New Normal

I was thinking the other day about how many things are now normal to us that weren't several months ago.  Braking my golf cart for grazing horses and talking loudly when walking to scare off bears aren't things I normally do at home.  So, without further ado, here is an incomplete list of the things that comprise our "new normal" here in this crazy wilderness:

• No cell phone, texting, or TV.  I haven’t had a phone for about 4 months now because mine broke a few weeks after we got here.  And I haven’t missed it except to take the occasional picture.  Although there is no TV (as in normal broadcasting shows), we can watch movies.  The kids watch the occasional VHS and even more rare, a DVD.  They really don’t even ask much!
• Internet from 1989.  When I was in high school, we got dial-up internet.  It was faster than this. (Actually we just got an upgrade on data in the past few days, so we can now say it is closer to 2005)
• Inability to run to the store or even go anywhere outside of camp when you want. The tides determine when and how anyone leaves camp.  We make our plans accordingly.  And then we check what vehicle is available to use.
• Rain and the gear that comes with it. 
• Drying the kids’ shoes with my hair dryer.  Those puddles are just too tempting…
• Temperatures in the 70’s feeling really hot.
• Eating every meal with lots of people.
• Not cooking or doing dishes for just my family.  Waking up and just heading down to the dining hall for 3 or more main breakfast dishes has been amazing….
• Doing dishes for 50-150 people!
• Eating crab almost every weekend.
• Not driving a vehicle on a regular basis.  Getting around is either by foot, bike, or on a golf cart.
• Although this hasn't happened since April (but will again at the end of retreat season)….having our electricity and water turned off at night to conserve the generator.
• Horses everywhere.  Stopping for them on the road, seeing them in the yard, having them sneak up on me….
• Having a handy-man around to fix literally anything.  I’m used to that with Ryan anyway, but we have a few mechanics around and all the equipment, so if something breaks, help is only a radio call away.  And speaking of radios….
• Using a walkie-talkie to get a hold of anybody at any time.  I think I’m going to get back to Kansas and instinctively reach for my non-existent radio at Kids Connection to call “Pam, do you have a copy?  Pam.”
• Interdependence – this comes with community living.  Few things are “personal property” here and so we share nearly everything.  Which means we literally have everything we need, materially-speaking.  We depend on others to get us in and out of camp and someone is always ready and willing to help anyone out at a moment’s notice.  You can’t make it in this atmosphere without interdependence – it’s how Echo Ranch works and it works incredibly well.  You really know you’re cared for here.
• Sleeping in on Sundays (well, as much as 3 kids will let you) and eating only two meals that day.  They are very intentional about Sundays being restful days, so we do brunch at 10:30 and supper at 4:00.  Then we do church with a pastor from Juneau and then ice cream.
• Not throwing away your food.  No, that doesn't mean we have to eat everything.  In fact, we want you to have leftover food!  But we can’t put food in the trash because we have these large beasts called bears that like to go through trash when they smell food.  It all goes in the slop bucket and feeds our pigs (which in turn feeds us in the fall…..)
• The smell of fire.  Fires are made pretty much daily.  Kids (including ours) learn the art of fire making early in life.
• Itching. Some from mosquitoes, but mostly from the blasted no-see-ums.  Somehow a bug that is about a millimeter long can have teeth that feel an inch long.
• Taking our shoes off before entering any house or apartment.  And along with that, sweeping sand constantly in the hallway.

Sometimes we put on Mom and Dad's boots and a hat (or in Asher's case, the detachable hood from his winter coat) to go looking for mushrooms in the forest.

And sometimes we watch personal planes land at camp.

Camping Season Comes to an End

Summer camping season will officially come to an end after this week at Echo Ranch. We have 70ish junior highers here for Maverick camp.  The counselors are doing an awesome job, but they are reaching the end of their strength and energy.  It’s always at that place that God loves to shine because we know it’s not us, but His strength that is carrying us through.  I’ve talked with several counselors, trying to encourage and lift them up.  They’re tired.  Pray for them!  They did get to take a nice relaxing day trip to Antler River, which is about 10 miles or so down the Bay from camp by boat. 

The speaker at church Sunday reminded us of the harvest that Jesus speaks of in the book of Mark.  He reminded us that the multitude that walks into camp each week is similar to the multitude of crowds that Jesus saw and had compassion on.  Do we have compassion, that deep gut feeling, for these kids?  Many are dying, without community, and like sheep without a shepherd.  We as Christians have the answer for them: the Gospel.  We can provide community for them and teach them to follow the Shepherd.  Give them direction.  Pray that the compassion Jesus has for each individual child will be in our hearts as well, burning brightly and compelling us to love genuinely.

