Camp Prep

Many of you heard, but in case you didn’t, I was very pleased to cross the border this year with no trouble or challenge at all. After a quick visit to a computer kiosk, and a border patrol agent examining the paper that the kiosk printed for about 10 seconds, I was waived through and accepted into Canada for the summer.

Since I’ve been here, I’ve been helping the team get Rock Nest prepared for the summer ahead. The pic above was from 9:59 PM, just before sunset. I spent 6.5 hours on Sunday riding a mower. After the Rock Nest mower broke down, we were able to borrow the fancier mower from Rough Acres Camp next door. If you look closely at the pic above, you can see a patch of grass that is a little longer than the rest of the grass. That’s where the mower ran out of gas in the middle of the field. So close! Thankfully, we had plenty of gas on hand, and I just had to take a little hike to go find it and finish the work. Since it stays light so late, I wanted to take full advantage of the borrowed mower, so I mowed every blade of grass I could until bringing the mower back to the neighbors at 11:00 PM! At that point, it was finally getting a little too dark to keep going.

Last weekend we hosted the Houston Baptist Church Family Camp, which means that most of the rooms in the lodge needed cleaning, and much of the bedding and towels needed to be laundered. I have been running load after load of sheets, towels, and duvet covers, and then getting all the beds made. My bed-making skills aren’t quite ready for primetime, but hey, at least it’s all clean and fresh:)!

Our Roles

After a little uncertainty, it does look like I will not be needed as a cabin leader (phew!), but instead will lead the Work Crew. And when Leanne and the girls arrive in early July, she will join me in that effort, along with our two oldest, Mabel and Estelle, who will be a part of the Work Crew for the rest of the summer. Rosie may even find herself “employed” in a cleaning endeavor here and there. Leanne and I are excited to be able to work together, and so happy to be able to serve together as a family, along with the others who will be serving with us.

Arrival and Orientation

Over the next few days our summer staff will be arriving. I have three different airport pickups today and tomorrow, for 6 different young people from Evergreen who will be up here for all or part of the summer. And in the evening of the 24th we expect the team from Sunset Bible Church to arrive, as well. Then we hit the ground running on the morning of the 25th. I’m looking forward to giving a copy of the Gospel Formed devotional to each of the staff, and I’ll be leading a couple morning devotional times going through the first two chapters. I also get a chance during Orientation to teach a class on sharing the gospel and sharing your testimony.

Prayer Needs

• Pray for joy from the Lord among the staff as we get to know one another and get oriented for a summer of ministry.
• Pray for our family, as we will still have almost 2 weeks before we’re back together. We talk plenty, but we miss being together.
• Pray for wisdom in the last bit of planning we have in front of us before Teen Campers arrive.

Conclusion

We are continually grateful for your partnership in this ministry at Rock Nest, as you pray for us and with us. Pray that the efforts from the staff might result in joy in the Lord for the workers and salvation from the Lord for campers.

Ryan and Leanne Donovan