the middle of this week, where Leanne is serving as a Cabin Leader… that would be challenging. Not sure how we would handle that!

Gratitudes

• We’re so thankful (and so is Rosie!), that her case of chicken pox was really mild.
• We are really grateful that two Evergreen students decided to stick around (Jonathan Ahrendt and Kristen Archer) to serve for the last week of camp. We need the help!
• We are grateful to be together as a family. After four weeks apart, it has been really good to be all together again for a while.

Prayer Needs

• Energy, opportunity, and boldness for Leanne. May God’s light, which He put inside of her so many years ago, shine so bright that the campers experience the real love, kindness, care, and joy of Jesus through her.
• That my immigration status would either be resolved positively or that it would remain in limbo until at least July 28.
• Mabel and Estelle learned to do face paint through the CEF training. Pray that there would be a good opportunity for them to employ that training this week, and that they would have courage to do it!
• I am trying to help lead our camp Leadership Staff in using a new tool for inter-staff communication. But I can easily start to doubt my ideas and I am very aware that I’m still learning on the fly how to use the tool, myself. Pray that it might turn out to be a good way for us as all stay on the same page together through the week, as camp schedules and plans are always a bit “in motion”.

Conclusion

And… I just killed another mosquito. Not joking. Boy oh boy, they are persistent! Thank you for praying for us an with us. Of all the prayer needs we have right now, the top item on the list is to pray for Leanne in her role as a cabin leader. It’s a precious opportunity to be entrusted with the care of young campers for a week. May the Lord be kind to her and through her!

Ryan and Leanne Donovan

PS – Killed another mosquito while I was proofreading. But I blame any mistakes on them!