Shirley Temple

Hey everyone its so good to hear that you are all enjoying my blog and please give it to anyone who wants to know what I'm up too. You don't have to ask me first! So this week was intense, we did wilderness first aid. First we learned simple stuff like how to fix a broken femur. Its crazy because in wilderness first aid everything is slightly different than standard first aid. You have to set bones, and take out embedded objects. (I know all you standard first aid people are freaking out right now but when your two days away from help you have to do crazy things!) One of the next things that we learned was how to get across a gorge with a injured person. We learned how to set up a rope system so that you can hook your harness onto a pulley and pull yourself across. After we learned how to do that I got to pretend to have a broken leg and arm, and everyone else in LDP had to splint my ligaments and send me across the river. Unfortunately I riped my pants on a really pointy rock that could have actually injured me and I would have had to get first aid. But no worries I'm fine, I just need to find a cool patch and I'll be set. The next day we did the same thing but we wrapped Anna in what is called a burrito. It is what you'd use for spinal victims and it actually looked really comfy! Then on Saturday night after supper we did a search and rescue scenario where Michael took us out into the bush and became the 'victim'. He told us his friend was lost in the bush but didn't know where, so we had to find him. After about an hour of searching we found his friend (one of the year round staff) half way down a cliff (well very steep hill) with a broken shoulder clinging onto a tree. I got assigned the task of talking to the victim, which was really fun because then I didn't have to set up a bunch of ropes in the dark.
The best part of the week though was the fact that since we did class at night Michael gave us Friday off! This weekend four people went home and two went to a first aid course. That left Esther, Dave and I, so we just hung out and relaxed, which was a nice break. Esther and I didn't want to get bored so we decided to curl our hair using rags, its actually quite fun and you kinda look like Shirley Temple afterwards.
Oh excitement, so next Tuesday we are making our way by van to FLORIDA! We are going on a ten day canoe trip in the everglades, and I'm so pumped! We are going to see alligators and possibly dolphins. Since there isn't a lot of beach spots to set up camp we sleep on these things called Chickie's most of the time (they are wooden platforms a couple of feet off the water) Its going to be weird though because only six people can fit on a Chickie at a time. So we have to split into two groups and go in opposite directions.
Thats about all I know for now but if you could keep me in your prayers that would be awesome.

P.S. For those of you wondering the camp that I'm at, which offers LDP (Leadership Development Program) is called Medeba. If you want to check out their web site its www.medeba.com

Purple Shoes

Hey guys, so I'm doing awesome, and there is lots here to keep me busy! Last week I was an assistant to the leader of the week which means you help the leader wherever needed and you help do the bible studies in the morning. Also I am assistant again next week so for the last five weeks now I have either been working on projects for the next week or doing a mad rush to get ready for the next day. Normally we have a group in on Wednesday to Friday and we facilitate for them, and use everything that we are learning in a practical sense. But November is supposedly a less busy month so we don't typically have a group in during the week. Which means that on days that we would normally facilitate we get to do stuff around camp to improve it. For example the next few days we will be building our ice climbing wall. I'm so excited to do it because you are about forty feet up in the air attached to ropes and using power tools! Other things that I have done are dig a trench for pipes, stacking wood, checking fire extinguishers, and putting boats away for winter.
Our classes are not set up like most bible schools, how it work is each class is only a couple of hours and then its done. I really like this because then I never get bored of the topic and we are always learning something new. The last couple of classes I really liked, they were about biblical adventure and how they fit together. Bruce taught it and he is actually writing a book on the subject!
Cool story, k so most of you know that I am the type of person who doesn't like confrontation and wont bring something up unless I absolutely have to. Well I have been really challenged in that area here. As with any group all of us were starting to get on each others nerves and there were issues that had to be brought up so that we could coexist peacefully again. (stuff like how often we should clean the homestead (thats what we call our house) and that some people don't like the T.V. on all the time, etc.) So last week we decided that we needed to have a meeting to resolve some of the issues. So Laura and I were going to head up the meeting since she was the leader and I was assistant, but Laura was nervous about doing it I offered to mediate the meeting. I was so nervous because I could just tell that people didn't want to be there but God was so awesome and by the end of the meeting we not only got all our household issues out of the way but we started sharing our personal struggles. So I'd like to say that we are all perfect now but that would be a lie, but we are all definitely getting along much better. Its funny how God can take your worries and in turn amaze you!
This last weekend Melinda, Esther and I went on a road trip to Melinda's house. It was so good to get away from camp for a while even if we were only an hour away. So most of our weekend was spent shopping and I got some amazing deals! My favoretest find were these old style purple high heal shoes for 12 dollars!!! Ohhhh another exciting thing was this weekend was my first time change ever. Because Saskatchewan is the center of Canada all the other provinces change their time around us of course. So I stayed up to watch the time change from 1:59 to 1:00 it was so weird!
Well thats about it for now so have a great November week everyone!