Since we do much of the cleaning around camp, we don’t get to interact a lot with the campers.  But there are a few times that we get to do things with them and they are definitely a highlight to our summer!  First, for Jr. High and Sr. High we have Girls Night where we get cozy later in the evening and discuss purity.  This year we had a question/answer session where the girls got to write any question they wanted related to growing up, womanhood, purity, etc and put it in a box.  We pulled the questions out and had lots of good discussion, encouraging the girls to seek God with their purity.  One issue that came up twice during senior high groups was that of homosexuality.  We got the exact same question both times: “What are your views on homosexuality?  Not the Bible’s, yours.”  We had much discussion on that subject with several campers having a very secular view.  It was a very respectful conversation and non-hostile.  The nature of that question told me two things: This person knows what God’s Word says.  And they don’t feel that it is valid.  The underlying issue through the entire discussion was where our standards come from.  Where does truth originate?  How do we determine right and wrong?  God created morality, so our standards must come from Him.  The second way we interacted with the campers was through small groups in Sr. High.  Each day after lunch, a group of campers came to our apartment to talk deeper about the message they heard in chapel that day.  The campers revealed struggles and doubts and questions of faith through these small groups.  A third way that I was able to pour into campers was through cabin discussions.  Counselors are allowed to have a staff member give a devotional during one of their cabin discussion times.  I have had the privilege of doing those a few times for Sr. High, Colt (7-9 year olds), and Jr. High camps. 

“I’m so blessed by this Senior High camp at ERBC!  I don’t think I’ve ever grown so much spiritually or seen so much Christian love before.” – camper in a note she sent to us.

Garden Teachings

I have learned many things since beginning my Alaska garden.  Some relate to gardening and some relate to life.  God uses the many hours I've spent there and gardening illustrations to speak truth to me.  One such recent lesson I had was on humility.

Our sugar snap pea plants have gotten huge.  Like, they're as tall as me.  As a result of the largeness of these plants and the fact that they're climbers, it's been difficult keeping them upright.  We've tried a few different types of string to make a "ladder" for them and I've attempted different methods of using the string to make them straight and stay that way.  But they're just too heavy.  They keep falling over.  Now, some have remained straight, but several sections have bent down too far to warrant the effort of bringing them back up.

The other day as we were picking peas, I noticed something.  The nice and straight ones had peas on them, yes, but do you know where the abundance of the crop was?  Under the bent plants.  The ones scraping the ground.  That's where the treasure was.

And God showed me something.  I can stand straight and tall and look really good and maybe have a little fruit.  Or I can bow.  Be humble.  Bend down.  And have an abundance of fruit.  

Spiritual fruit doesn't come from looking good, seeming spiritual, or even doing "all the right things".  It comes from a heart that humbles itself under the mighty hand of God, receives His grace and allows Him to work in it as He sees fit.  

I can seek to always look super spiritual and do it all myself or I can choose to accept and admit that I'm going to fall and need God's grace every step of the way.  Those plants kept falling.  I'm going to continue to mess up and fail.  It's up to me how I respond.  In a way that covers it up and acts like I'm still perfect?  Or, like the pea plants, will I humbly live in God's grace, bent down, and allow Him to produce an abundance of fruit in my life?

Garden Progress

It's been a while since I've posted an update on the garden and much work and much produce has happened since then!  The potatoes plants are huge and as I hoe between the rows, I see several smaller potatoes pop up from the dirt.  I dug two plants up to see how big they actually were.  The russets were about smallish-medium size and the fingerlings were still small.  I need to hill them again to get them to produce more.

The onions have been used a few times in the kitchen (I love hearing on the radio: "Angie, could you pull up some green onions from the garden for this soup we're making?") and the bulbs are getting bigger.

I just planted all the rest of the radish seeds because I was getting a little tired of doing them over and over in sections and not getting enough to make much for the salad bar.  A bowl of radishes doesn't go very far when you've got 150 people to feed!

The sugar snap peas are pumping out those peas like crazy!  Everyday I go back out and see more pods ready to be picked.  They have been used on the salad bar and are definitely a favorite.  Even Liesl picks with me and eats them as she goes!

The romaine lettuce also continues producing like crazy and we've picked the outer leaves several times for salads.  Last picking gave us half of a huge trash bag full.  The other lettuce has finally begun to look like iceberg heads, so I will leave those alone for a while to get some full heads.

The few carrots that survived the weeds are still growing.  We pulled a big one up and it had a nice carrot underneath.  It was super good!

The beans continue to grow, but I don't expect much.  They still look terrible and yellowish.

Beets may or may not come through for us.

That's all for now!  I'm super excited to dig up potatoes in the fall!!  Ephraim helped dig the two test plants and keeps asking me when we get to do the rest.  I think he enjoyed using that shovel!

I have tried posting pictures three times to this post, but our internet is so slow that they won't load.  Pictures to come later!